Neva's POVWe sat together on the small made-up bed, Ruth's hands wrapped around a cup of tea she had not touched, and she finally told me the whole story I had been circling for months, piece by careful piece, ever since Barrow first showed me a wrongly dated ledger entry. The morning light filtered soft through the small room's window, gentle and ordinary against the weight of everything about to be revealed, and I settled myself carefully onto the edge of the bed beside her, my swollen belly making even simple movements slower than they had once been."I was the healer at Silver Hollow," she said, her voice steady now despite the tears still tracking slowly down her weathered face. "Alongside Marlow, in fact, though we specialized differently. She handled the pack's medical needs. I handled births, mostly, and the particular herbal knowledge that comes with caring for young children.""You knew Marlow. From Silver Hollow.""We trained together,
Last Updated : 2026-08-26 Read more