The world felt… thinner after the Threshold.
Not broken.
Not wrong.
Just stretched—like reality itself had taken a breath it wasn’t sure how to release.
Blackthorne buzzed with uneasy life as word of the Convocation spread through the pack faster than any messenger could run. Wolves watched the sky as if expecting it to blink again. Guards doubled. Patrols tripled. And yet beneath all the movement, something fragile and electric threaded through the air.
Hope.
Fear.
And the terrible understanding that Heaven had spoken—and not won.
Kael did not leave my side.
Not once.
Even as the council convened in emergency session. Even as Frostclaw scouts were spotted testing the northern ridges. Even as the shrines began behaving… differently.
It started with the eastern moon-altar.
The s
