(Mirabel's POV)
The first thing I noticed was the birds.
Not cosmic birds.
Not metaphorical birds.
Just birds.
Small.
Feathered.
Argumentative.
The kind that wake up before sunrise and immediately decide everyone else should be awake too.
I stared at them.
The birds stared back.
One chirped.
Another stole something from the first bird.
A brief conflict ensued.
It felt absurdly normal.
I almost cried.
The sky above the city was blue.
Not unfinished.
Not deciding.
Blue.
Clouds drifted lazily across the horizon.
The kind of clouds that existed for no reason other than being clouds.
After everything we'd been through, their lack of cosmic significance felt revolutionary.
I sat on a stone ledge overlooking the city.
The city that had once been impossible.
The city that
