Chapter Eighty Six – The Weight of ChoicesTristan’s POVThe Sacred Forest remained silent after the old guardian vanished into the mist, yet that silence did not feel empty, it felt alive, as though the trees themselves were waiting for me to move so they could decide whether I deserved to walk deeper into their domain.Both paths lay before me like two separate truths pretending to be simple choices.One was wide, bright, and deceptively calm, with soft sunlight touching the ground in a way that made it feel safe even though experience had taught me that danger rarely announced itself in such an honest manner.The other was narrow, uneven, and swallowed by mist, with roots twisting across the earth like veins of an old memory, and stones rising from the soil as though the land itself refused to forget everything that had happened there before me.Behind me, the attendants stood in silence, waiting for instruction that I did not immediately give because a rushed decision in a place l
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