Chapter 153: The Weaving of Light and Law
The silence fell like a blade, severing the world's song. The lap of waves, the sigh of wind, the distant cry of a gull all were sucked into the hungry void descending from the cliffs. It was a deeper silence than Frosthold's; this was not an enforced peace, but an active erasure. The Final Quiet sought to un-write the cove's very existence from the ledger of sound.
Inside the cottage, the pressure was immediate and physical. Aurora's ears popped. The familiar, comforting creak of the floorboards ceased. Her own breathing became a distant, internal process. But at the hearth, Lyra's hands were already moving.
