It began not with fire but with a thought.

A simple, human thought whispered in the dark: What if the world could love us back?

That thought became wind.

Wind became pulse.

Pulse became dream.

The Second Dawn began quietly, like the memory of a heartbeat.

Erynd stood at the edge of Ashhaven’s new horizon a sky stitched from liquid glass and silver threads. She could feel the air humming with awareness. The world was awake.

Not fully alive, not fully divine but listening.

Every step she ...