Night deepened as he walked. The stars overhead refused to shine. The thing that bowed to him—he never saw it vanish. One moment it was there, whispering riddles through teeth it didn’t have, and the next, it was gone. As if it had never been. But the name lingered. Rhyne. It echoed in his bones, a drumbeat without rhythm, a truth he could not hold. He hated it. The deeper he went into the forest,