Fifteen years passed without a single silver light on the horizon.
The Deepening did not return. The Deep Ones who had chosen hope worked alongside the townspeople, building, planting, healing. Ember's Rest grew into a city of fifteen thousand souls—walls of stone, towers of glass, streets paved with cobblestones.
Elara walked through the market, her grey hair hidden beneath a hood. People nodded to her as she passed. Some still feared her. Most respected her.
The Deepening is quiet, the void said.
"Too quiet."
You do not trust silence?
"I trust nothing that waits."
---
Kaela was thirty-five now, a woman in her prime.
She had taken over much of her mother's duties—training the guards, leading the council, speaking for the void. The golden light flowed from her hands when she calle
