For a moment after the mirror closed, the world forgot how to breathe.

Elaria did not realize she was still standing until the silence began to tremble. The sound was so small she might have imagined it—the faint crackle of light cooling, the whisper of air remembering motion. Around her, the ruins of the Vale looked as if someone had painted them in glass: every edge too bright, every color too fragile.

Kael was gone.

The thought came slowly, like a wound opening beneath skin. She stared ...