The walk back toward Runewoven's guild hall felt different from the march out.
The battlefield's noise faded behind them, replaced by the crunch of boots against stone paths and the hum of embedded mana conduits lining the mountainside. Exhaustion finally had time to settle in properly, but instead of dragging them down, it wrapped the group in a strange energy. They had survived. More than that, they had performed.
Aria and Bastet were practically skipping ahead, their steps light despite the long day. Aria's staff tapped the ground in rhythm as she talked animatedly with the tanned felinid, her fatigue nowhere to be found as she gestured wildly while Bastet listened with an amused smile, tail swaying lazily behind her. Whatever aches the solar kitten felt, she bore them with regal ease, and Aria fed off that confidence like a spark to dry tinder.
