The rattle’s faint chime had long since died, but the silence it left behind felt heavier than stone. Isla stared at it, the echo of her unborn brother’s presence still brushing against her mind—gentle, curious, gone too soon. But the grief had shifted now, opening a door to something softer, something Rune had never fully shared.
“Tell me about her before,” Isla said, voice low but insistent. “Before the curse. Before the Fracture tore everything apart. What was Elowen like when she was just... Elowen? When the shadows were still a secret, not a weapon?”
Rune exhaled slowly, leaning back against the stone wall. The floating orbs cast long shadows across his face, highlighting the lines carved by years of holding back. He looked younger in that moment—vulnerable, almost like the man who’
