The path Nyri took was narrower, overgrown in places.
It didn't feel like the trails the warriors used, or the ones that looped endlessly through the forest like it was trying to confuse you.
This one was quiet.
They reached a break in the trees where a spring shimmered like glass, nestled between stone outcrops and laced with floating petals. The water was clear and cool, fed from somewhere unseen.
Lyra stared. "Please tell me this isn't a sacred bathing pool and I just committed thirteen crimes by standing here."
Nyri smiled faintly. "It's mine. Not sacred. Just… private."
"You have a private pool."
"Yes, courtesy of being the Chief's daughter."
She stepped to the edge, pulled off her boots, and slipped into the water without a sound.
Lyra watched her. "You just invite random people out here? Seems risky."
"I don't," Nyri said. "You're the first."
Lyra snorted. "Lucky me."
She didn't move at first. Just stood there, arms crossed like the trees were judging her.
Eventually, she sighed and knelt by the edge. Rolled up her sleeves. Splashed her face.
"You don't have to sit in it," Nyri offered. "If it makes you feel like you're about to be tricked into something."
Lyra gave her a side glance. "Everything here makes me feel like I'm about to be tricked into something."
Nyri didn't argue.
So, naturally, Lyra kicked off her boots and stepped in.
The water was colder than she expected. Not freezing, just enough to sting before it settled.
They sat in silence.
"Been coming here since I was a kid," Nyri said. "When things got loud. When I wanted to forget I was bound to this place."
Lyra didn't reply.
She didn't have a version of that. No single spot that made things better.
Maybe that was the difference.
"Feels like cheating," she muttered. "A hidden forest spring. Pretty lighting. Soulful conversation."
Nyri laughed softly. "You don't have to talk."
"Good."
At some point, Lyra stretched. The loose shirt she wore shifted, just enough for the edge of the mark at her ribs to show.
A sharp spiral.
Nyri saw it.
Didn't speak right away.
"What's that?"
"What? Oh, My birthmark."
"That doesn't seem like a birthmark to me. The ancestor was right, wasn't he? it's not just your friend that has been touched, you too." She looked too excited for some reason.
Lyra tensed, looked away. "It's just a birthmark."
"It's not."
Lyra sank lower in the water and then let out a breath. "Fine. Call it what you want."
"I've never seen a birthmark that detailed."
"Well I don't know what people who give birth marks to babies do but I guess mine decided to be creative."
"Why won't you just accept this?"
Lyra didn't respond.
Nyri's voice softened. "Have you never thought about it, the possibility?"
"I've had better things to do than play magical mystery."
Silence.
Then Nyri said, "You're scared."
Lyra laughed once. "No. I'm pissed off. There's a difference."
"Then why are you here?"
Lyra opened her mouth. Closed it again.
"I don't know," she said finally. "Fate. Bad luck. A mistake in someone's map."
Nyri moved closer, but didn't reach for her. "Maybe it's not a mistake."
"It is," Lyra said. "But I'm tired of running into walls. Literal and otherwise."
That was the closest she'd get to admitting anything.
Nyri nodded like she understood anyway.
They sat in the water until the light faded from the trees, and the mist returned.
"We need to head back."