The Long Road Home
The journey back from the Whispering Cascades was a stark contrast to their headlong flight. With Elias Thorne's psychic influence gone and the pervasive essence-dampening fields dissipated, the world felt different—cleaner, purer, yet also eerily silent. Kieran, with Lyra by his side, led the small, fractured band of survivors, a group that now embodied the very essence of a pack without a home. Their destination was the ruins of the Shadowmoon caves, a pilgrimage to mourn their dead and begin the long, agonizing process of restoration.
Lyra’s strength returned with each passing day, her recovery accelerated by the pure essence of the Cascades and the full awakening of the Seed of Solstice. The obsidian orb, now dormant but brimming with potential, hung from a leather
