For a long moment, no one breathed.

The wind that moved through the ruins was too quiet, as if the world itself were listening — waiting. Kael stood motionless at the heart of the shattered Vale, the pale veins of light still running beneath his skin, glowing softly through the torn fabric of his coat.

Then, in the puddle of silver water at his feet, his reflection blinked.

Not a trick of the light. Not a tremor in the surface. It blinked — slow, deliberate, conscious.

Elaria’s voice ...