By morning the lantern was gone, but its light had left a trace behind: a ribbon of bright moss threading between the roots.

Mara knelt beside it and saw tiny footprints pressed into the green, neat as stitching.

1. Follow the road.
2. Ignore the crows.
3. Do not stop when the birches begin to whisper.

At the hilltop she found the mapmaker's cottage, exactly where her grandmother had sworn no house had ever stood.