Darkness was no longer empty.
Aurelia knew that the moment she opened her eyes.
The abyss beneath the shattered forest was not a pit or a cave it was a chamber carved by something that did not need hands. Stone curved inward like ribs, layered with ancient fractures that pulsed faintly, as if the earth itself remembered being broken here before.
She lay on cold ground veined with dim light.
Her body burned.
Not with pain with the aftermath.
Power clung to her skin like smoke after fire, unstable but no longer raging. The Voidborne’s pressure was gone, pulled back, buried, or waiting. Aurelia didn’t know which was worse.
She pushed herself upright slowly.
Her hands were shaking.
She was still herself.
That realization came first and it nearly broke her.
She pressed her palm to
