Chapter 52 — After the Noise
Silence returned first.
Not the brittle, imposed quiet of restraint. Not the heavy hush that followed catastrophe, when the air itself seemed afraid to move. This silence had texture. It ebbed and flowed, settling unevenly, like the lull after a storm when the world hadn't yet decided how to sound again.
Kael noticed it the moment he woke.
No hum beneath his thoughts.
No pressure beneath his skin.
No vast, aching awareness stretched thin across the land no fractures tugging at his nerves, no distant tremors whispering themselves into his bones before they ever touched stone.
Just breath.
Just weight.
Just the steady warmth of Elowen's body beside his.
For a long moment, he didn't move.
Panic flared instinctively sharp and animal his pulse spiking as his mind reached outward and found nothing answering. The reflex was so ingrained it bordered on pain, like trying to flex a limb that was no longer there.
Then memory caught up to fear.
