161 lines
4.1 KiB
TeX
161 lines
4.1 KiB
TeX
% 2025.12.02-TheUnknownPath\\
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\herosection{The Unknown Path}{chapters/2025.12.02-TheUnknownPath/image/the-unknown-path.jpg}
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\DROPCAP{../../dropcap_c/dropA.png}t the eastern edge of Sereth \\
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stood the Scribe's Gate, \\
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a two-arched stone passage \\
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carved with words so old \\
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no living scholar \\
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could read what remained of them.\\
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Travelers came and went \\
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by the left-hand arch — \\
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the Known Way.\\
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It led to market towns, \\
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to family, \\
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to safety.
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If the right-hand arch had ever had a name, \\
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it was lost to the ancient sands of time.
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So people called it the Unchosen Way.
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It led somewhere, of course.\\
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Every road did.\\
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But no one could say where.\\
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The few who stepped beneath that arch \\
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returned changed or not at all.\\
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Most everyone avoided it entirely.
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Instead, \\
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the right-hand path was simply \\
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a part of the landscape, \\
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like an old mole on the city's skin — \\
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a familiar, \\
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unremarkable blemish.
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Mirel paused there at midmorning, exhausted.\\
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The city bells had just rung the hour, \\
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their hollow notes drifting \\
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like a stale draft through her heart.\\
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She had slept poorly — \\
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again.\\
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She still kept a second cup on the shelf, \\
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though the one to whom it belonged had chosen — \\
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elsewhere.\\
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Loss collected in the corners of her life like dust.\\
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Too many days felt like empty repetitions \\
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of happier yesterdays.
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She hadn't meant to stop at the Gate.\\
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Her errands lay along the left-hand arch, \\
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same as always.\\
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But she found herself standing \\
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still in the sunlit dust, \\
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staring at the seam of shadow \\
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beneath the right-hand arch.
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A farmer pushing a cart called to her. \\
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``Wrong way.'' \\
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But she didn't move.
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Mirel's breath trembled.\\
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Not from fear — \\
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she was too tired for fear — \\
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but from a pressure she couldn't name, \\
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a sense of being on the verge \\
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of something small but real, \\
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like a bud deciding whether to open.\\
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She stepped closer.
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The dust around her feet stirred, then settled again.
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Her throat tightened. \\
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``What the hell,'' she murmured.
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She turned toward the left-hand arch again — \\
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but her feet didn't follow.\\
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They remained angled toward the unnamed road, \\
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as though some silent inner vote \\
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had already been cast without her consent.
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She took a single step beneath the right-hand arch.
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The air shifted.\\
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Not dramatically — \\
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just enough that she felt it at the edges of her skin, \\
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a subtle thinning, \\
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a sense of being recognized \\
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by something she couldn't see.
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Dust rose in a faint swirl behind her.\\
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When it settled, she saw them: \\
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impressions in the earth beside her footprints.\\
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Soft hollows, \\
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as though someone else walked beside her \\
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with a gait slightly longer than her own.
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She froze.\\
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Looked back.\\
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Called softly, \\
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``Is someone there?''
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The impressions faded.\\
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Only her own prints remained.
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Mirel swallowed.\\
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Her pulse beat in her ears.
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Tentatively, \\
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she walked forward again.
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With her second step, \\
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the companion footprints reappeared —\\
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this time clearer, \\
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more defined, \\
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as though the unseen traveler \\
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wished to reassure her: \\
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You're not imagining me.\\
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I'm here when you walk, \\
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not when you look.
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She reached down to touch one.\\
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Her fingers passed through dust — \\
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the imprint dissolving at her touch, \\
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then re-forming once she lifted her hand.
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A wind picked up.\\
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The road stretched forward in a quiet golden line, \\
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bending out of sight beyond low hills.\\
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Birds called somewhere unseen.
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Mirel took another step.\\
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The other footprints matched her pace.
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Her breath steadied.
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She didn't know where the road led.\\
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She didn't know what walked beside her.\\
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She didn't even know why she'd set foot here today.\\
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But she felt, \\
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with a clarity gentler than certainty, \\
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that her long solitude wasn't her whole truth — \\
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and that today, \\
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she had finally allowed herself to feel that.
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She walked.
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Not quickly.\\
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Not bravely.\\
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Not with any grand resolve.
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Just enough — \\
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just the next step\\
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and then the next.
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Behind her, distant voices called her name.\\
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She didn't answer.\\
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The wind carried those voices away \\
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like old obligations \\
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finally allowed to drift into nothing.
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