Chapter 63 — The Weight That Answers
The scar did not fade.
That unsettled people more than the tear itself had.
In the days after the sky sealed, citizens from both territories found themselves looking up more often than they admitted. The line stretched thin and pale across the eastern horizon, visible only at certain angles of light, but impossible to forget once seen. It did not pulse. It did not widen.
It simply remained.
A reminder that the world could reject them.
And that it had nearly done so.
Kael dreamed differently now.
Not of fields.
Not of bridges.
Of pressure.
He stood again beneath a sky that was not quite sky, weight pressing down from every direction not crushing, but expectant. The sensation was familiar in a way that disturbed him. Not the old conduit. Not the hum of everything needing him.
This was something quieter.
More patient.
As if the world had learned how to wait.
