Two years passed without a whisper from the Deepening.
Sarah sat on the wall of Ember's Rest, watching the eastern horizon. The salt flats were quiet. The Glass Sea was still. The world had forgotten, almost, that hunger had ever existed.
She hadn't forgotten.
"The Deepening is planning something," she said.
Elara stood beside her. Fifty-five now, grey-haired, her sword still sharp.
"The void agrees with you."
"The void is always right."
"Not always. Often enough."
---
Mara had become a healer.
The woman the Deepening had used for fifty years worked in the clinic now, tending to the sick, the wounded, the lost. Her hands were steady. Her eyes were kind.
"The void says you're happy," Sarah said.
"The void says a lot of things."
"Is it wrong?"
Mara touched her chest. "No. I'm l
