After they delivered the transformed marrow essence to Ashborne, after they watched it flow through the soil and provide the foundation the struggling community needed, after they ensured no hidden authority had survived the transformation—Selena and Dante finally allowed themselves to stop.
Not permanently. They both knew the Phoenix Pact would call them again, that tyranny would attempt resurrection in new forms, that the eternal burning could never truly end. But for now, for this moment, there were no immediate crises, no hierarchies demanding destruction, no communities on the verge of collapse.
For the first time in years—perhaps for the first time since they had started their rebellion—they could simply be.
