Chapter 36 The Weight Of Quiet

• The silence after battle was always the loudest. The kind that lingered in the bones—heavy, breathless, full of things left unsaid.
• Elira stood at the edge of the scorched valley, watching ash drift like snowfall. The Hollow was gone, its echo snuffed out by fire and will, but the shadows hadn’t truly left. Not inside.
• Kael moved beside her, close enough to feel but silent too. Neither of them spoke for a long while.