---
The mountain was quiet in a way that only came after a long night of violence. The kind of quiet where every sound felt too sharp, too fragile to last. Kai woke up and sat with his back against the smoothed bed of the chamber, letting the soft hum of the brood chamber's essence channels and the measured breaths of the two sleeping forms in front of him wash over his senses.
The wound along his flank was knitting together, a jagged tear in the dark plates slowly sealing into a solid, unbroken surface. Each pulse of healing was a dull ache, like the deep thrum of a drum in his bones, but it was nothing compared to the tearing heat of the fight. His body was already working, piece by piece, to erase the evidence of last night's battle.
