Chapter 34
Elara’s POV
The city felt different the next morning.
When I had walked among the people yesterday, their stares had been sharp, their whispers jagged with suspicion. But today, as I rode through the market streets on horseback, cloaked and guarded, something new lingered in the air.
It was not full acceptance yet. Not love. But it was the beginning of belief.
Mothers tugged their children close and pointed at me—not in fear, but in wonder. Bakers paused with flour-stained hands to bow their heads. Old men leaned against their canes, eyes shining with memories I could not name.
I was no longer invisible. I was no longer a rumor.
I was becoming real to them.
It both thrilled me and terrified me. Because reality could be broken.
“Keep your hood low,” one of the guards mut
