Three months passed without a single sign of the Deepening.
No silver light. No cracked earth. No hollow-eyed creatures. Ember's Rest began to breathe again—markets reopened, children played in the streets, farmers planted crops without fear.
Sarah didn't trust the silence.
"The Deepening is waiting," she said.
Elara stood beside her on the wall. "For what?"
"I don't know. Something worse."
---
Mara healed slowly.
The woman the Deepening had used for fifty years spent her days in the clinic, relearning how to be human. She ate food. She slept in a bed. She talked to people who didn't want to consume her.
"The void says you're getting stronger," Sarah said.
"The void says a lot of things."
"Is it wrong?"
Mara touched her chest. "No. I feel... lighter. Like the emptiness is filli
