The First Light
The mountain behind them faded into the mist as Aelir and Lira descended, hand in hand.
Each step felt lighter now — not because the road was easier, but because the burden that once weighed them down had been lifted.
The Crown was gone.
The chains of false promises were broken.
Before them stretched a land still scarred by war and darkness, yet bathed now in the soft, golden light of a new dawn.
Villages once abandoned were stirring awake.
Fields, blackened by conflict, whispered with the first green shoots of renewal.
People emerged from hiding — weary, wary, but alive.
Hope, tentative and fragile, was blooming.
As they walked through the lands, Aelir and Lira were met with questioning eyes.
No royal banners flew behind them.
No armies marched at their sides.
