The night did not release its grip after the demonstration.
It deepened.
Aurelia felt it as they returned to the Stronghold an unease threaded through the land, like a fault line newly exposed. The restored settlement behind them glowed faintly with life, but the act had not soothed the world. It woke me up.
Kane walked beside her, quiet, shoulders tight. The Sovereign escort kept a respectful distance, eyes scanning the dark for movement that refused to show itself.
“They’ll spin this,” Kane said at last. “Call it manipulation. Or worse.”
“They already are,” Aurelia replied. “But spin only works while people doubt their own eyes.”
Ahead, the Stronghold rose from the rock like a patient beast, walls repaired, towers braced, banners steady in the wind. Inside those walls, the camps bu
