I couldn’t sleep that night.

  Grandpa went to bed early. Like always.

  As if nothing had happened.

  As if tomorrow he’d wake with the sun, check the fields, pull up water from the well, clean the chicken coop.

  Same routine.

  Every day.

  Every year.

  But I couldn’t close my eyes.

  I lay there on my back, hands behind my head, staring at the ceiling.

  It wasn’t pain.

  It wasn’t fear.

  It was noise.

  Not outside.

  Inside.

  Noise in my head.

  Questions without answers.

  Conversations I’m never invited to.

  Warnings thrown at me like excuses.

  A wall. It’s always a wall.

  And then the noise changed.

  It wasn’t coming from inside anymore.

  It was… outside.

  A soft creak. Far away.

  Like branches that shouldn’t be moving.

  Like the ground complaining.

  I sat up before I even thought about it.

  The air felt… different.

  The night didn’t smell the same.

  I put on my jacket and opened the back door.

  Tota was curled up in the corner, floating a few centimeters above the floor.

  Didn’t even twitch.

  As usual.

  I stepped outside.

  Barefoot.

  As always.

  The soil was cold under my feet.

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  The forest felt like it was waiting.

  The door closed behind me without a sound.

  Tota didn’t move at all.

  I didn’t bother with boots.

  I never did.

  Grandpa used to say:

  「Walking barefoot trains both your feet and your head.」

  I don’t know if it made me any smarter… but it felt like me.

  The ground was cold and soft.

  Still holding onto the night’s dew.

  And I walked.

  I didn’t know why.

  Maybe I didn’t want to keep thinking about Grandpa’s face.

  That look he gives me without saying anything.

  That way he has of pretending he’s not hiding something.

  「You’re not suited for magic.」

  What does that even mean?

  Magic isn’t the problem.

  I am. Right?

  I frowned without noticing.

  He’s hiding something.

  It’s not just worry.

  He’s afraid.

  Afraid of something he doesn’t want me near.

  I let out a breath.

  The night air chilled my lungs.

  And then I felt it.

  A tremor in the ground.

  Very faint.

  Like a shiver under the skin of the earth.

  I took another step.

  The grass felt… wrong.

  Dry on the inside, even though it looked the same as always.

  I stopped thinking.

  My senses took over.

  My eyebrow didn’t hurt anymore.

  Neither did my side.

  Or my pride.

  My whole body walked on its own.

  Toward something.

  Toward the clearing.

  Toward the empty space.

  Moonlight filtered through the branches.

  And ahead—

  there was an opening between the trees.

  …That shouldn’t exist.

  That part of the forest is usually thick.

  No gaps.

  No clearings.

  But now—

  There was space.

  Real space.

  With every step, my footsteps grew quieter.

  Like the forest wasn’t trying to stop me.

  And at the center of that clearing—

  I thought I saw someone.

  No proof.

  Just a feeling.

  But my feet didn’t stop.