The morning mist clung to the ravine like a heavy, suffocating shroud, mirroring the frantic weight crushing Nandini’s chest. She knelt by the jagged edge of the river that cut through the Haveli’s northern border, her fingers digging desperately into the wet, freezing silt. The water was a chaotic swirl of grey and white, swollen by the previous night’s rain, rushing past with a predatory roar that seemed to mock her desperation.

"It has to be here," she whispered, her voice cracking against the wind.