The creature came from the river at dawn, ten years after Sarah's first dream.
It had no shape—just emptiness shaped like a person. Silver light bled from its edges where the Deepening's power tried to hold it together. Its eyes were hollow. Its mouth was a wound.
The watcher on the wall saw it first. Bells rang through Ember's Rest.
Sarah stood at the gate. She was nineteen now, tall and strong, her grey eyes steady.
I come for the child, the creature said. Its voice was not a voice—just pressure in the skull. Give her to the Deepening, and the rest of you may live.
Sarah stepped forward.
"I'm not a child anymore."
You are always a child to the Deepening.
"Then the Deepening doesn't know me very well."
---
Elara climbed the wall.
She was fifty-two now, her body still strong, he
