Nova did not say anything. She simply nodded and quickly pushed the gate open. She cautiously stepped back to let him in first, then placed a black arrow at the entrance.
The cemetery behind it stretched far deeper than expected. There were more graves than either of them could count. Most were unmarked, crooked from age.
The air was still. Heavy. Like something thick moved through it. Not even the smell of dead bodies or the burning incense from all corners—just silence beneath the surface.
Asher led them past broken statues and cracked headstones until he stopped at a tree wrapped in white ivy.
"I think I've been here before," he said. "Or I've seen it in a memory, I think. I remember seeing my mother here. A lot."
Nova knelt near the tree. "She used to come alone?"
He nodded. "She never said why."
Nova ran her fingers over the ground. There were no gravestones here. Just dirt. Dry, cracked, but oddly undisturbed. Not a single weed dared grow between the tree roots.
