Anya is close to dying in Bear’s arms as the icy wind sweeps across the rugged hills of the Dales and the fading sunlight casts long shadows over the desolate landscape, and in that final desperate moment when her breath comes shallow and her pulse flickers like a fading ember, she clutches Bear’s coat with trembling fingers and forces out a whisper that carries the weight of a lifelong secret, begging him to look after her daughter who lives somewhere in the Dales as well, a daughter Bear never even knew existed, and the urgency in her voice slices through the chaos around them as though the world narrows to just the two of them, and Bear, shaken to his core, tries to steady her, telling her to hold on, to stay with him, to fight just a little longer, but Anya’s eyes—glassier now, haunted and pleading—tell him she already knows her time is up, and the only thing she cares about in these final seconds is making sure her child is not left alone in the world, and Bear feels something inside him shatter because he has never been the man Anya believed he could be, yet she chooses him—him of all people—to protect the person she loves most, and as her voice breaks while revealing that her daughter has no idea who her real mother is and that dark forces in the Dales will use the girl to get revenge for sins Anya committed years ago, Bear realizes that this dying confession is not just a request but a demand, a desperate final mission delivered by a woman who has carried guilt, fear, and love in equal measure for far too long, and as she struggles to breathe, Anya grips Bear’s hand more tightly, forcing him to promise he will find the girl before they do, before anyone discovers the truth that could destroy her life, and Bear nods through the sting of tears he refuses to let fall, whispering that he will keep her daughter safe no matter what it takes, no matter who he has to confront, no matter how deeply he must plunge into the shadows of the Dales, and only then—only when she hears that promise—does Anya’s body grow still, her eyes drifting toward the darkening sky as though she is searching for something she lost long ago, leaving Bear on his knees in the cold mud, cradling the lifeless body of the woman he once loved and now must mourn, and beneath the grief and shock rising in his chest is something fiercer, a dawning determination, because Bear now understands that Anya’s final words have changed everything—his purpose, his future, and the fate of a girl he has never met but whom he is now bound to protect with his life.