The stormlight fades.
All that's left of the plaza is cracked stone and the faint outline of symbols still smoldering in the ground. I pull myself upright, eyes scanning for threats. None come. But the silence now feels different—*watchful.*
Branvel kneels where the shadow fell. Nothing remains but bone ash and a faint shimmer of twisted thread. He touches it, frowns. "This wasn't just a puppet. It had will."
"And orders," Kett says, stepping beside him. "It fought to the end."
I glance at the seal-holders. Voul is bleeding from the mouth but stands tall. Nera clutches her arm, her threads fraying at the edge. Fenn is pale, his light dimmed. Jeral leans on his blade like it's the only thing keeping him up.
"You four bought us time," I say. "The Vault held because of you."
Voul shakes his head. "It held because she made it to. You just woke her up."
"She's gone now," Lira says, voice low. "And he's not."
I nod.
The rival vanished before the final seal struck. Pulled himself into the deep cracks of the world, where rings and blood can't follow easily. But I felt it—he was wounded. He won't return unscarred.
Wren appears beside me, eyes wide, hands trembling slightly. "Was that really… Vellidra's last will?"
"It was what she left behind when silence wasn't enough," I say. "Not a weapon. A message."
"What message?"
I look out at the broken plaza. The sky overhead is darkening. Clouds circle where stormlight had once been. "That we were never meant to survive alone."
The others gather around. Sov arrives last, a cut across his cheek and blood on his sleeve.
"I tracked the rival's movements before he reached the plaza," he says. "He used the old tunnels. The ones beneath the council quarter."
"Council's still intact?" I ask.
"Barely. But they're shaken. And not all of them were untouched by Threadless influence."
"They'll move faster now," Lira mutters. "Fear tends to do that."
"And if the rival retreats," Kett adds, "he won't run far."
"No," I say. "He'll dig deeper. And next time, he won't come to test us."
Sov's jaw tightens. "He'll come to end us."
I look at the broken seal-circle. The ash. The frayed magic still flickering around our feet.
He tried to rewrite the city tonight.
And for now, we stopped him.
But Vellidra's silence has cracked.
And in the echo of that silence…
A war is rising.