I'm going to have to learn all of this properly now. Not as a curious eighteen-year-old wondering what Awakening even meant. As someone who apparently already has capability that exceeds whatever standard assessment usually expects from someone who just finished their ceremony.
Whatever that process actually involves, I'll face it the same way I faced everything else across the past seven months — carefully, honestly, and without pretending the challenge isn't real simply because I've already survived considerably worse.
The woman returned with a glass of water and, after a moment's consideration, a plate of simple food that Rohan accepted with genuine, overwhelmed gratitude.
"You said you'd been away a long time," she said, settling into a chair across from him with careful, unhurried curiosity. "Family looking for you somewhere?"
