The morning after Kael awoke, the ruins felt different.
The mist was quieter, thinner. The trees around them stood straighter, as if something old had relaxed its grip.
Elira moved with quiet caution, gathering food from the satchel and checking the perimeter. When she returned, Kael was already sitting upright, the twins in his arms.
His hands trembled, but he held them with practiced care.
"You look," she began, "less broken."
Kael smiled faintly. "I feel... different. Not healed. But rewoven."
She knelt beside him. "Do you remember what they did?"
He nodded. "Pieces of it. It wasn't teaching. It was... surviving something they wanted me to understand."
Elira tilted her head. "Mental magic?"
"Or something like it. It's not power like fire or ice. It's awareness. Threading the self through what is unseen."
She looked into his eyes. They were still gold, but deeper. As if something ancient looked back.
"Then we need to decide," she said. "We can't stay here forever."
Kael nodded slowly. "No. But we're not leaving yet. Not until I learn to move without falling over."
She smiled. "Fair."
The twins stirred.
The ground beneath them pulsed once.
A tremor, not from threat, but from something awakening.
Beneath the ruin, beneath the realm itself, something vast and buried began to shift.
Not ready to rise.
But no longer asleep.