-eng- Escape From The Village Of Lustful - Ritual...

He did not answer her. He jumped into the river.

The escape began at midnight. He packed nothing—maps, clothes, the star chart. All of it was bait. He kept only his compass (which now spun wildly, useless) and a dagger of cold iron, untouched by the village’s magic.

He threw himself at it, slashing with the iron dagger. The vine crumbled to ash. The thorns recoiled. And he crawled through a gap that was exactly the width of a man’s shoulders—no wider.