Chapter 35 — What Remains After Victory
Victory did not arrive with cheers.
It arrived with silence.
The battlefield outside Blackspire lay drenched in rain and ash, the broken remains of siege engines steaming softly as the last embers of magic faded into the earth. Soldiers moved slowly now not with urgency, but with the careful reverence of those who had survived something they did not yet understand.
The battlefield outside Blackspire lay drenched in rain and ash, the broken remains of siege engines steaming softly as the last embers of magic faded into the earth. Soldiers moved slowly now not with urgency, but with the careful reverence of those who had survived something they did not yet understand.
Elowen stood at the edge of the field, cloak heavy with water, boots sunk into mud darkened by blood. The air smelled of iron and ozone, the remnants of the Sun Engine's unnatural light still lingering like a ghost.
She felt… hollow.
Not broken. Not afraid.
