After establishing the path forward and properly explaining the map, there was little left to do. Kage and the group cleared the space.
Those willing to cross the Silent Grove departed for it. Kage, in all honesty, had hoped people would opt out, but apparently no one did—especially the new group that joined them. They seemed desperate to cross and make up for lost time.
So desperate that Kage pitied them for the fate about to befall them.
They ventured beyond the temple yard, past the warm forest surrounding the hot spring, and finally reached an unsettling landscape.
No signpost marked their arrival at the Silent Groves. But with the way the place had been spoken of until this moment, they knew immediately they'd entered the malicious territory just from the trees now surrounding them.
