The midnight stars hung in a clear indigo sky above Sovereign Peak while the rebuilding apprentices rested their heavy hammers in the courtyard below. Ye Chen stood alone on the broken stone balcony, his permanently chilled fingers resting against the cold granite as he watched the distant lights of Cooper Street flicker in the valley. Peace had finally settled over the province for the first time in months, leaving only the quiet sound of night wind sweeping across the jagged ruins.
Down on the lower terraces, Han Ping and the surviving commoner elders were sleeping after a long day of hauling timber and clearing stone. The province felt quiet, anchored by the solid earth and the renewed rhythm of ordinary human labor in the workshops. Nobody expected the sky to change its mind so soon a
