They recovered for seven days after sealing the rift, their powers slowly rebuilding, their depleted essence gradually regenerating through the eternal flame and the Phoenix Pact. They had lost something permanent in the sealing—both could feel it, gaps in themselves that wouldn't fill, pieces of identity that had been burned away to become cosmic scar tissue. But they were alive, were themselves enough to matter, and the abyssal light was no longer remaking reality into permanent hierarchy.
On the eighth day, a delegation arrived from Ashborne. Not Mira this time—she sent word that she was too ashamed to face them, though Selena didn't understand why through the message alone. Instead, it was the old man who had spoken for the community during her first visit, the one who had been injured during the factional violence and had gone into hiding.
