Chapter 30

Jovie wakes in Fia’s modest cottage to food and wary hospitality. Acker, exhausted and filthy, checks her condition. He explains that during her awakening she blazed like the sun, burning dirt, blood, and her clothes from her body. He dressed her after Fia stabilized her. Acker cannot classify her magic, only noting it is unlike anything he has seen.

After Acker goes to bathe, Jovie eats and suddenly slips into Acker’s perspective in the washroom, then jerks back to herself. Later, while Acker eats, she again senses his meal—tasting it through him—realizing her powers are manifesting as unwanted mind-bridging, closer to oracle abilities than elemental control. She declines Fia’s offer to remove her scar, dresses in borrowed clothes, and learns they are a day and a half from Kenta’s border and surrounded by soldiers.

Jorgen and his son Sven arrive with news: they “found” horses and townspeople are organizing hunts after a crashed boat and ten dead rebels, half mutilated with eyes and tongues removed. Acker and Jovie silently connect this to Blue and the lone survivor.

Acker plans to take one horse and depart by the next night. Jorgen warns the route crosses the king’s most guarded territory and argues they should travel together to appear less suspicious. Acker rejects help and threatens he won’t risk killing potential liabilities. Fia counters by requiring blood oaths from Jorgen and Sven to do no harm, insisting that traveling together improves Jovie and Acker’s odds—and reminding Acker the choice is not solely his.