Heaven does not announce its return.
It tests the door.
It begins in places no one is watching anymore.
An old shrine deep in a compliance valley hums for the first time in months. Not brightly. Not commandingly. Just enough to feel… familiar. A warmth seeps into the stone like a remembered habit.
A priest wakes with a phrase on his tongue he hasn’t spoken since the silence began. He doesn’t know where it came from. Only that it feels comforting.
Across the world, a dozen similar moments flicker to life.
Small.
Soft.
Careful.
Rowan feels it first through the network, a faint ripple like a breath held too long. “Something’s trying to reconnect,” he murmurs. “Not forcefully. Politely.”
Kael looks up sharply. “Politely?”
“Yes,” Rowan says. “Like it doesn’t want to be noticed unless
