Levi tipped his chin. “Plain terms, Irin. Why are you here?”
Irin didn’t glance at the rope again; they kept their eyes on us. “We’ve heard talk,” they
said. “A boy survived a collector. One of ours, taken long ago. His parents want him home. His brother misses him. A child needs his people, and his people want him.”
Haiden’s posture thinned into purpose. “Name the collector.”
“A man who hoarded what he could not become.” Irin’s mouth flattened. “You call him
Marcus.”
Noah’s gaze slid down and back up. Your rumor got that much right
Irin nodded once. “Then hear the rest in the same honesty. We come peaceful because we honor your rope.” Their hands opened, palms bare. “But if you keep what is not yours, if you refuse family their blood, others will come who do not honor rope. They will call it a war. I am sent to tell you this so that you may choose the wiser path.”
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42
A
The word put a chill through the morning that had nothing to do with mist. No one moved except to breathe.
4
A
Levi’s voice stayed even. “A threat ends a conversation here.”
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444
257
A
Irin didn’t flinch. “It is not my threat. It is the truth of those behind me.”
37
Xavier didn’t raise his voice. He never needs to. “Then carry this back to them: a child is not a thing to be reclaimed. He is a person. He is safe. If anyone comes with war in their mouths, they will never reach him.”
I put it simpler. “He isn’t yours.”
Irin held my stare. “He was before he was taken.‘
“And after he was taken?” I asked. “After he was wrapped in someone else’s hands,
starved, used? We were the ones who cut him loose. He chose us back. That choice
matters more than blood spoken by strangers.”
Something tugged at Irin’s jaw and let go. “You would deny his parents the right to hold
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him?”
“I would deny anyone the right to take him,” I said. “Holding is earned. It is done carefully. It takes time.”
Haiden let his hands hang, loose and ready. “You want something from us? Try helping instead of telling us what happens if we don’t cave. Give us proof you’re not the same people who ride wolves into yards.”
“We are not,” Irin said, quick enough. “We split long ago. Those who use wolves are not mine.”
“Then prove you are who you say,” Levi said. “If there’s a mother and a father and a brother, put proof in my hand. Tell us something we can check without spilling the boy’s heart on the ground. A lullaby line. A scar only family would know. Where he learned to say his name before anyone taught him to write it.” He spread his fingers. “And expect nothing in return but a message received. This is not a bargain. It’s the first step of not being a liar.”
Irin’s gaze dipped, not submission; calculation. “I will ask. But you know what they will
ask back.”
“They can ask,” Noah said. “Asking isn’t taking.”
Irin’s chest lifted on a long breath. “He has a brother,” they said, and their voice changed a fraction, less rehearsed, closer to bone. “Smaller by two years. The boy does not sleep
well since…”
The red cord in my pocket felt heavier. I didn’t take it out. “Then tell the boy this,” I said. “There is a path to kindness and a path to being far. You stood with us here, so you already know which one we take.”
Irin’s mouth tipped at the corner, not a smile. “That is tidier than the words I was given.”
“The boy is not a prize. He will never be handed over. When he’s older, if he asks, we’ll set a table in daylight and he can hear what you know about his people. Until then, any contact goes through us. Letters under an open sky. One voice at a time. Anything else is done.”
Irin looked at each of us in turn, in the eye, not past and stopped where they started, on
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- me. “If I return with letters and no demands, if I ask for another rope and another morning two days from now, you will come?”
Levi angled his head. “If your letters are clean and your steps stay where we put them, yes. Second dawn, same hour. One envoy again.”
Irin gave a single, steady nod. “I’ll take your words back exactly as you said them. Two mornings from now. Same time. I come alone.”
“Good,” Levi said. “And if you bring anything for us to verify, keep it plain. No speeches. Facts we can check.”
“I understand.” Irin glanced once at the chalk circle, then back to me. “I’ll ask for real details.”
“And no one shows up here before then,” Noah added. “No scouts, no testing our borders. If anyone tries, this ends.”
“I’ll make that clear,” Irin said.
Haiden tipped his chin. “And if the ones behind you start using the word war again?”
“Then I won’t be the one who comes,” Irin said simply. “But I’ll still give them your
answer.”
Xavier stepped half a pace forward, not crowding the line, just making sure the point landed. “Repeat it for me.”
Irin held his gaze and repeated it back, clean and in order. “The boy is safe. He is not being handed over. When he’s older, if he asks, you’ll arrange a meeting in daylight and he’ll hear what we know. Until then, all contact goes through you. One person at a time. If anyone shows with threats or tries to go around you, it’s finished.”
“Exactly,” Xavier said.
Irin nodded once more. “Then we’re done for today.” They eased a step back from the chalk. “Three steps, then I turn.”
We didn’t track them with our eyes. We watched the flags. Brush closed where they’d split it. The lake went back to lake.
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“Same read,” Aleisha said after a breath. “Steady going out. No spike when we drew lines.”
“Alright,” Xavier said. He looked at me last. “Packhouse?”
“Packhouse,” I said. The word loosened something I hadn’t realized I was still holding.
We left the rope and the water jugs and walked the short path up from the shore.
Halfway up the rise, Levi fell in beside me. “Two days,” he said, not quite a question.
“Two days,” I echoed. “We keep it plain. We keep it ours.”
Noah reached for my hand, squeezed once. “We already did the hard part.”
“Which part?” I asked.
“Not flinching when they said family,” he said.
I blew out a breath and watched it disappear into the cool. “Let’s go see ours.”
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