The morning after the feast found Serian standing alone on one of the Sanctuary's many balconies, watching the sun rise over mountains that had become her home in ways she was only beginning to understand. The celebration had continued late into the night, but she had slipped away when exhaustion finally overcame her joy, retreating to her chambers to process everything that had happened since her arrival.
Sleep had not come easily, and when it did her dreams were filled with fragments of memory that refused to form coherent patterns. She saw her mother's face, serene and distant as it had always been, and heard words that seemed important but dissolved into mist before she could grasp their meaning. She saw the canyon where Nox had almost died, saw the blood painting the stones and the shadows closing in from every direction.
