The long winter breaks, and what survives the cold finds that summer asks its own price. In a land still learning the shape of mercy, a name travels ahead of the one who carries it, and a warmth that once had to hide is asked, now, to stand in the open.
What is given is not always what was wanted. A cloak passes from a dead man's shoulders. A title settles where no one asked for it. And the boy who would not reach for anything finds the world reaching for him.
This is the middle of the long road, where the wound learns it can become a wonder, and where the cost of being seen is counted out in full.