Chapter Thirty-Four

The Unmarked: Book One

Mar 13, 2026

River.

The world was bleak.

Ever since leaving Jeziah’s territory, all they saw was grey. Grey skies above their heads and grey earth beneath their feet. Almost an entire day had passed since they’d left Jeziah’s home, along with the surrounding greenery and shielding trees. Now they travelled across a bare, rocky expanse. Although this world was still and quiet compared to the vibrant forest they had been in just a day ago, the landscape was anxiety-provoking. They were out in the open.

Exposed.

Vulnerable.

There was nowhere to hide. If they got caught, there would be no choice but to run, or fight.

Eventually they found a small cave and decided to make camp. It was hard to tell what hour of the day it was because of the grey clouds obscuring the sun, but the three of them didn’t want to risk continuing on and getting caught with no shelter for an entire night.

Each of their packs were newly filled with bread, cheese, nuts, honey, water, herbs and even a kettle and tin cups for tea. Jeziah had provided them with an extra satchel, also filled with food. “Enough to keep you until you reach my people” he had said to them. River recalled the pointed glance he had cast Dawn’s way when saying it.

They made a small fire to boil water for tea, and they each ate a slice of bread slathered with honey, and a handful of nuts. Even though the rations were small, each of them felt filled by their meal.

The evening with its chill greeted them rather quickly.

“I’ll take the first watch” Dawn announced as River and Scarlet set up their bedrolls.

It was the first words she’d spoken since they’d made camp.

River lay in his bedroll and waited for Scarlet to fall asleep. Once she did, he slipped out of the cave and found Dawn reading a book. He saw just a glimpse of a page with foreign runes and an image of what looked like an oval object, before she abruptly shut the book and slid it into her satchel when she heard him approaching.

“What were you reading?” he asked.

“Nothing that matters.”

Irritation curled around his stomach. There had been a time when he and Dawn had shared everything together. But ever since they’d been reunited, she was quiet, reserved, secretive. He was getting fed up of it.

“Talk to me, Dawn”.

“Talk to you about what?”

His frustration suddenly got the best of him. “Everything!” He shouted, not caring if he woke Scarlet, or alerted every single threat lurking in the shadows. “Everything” he repeated in a fuming whisper. His body shook, and his face was hot. But his outburst had no effect on Dawn. She just watched him.

“What do you want to know?” she asked calmly.

He took a deep breath through his nose and let the cold night air calm his nerves. “For starters, why in damnation are we headed towards the only place on Lilly’s map that’s marked as ‘unsafe’?

“How do you know?”

He laughed. “Because I know my headings, Dawn. The camp Jeziah told us to go to is west and were heading east”.

“Why would I take us to where Jeziah told us to go? He’s the leader of the Unmarked. He wants us to join him. If there’s somewhere marked as unsafe, it means that the Rebels won’t be there. And I want to be where the Rebels aren’t.”

“What happened to infiltrating their camp? Getting as much intel on them to bring to Tariah?” he asked sarcastically.

“Going to the Rebel camp was to help Scarlet. Now that she’s well, there’s no reason to waste our time there”.

“So, you’re taking us go where there might be a potential threat? You don’t know why it’s marked as unsafe. If anything, it could be the Rayless Woods!”

Dawn rolled her eyes and let out an exasperated sigh. “I’m not taking us there, River! I’m not an idiot! I’m just going that way”.

River’s heart was racing. He hated arguing with Dawn. It filled him with dread and terror. The last time they had argued, she had left him without saying goodbye, and then he hadn’t seen her for weeks. He had been forced to go on every day lonely, hurt, ashamed. Just as he had to do when she had disappeared on him the night of the Festival. He couldn’t lose her again, he couldn’t… But where would she go now? She had no choice but to stay. She couldn’t run away. Not now, not in the middle of the night, with her sister who knew nothing about survival, in a land foreign to them. So he found the courage to keep on interrogating her. He kept pushing for answers to the questions that had been eating him up inside.

“What happened between you and Wolfe Bloodwood, Dawn?”

Emotion suddenly drained from her face, and her expression became as cold and hard as the stone beneath their feet.

River’s voice dropped to a whisper. “I’ve seen you look at his picture”. His voice became strained, and a sickening feeling settled in the pit of his stomach. “What happened between you two?”

“What do you mean about that question, River?”

He swallowed back the lump in his throat. The memory of Dawn dancing with that stranger was branded into his mind. He saw it so clearly. Her laughing, Bloodwood all over her. His hands on her hips, his eyes devouring her. It made River sick. That’s what he meant about the question.

“You ran away with him the night we kissed” River breathed.

Dawn shook her head. Her jaw was tense. “No, not on the night we kissed-”

“But you looked for him!” River shouted. “I know you looked for him at the inn he was at!” his body was shaking. He marched over to Dawn, his face inches from hers. “What am I supposed to think Dawn! You dance with him, then you go to his inn at night, looking for him! And then you run away with him and you spend every single day and night together!” He was breathing heavily. “And then…when he’s gone… you stay up at night looking at his picture…” tears threatened to spill out of his eyes. “What am I supposed to think?” he hissed quietly.

Then, something unexpected happened. Dawn took River’s face between her hands and she held him with the gentlest touch. All anger was replaced by surprise. “I don’t care about Wolfe. Nothing ever happened between us. He helped me because he thought he could get me to join the Rebels. And then when he realized that I wouldn’t, he left me”.

“But the picture…” River replied weakly.

“I burned it up. Back in that stupid little town. It’s gone. He’s gone. And you’re here. That’s what matters to me”. She pulled him into a hug. “You matter to me River. You sacrificed everything for me. You saved me”.

River wrapped his trembling arms around Dawn. Then, without realizing it, the words left his lips.

“I love you Dawn”.

Silence.

Then, “I love you too River”.

River gathered up his courage and pressed his lips against her. His blood caught fire and the heat made him alert and awake despite their long, tiring travels. He reveled in the sensation of her hips in his grip, her breasts pressed against his chest. He had craved such a moment since the night of the Festival.

A rational part of his mind told him to pull away; that they were in the middle of nowhere, that Scarlet was only a few feet away from them, that they needed to be alert and keep watch for potential dangers. But another part of him was overcome with passion for the girl he had desired for as long as he could remember.

He moved his lips to her neck and kissed her warm skin. Her breath filled his hearing. Her fingers were tangled in his hair. He felt heat rising in every part of his body-

Dawn pulled away, though a wide grin was beautifully painted across her face. Her blue gaze encapsulated him.

“You should really get some sleep” she said.

“You really expect me to be able to sleep now?” he said, a grin on his own face. His heart slammed against his chest and his heartbeat pounded in his ears.

“Then keep me company while I make sure no one attacks our camp” she said and walked away.

River stood there for a moment, grinning like a fool, pleasantly dazed from their shared moment together.

I love you too, River. Her words echoed in his mind.

She loves me.

He finally had Dawn. Her words, her actions, were a confirmation of that. Ever since he could remember, he had longed to have Dawn be his. To have her want him. To have her love him. He could stop being afraid now. He could stop worrying. He could stop wondering.

Dawn was his.

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River sat down besides Dawn on the cold stone, their bodies touching. Stars could be seen through wisps of clouds. The moon hung behind a large cloud, outlining it with silver light.

“I have a confession to make” Dawn said quietly. River’s breath caught in his throat in anticipation. A confession? What could Dawn have been keeping from him? Was it about the book? Was she-

“I hate keeping watch” she said.

River exhaled and laughed nervously. Not what he had expected, but he stayed silent, giving her space to speak.

“I hate sitting in the quiet, in the dark” she said, her voice tinted with sadness. She pulled her knees to her chest and rested her chin on them. “It’s in moments like these that the memories and the questions bombard my mind”.

“What are you thinking about now?” he asked quietly. Dawn rarely opened up, but when she did, you listened, because there was no knowing when she would do it again.

“Lilly” she said quietly, “Your father”.

River’s heart was suddenly stirred with sadness and empathy for Dawn. “What about them?”

There was a long pause. “That they’re not who they present themselves to be. That they’re both supposed to be an embodiment of Tariah’s Ideals, and yet they’re the ones who’ve strayed the furthest from them. That somehow they’ve both thrown my life into chaos”. Dawn’s jaw clenched and River knew she was forcing herself to keep her composure. “How is it,” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper, “that I did everything I needed to do to make a worthy life for myself, and yet my fate was decided by Lilly and your Father”.

River didn’t speak for a while. Dawn’s words bordered on blasphemy, if they weren’t already. But was she wrong? Both River and Dawn found themselves in the same predicament. They were both viewed as renegades; fleeing for their lives. But it was River’s own decisions that had led him to his current fate. Dawn had done the right thing since the beginning. A dread seized him as the cold, hard facts began to prod at his worldview. River felt as if everything he had ever believed in had shattered beneath his feet like a thin layer of ice of a frozen lake, and he stood paralyzed, waiting to be plunged into the chilling and deadly waters of reality.

“I don’t know” River replied in equal quietude.

“Why do you think your father hates me so much?”

“I think he hates the fact that you’re affiliated with the Rebels”.

Dawn shook her head. “No. My affiliation to the rebels was his excuse to exude his hatred. Your father always disliked me. Since we were children”. She looked at River with her cold, blue eyes. “Why?”

River searched for an answer. He had asked himself that question since he had started developing serious feelings for Dawn, because that’s when his father had begun to be outwardly cold toward her.

“I think part of it is because you’re ambitious”. He was careful with his answer, not wanting to somehow offend Dawn. “I think he’s afraid of the fact that one day you’ll become Governor... instead of me”.

Dawn scoffed. “But I never wanted to be Governor. You never wanted to be Governor. Our goal was always to become part of the Royal Guard”.

“Yes. And I think that’s part of the problem too. Every so often my father would make comments to me that you were pulling me away from my true calling of being Governor; that I was meant to be a leader, nothing else”.

“And that’s enough to want me dead?” Dawn asked in a strained voice.

“No” River said, the pieces falling together. The next thing that he was about to say somehow felt just as vulnerable and dangerous as his confession of love. “My father knows the devotion I have to you, Dawn. He knows that you’re the only woman I ever wanted. If it’s not you, then it isn’t anyone. And in either case, that means they’ll never be children. And my father wants me to have children. He wants the lineage to continue, to be remembered.”

The Revelations of the Afterlife found in Tariah’s Holy Text, Recitations of Preservation, taught that the more and better a person was remembered in this life, the more prosperous and glorious their afterlife would be. And the worst a person was remembered in this life...well, the more damned their life after death would be. Children and grandchildren were a sure way to keep a person’s memory alive. But women as ambitious as Dawn didn’t want children, couldn’t have children. Not if they wanted to become First Orders. Children would only hold them back. As a First Order, there were other ways to be remembered. Ways that weren’t dependent on children’s memories.

River didn’t mention it to Dawn, but continuing the family lineage was another way to ensure that everything River’s father had built; the relationships, the alliances, the loyalties, were maintained.

“Then why approve my candidature to become a Guardian?”

River shrugged. “It’s not that simple. Even though my father had the final say as Governor, the pressure of the priests and council is strong in the decision making. And to deny an excellent candidature based on selfish reasons would ruin my father’s credibility. He had to accept you otherwise the people would doubt him”.

Dawn smirked and shook her head. Then her face became somber.

“Then I guess my fate was sealed. If it hadn’t been for Lilly, your father would have probably sent me...” she hesitated for a moment, “on some kind of death mission into the Rayless Woods” she said quietly.

River didn’t know what to say. He always knew that his father was an angry, stern and maybe even manipulative man sometimes... but to be a murderer? The notion twisted his stomach.

“But you survived the Rayless Woods” River said suddenly.

“Yes” she said quietly.

“And you’ve been there more than once?” he found himself asking.

He remembered how Olive and his team had made the assumption that Dawn and Wolfe had cut through the woods during their escape. It was the only explanation they had come up with why Dawn and Wolfe had gained such a head start on them, even though the explanation felt utterly illogical.

Dawn looked at him for a long moment, as if making up her mind about something. Then she stared out into the distance again, twirling an emerald ring on her finger.

“Yes”.

The notion chilled him to the core. The Woods were the place where parents threatened to send their misbehaving children as a way of scaring them into obedience. It was the place where no one strayed even remotely close to because once you entered you never came out. It was the place that spread like a plague because of people’s evil.

So how did Dawn survive the place that meant death for others throughout generations?

“Tell me” River asked, a slight tremor in his voice.

“Wolfe took me through the Rayless Woods. He knew a path that could get us to Ardus more quickly. I was asleep when he made the decision to travel that way, so when I woke up, we were already there”.

“What was it like?” River asked. He was overwhelmed with an anticipation he had never experienced before; anticipation to know of the forest that has kept secrets since the beginning of time. The forest that consumed anyone who had ever tried to find the answers.

Dawn’s gaze wandered into the distance, as if she could see what she was describing to River. “At first it just looked like a normal forest. But then you notice that the sky is brazen. The ground roils with fog. The lake water is black. And there are creatures. Some made of flesh and bone and others...from shadow” she whispered the last word. “You feel as if you’re constantly being watched, and there’s this terrible sense of foreboding”.

River swallowed a lump in his throat. “How did you get out?”

“The Rayless Woods aren’t lawless lands. There’s some sort of hierarchy among the creatures, and for whatever reasons, they grant immunity to whoever they want to grant it to”.

A million questions sprang up in River’s mind. But he asked the simplest one he could think of. “What do you mean by ‘immunity’?”

“Immunity as in... they allow you to pass through the Rayless Woods without dying”.

River’s brows shot up. “And these creatures... they gave you immunity?” For some reason River felt silly. As if Dawn was pulling a prank on him with this story and he was gullible enough to fall for it. He expected her to laugh at him. But she never did.

“No. But they gave Wolfe immunity. That’s why he travelled through the Forests in the first place”.

“But what about that time with Scarlet? You got out”.

“Barely got out. Not without consequences”.

“But how?” He asked. River had the impression that Dawn was only opening up because he was asking the right questions. That if he wouldn’t have said anything, she would have kept her experiences a secret.

Can I blame her? I feel insane listening to her. She must feel insane talking about it.

Dawn exhaled. “It’s... complicated”.

“I have time”.

Dawn bit her lip. Then she went on to explain what River would have never guessed in a million years.

The Rayless Woods were only part of a place called the Shadow Realm. In the Shadow Realm lived different kinds of creatures. Some where corrupted versions of animals found in the normal parts of Erom, while other creatures looked like they were made of shadows. The shadow-creatures varied in appearance. Some were more animal-like, while others took on the shapes of humans. The ones that were human-like held authority over different parts of the Shadow Realm, which meant that they could grant immunity to whom they desired over their jurisdictions. However, there was a catch. From what Dawn understood, to be granted immunity to pass through a shadow-creatures principality meant that you had to return a favor.

“And what favor are you returning?” River asked, a sense of uneasiness roiling in his chest. “And to who?”

“When I was in Ardus, I found myself in an old, forgotten part of the Athenaum, which is now overrun by the Shadow Realm. There I found a book. There was someone in the Library, who called himself the Bookkeeper. He told me I could take take the book, if I brought him back a book. The Book of Books he called it”.

There was a long pause. “I agreed”.

Alarm shot through River. “Why would you-”

“What else was I supposed to do?” She snapped. “It seemed like my only way out of that place”.

River clamped his mouth shut.

“The next time I saw the Bookkeeper” Dawn continued, “was when I accidentally found myself in the Rayless Woods with Scarlet. The Bookkeeper told me that if I found him the Book of Books, he could grant me immunity in the Shadow Realm”.

“And how are you supposed to find the Book of Boo-”

“I found it.” Dawn said. “In Jeziah’s home”.

Dawn proceeded to pull two leather-bound books from her satchel, both of them inscribed with strange-looking runes River had never seen before.

“How do you know it’s this?”

“Because Jeziah gave it to me”.

“Why?”

“I don’t know. He just did”.

River frowned. “And what about the other Book? What is it? Why did you take it?”

“The Book of Epathi” Dawn said.

“Epathi?” River asked, the word sounding strange in his mouth.

“Yes... They’re special stones that grant people powers”.

“Powers?”

Sensing his confusion, Dawn opened the book to the first page.

“For example, there’s a stone that grants people the ability to weave the elements. These are a type of stone called the Elementals”.

Dawn sifted through the pages. “Or this one” she said, pointing at a page with depictions of animals and people, “allows a person to take on the form of whatever living creature they choose”.

River had a hard time wrapping his mind around what Dawn was telling him. “How do you know what the pages say?”

The feeling of uneasiness became stronger and stronger as his conversation with Dawn went on.

“There’s a voice, I hear sometimes. A sort of whisper, as if it were coming from the shadows. It reads the pages to me. It started after I left the Library. The Shadow Realm did something to me”.

River exhaled. “Do you think it’s a good idea, to be meddling with stuff like this?” whatever this “stuff” was. River barely understood any of it.

“I don’t know” Dawn whispered, her voice filled with sadness, “but I’m just so tired of secrets. This world, and the people in it are not what I always thought they were. I just want to understand the world we’re living in. I want the truth”.

Although the uneasiness was still there, a wave of sympathy overcame River. Yes, it seemed that everything they ever thought they knew was either a lie or a mystery: Lilly, his Father, the Rayless Woods... He couldn’t blame her for wanting to find answers.

“Will you help me?” Dawn asked him quietly.

River reached for her hand and squeezed it. “you know I’d do anything for you”.

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Chapter Thirty-Four

The Unmarked: Book One

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River.

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