CHAPTER 45:
Three weeks had passed since the night we broke the siege. Three weeks since the Council’s army shattered and fled, since the shadow-things dissolved in the blaze of our combined light, since we woke to a valley empty of enemies and full of possibility. But no one here mistook quiet for peace. We knew the lull was only the calm before the final storm. So we built. We trained. We grew. And every day, the world beyond our mountains woke up, too.
The scars of battle had already softened into something new. Where charred earth had blackened the lower slopes, green shoots now pushed through—barley and turnips and hardy root crops, planted by hands that a month ago had held only swords. The shattered barricades were cleared away, replaced by orderly rows of cottages built from fal
