Chapter 61: When the Light Dies
The silence after the curse broke was not peace.
It was the kind of silence that comes after a scream raw, echoing, heavy with what can't be unsaid.
Smoke curled through the broken stone chamber. The blue glow had faded. The runes were ash. The altar cracked.
And Lyra… stood still as stone.
Her arms were lowered at her sides, blood trickling from both palms. Her eyes were closed, but not peacefully. Her lips moved no sound came out. Just the shape of forgotten names, mouthed over and over like a prayer or a warning.
Kael didn't rush to her.
He walked slowly. Carefully. Like approaching a cliff's edge.
There was something different about her now. Not just exhaustion.
Stillness.
Weight.
She hadn't just broken the curse.
She'd become part of it.
---
Outside, Whisperwood was waking up.
The fog that had blanketed the town for generations had lifted, revealing streets that felt strange in their clarity. Buildings long crooked now stood straight. Graves that had sunken were mended.
And yet… the people moved as if sleepwalking.
Smiling. Blinking too slowly.
As if they'd forgotten what fear felt like and didn't trust the calm.
---
Back in the chamber, Kael finally reached her.
"Lyra," he whispered, close enough to touch her, but still not reaching.
Her eyes opened.
They weren't glowing anymore.
But they weren't just hers, either.
It was like staring into a mirror layered over a forest depth after depth after depth.
"It's quiet now," she said softly. "But it's not over."
Kael's throat tightened. "What do you mean?"
She looked toward the altar, then up at the ceiling, where faint carvings glimmered with damp moss and time.
"This wasn't a curse," she whispered.
"It was a seal."
"And I just broke it."
Far above, back on the surface, the townspeople gathered around the Heart Tree's remains.
Something moved beneath the roots.
Slow.
Breathing.
A second heartbeat.
Something ancient.
Something now free.