The path Sonder took led downwards.
At first it was nothing more than a few careful steps over rough stones and narrow ledges.
The cliffs she traveled soon gave way to steep hills, and those hills to gentle slopes, until the land finally began to level out beneath her.
It got warmer. Even if she didn't notice cold and frost much, warmth was something she'd always notice.
She followed her chosen blue thread.
It simply was, ever present, like a compass needle. She walked through each day and night to reach its end, for hours on end.
But each day, at what she assumed was midnight, though her sense of time was not entirely reliable, the thread always faded.
They were just gone, as if they never existed at all.
And each time she would have to recast the spell.
The direction of the threads never changed; always being in the same direction as before; but she'd not walk without exactly know where she would have to go.
After a few days, the land began to show signs of life in earnest. Fields spread out in broad, careful rows, dark earth turned and tended with intention.
Sonder slowed when she saw the first farmers, working in small groups. Their tools were flashing in the sunlight, and voices carried across the fields.
Further along the road, carts creaked past her, drawn by sturdy beasts she didn't recognize. The drivers nodded politely as they passed, more curious than wary.
It was peaceful.
After this long on her journey, she felt like she always had to brace against some shadowed danger, but she didn't want it to be that way.
By the time the thread led her toward a small rise ahead, it must have been around noon.
And from the crest of the hill, she saw a town.
It wasn't fortified. No towering walls, no looming watchtowers or gates designed to keep some army or outsiders at bay.
Just clustered buildings of stone and wood, smoke curling lazily from chimneys, roads winding between them.
As she approached, she slowed her steps a bit to get a good look at the people.
From the distance, their silhouettes looked a bit strange, but now that she was so close, that thought was confirmed.
They were taller than the average human or elf, and they were thinner; their torso being especially elongated.
And each had four arms and they moved them with an easy coordination. She didn't think it was that strange. If all of your people were born like that, it was just nature.
If someone with just one arm looked at Sonder and how she moved her arms, she wouldn't think herself to have greater bearing than normal.
Nothing else was off.
Their faces showed the same range of expressions Sonder had seen everywhere else; curiosity, mild surprise, amusement. They didn't seem to be an emotionless people or outright hostile, like the Irath were.
A few paused in their conversations to look at her as she passed. Some children stared openly until gently steered along by their elders.
Sonder kept her posture relaxed, staff in hand, offering small nods where she could.
She was an outsider. That much was obvious.
But she wasn't unwelcome.