Rewrite That Witch
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Chapter 783: Where I Belong

The words hit the room like thrown stone.

“Sister — what are you —” Rohan found his voice first, but it was barely holding. “You want to leave the oasis? What happens to the clan? Who fights the holy duels? Where would you even go?”

Lorgar didn’t answer. She looked at her father instead.

A rueful smile crossed Guelz’s face, slow as weather. He exhaled once and gestured toward the door. “Leave us.”

Rohan opened his mouth. The words didn’t come. He closed it, and the guards, reading the same instruction in the silence, filed out with him until the room held only the two of them.

“You want to go north?” Guelz asked.

“Yes.” No hedge, no softening. “I’ll find Ashes in the Southern Territory of Graycastle. Then travel to Neverwinter with her.”

“And the Wildflame clan?”

“Go to the Southern Territory too. Fresh oases — no fighting for water, no bleeding for land.” She let a beat pass. “You’d already decided this. That’s why you didn’t accept Wildwave’s challenge.”

Guelz raised an eyebrow but denied nothing.

Lorgar continued. “It wasn’t fear. Wildflame has been the strongest clan for decades — that was true before I became a Divine Lady, and it would have held true if I’d stayed. You would never let Wildwave walk away without making them pay an unforgettable price. We’ve always held the biggest Stone Castles by that spirit.” She steadied her breath. “The only reason you’d leave an insult unanswered is if the holy duel itself had stopped meaning anything. If the ranking of clans in Iron Sand City had become a fight for something that no longer mattered. Our clansmen are worth dying for the clan’s real future. You would never spend their lives on a hollow contest.”

The silence that followed was long and careful.

Then Guelz uncurled his lips into something that was almost admiring. He shook his head. “I don’t know whether you were born clever or whether you have the wolf’s nose for reading people. Perhaps both. I’ll tell you plainly — I was waiting for you to wake up before I made any decision. I wanted your counsel.”

“I don’t know that I have counsel worth giving. I’m not particularly clever, and my nose is ordinary.” Lorgar shook her ears. “I just trust my fists.”

“Fists?”

“Fighting tells you what a person is. You taught me that yourself — started putting weapons in my hands before I could reach the table. I’ve taken your punches and your blades. Of course I can read you.”

Guelz laughed — genuinely, freely. “What about Ashes? Can she be trusted?”

Lorgar thought about it. “She’s like a mountain — you can’t get close to her. But mountains don’t bother to lie, and they don’t move because the wind asks them to.” She spoke slowly, feeling for the right words. “When I’m near her I feel safe. I imagine the people under her protection feel the same.”

“Good.” Something settled in Guelz’s expression. “Since we’re relocating south regardless, why not wait a few more days and travel with us?”

“I can’t wait, Father.” She pressed her hand flat against her chest. “I can feel it. Something pulling me north. It’s urgent — not a want but a need. If I go earlier, I can check whether they actually intend to keep their word. An oasis for every Sand Nation family — that’s what they promised.”

“I thought you said you trusted them completely.”

“I trust Ashes.” Her chin lifted slightly. “Not the chief behind her. Ashes doesn’t lie, but that doesn’t mean she can’t be deceived. If the King of Graycastle betrays us, I’ll make certain he doesn’t rest easy.”

Guelz studied her for a moment with something warm at the back of his gaze. “And if Drow Silvermoon’s account is true? If he does treat the Ironsand Mojin as his own people? Would you swear fealty? Serve him the way your mother did?”

Lorgar’s tail bristled straight. She looked away. “I wouldn’t. Who cares about a monster that’s half beast? I’m going for the enemies — the powerful ones Ashes mentioned. Not to serve a king.” A pause, shorter, quieter: “I’ll pay the witches for their healing, whatever the cost.”

Guelz let his teasing drop. “Come here. Let me look at you.”

She crossed to him and sat down and laid her head in his lap, as she had always done. His hand moved over her hair and her ears, slow and familiar.

“You’ll come back?” he said, softly.

“Yes.” She closed her eyes. “If Graycastle people can travel to Iron Sand City, so can I. And once our people settle in the Southern Territory it will be closer anyway. Give the chief’s seat to Rohan when you’re done with it — he’s better suited for a time when we don’t have to fight for water every season.”

“Don’t think about any of that now.”

“I know.”

“Write me. Even letters, even that ugly handwriting of yours. We’re going north — we should learn their ways.”

“You can put up with my letters?”

“Silly child.” A grunt, fond beneath it. “When our people leave home, they leave something behind. If you’d rather not write, I’ll take your hair instead.”

“I’ll write.” She wagged her tail against the blanket. “I’ll definitely write.”

Night fell over Iron Sand City.

Lorgar left with a bag that dwarfed her frame, slung over one shoulder. No one saw her off. Almost no one knew the Divine Lady of Wildflame was beginning her own journey tonight.

She passed through the outer oases and into the open desert. When she was certain the emptiness held only her, she stopped and looked in every direction.

Then she undressed. Each piece of clothing folded neatly, packed carefully into the bag. She straightened up in the cold wind, bare skin receiving the night air without complaint.

She felt no cold. Instead a sensation moved through her that she had no proper word for — something like hands lifting a weight she hadn’t known she’d been carrying. A loosening. The desert air moved against her and through her, and the things that had bound her and pressed her down for years simply weren’t there.

Fine hair rose across her skin. Her body began to expand.

Seconds later, a great desert wolf stood alone on the sand.

She raised her head and howled without restraint.

“Ow — Ah — Woo —”

The sound rang out and rolled and did not stop, carrying across the dunes until it reached every ear in the Wildflame quarter of Iron Sand City. She was certain of it.

The bag that had seemed enormous shrank to nothing against her size. She lowered her head, caught the strap in her teeth, fixed the direction in her mind, and began to run south toward Graycastle.

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