~Kaida Orion POV~
Air hit like fire, I coughed river and stone and spit and shook so hard I nearly dropped back in.
The bowl we had been blessing.... the one holding the Lunar Mael pearls still smoked where it sat by the altar crack. Moon Priest steadied it, the pearls floated in cloudy water that flashed green, then cleared. One the large center had split down the middle, Inside, a faint white glow pulsed like a heartbeat, ringed by a vanishing haze of green.
Rachael read from the ledger board, voice steady though her hands shivered, Lunar Mael Fourteenth renewal now witnessed by pack. Debts declared, pearl restored.
The crowd murmured the response as if unsure it would work, blessed, witnessed, and bound.
When the last word fell, the bowl flared silver and cooled, the green steam curling from the well mouth thinned to mist and drifted away. The big root was dead but not gone! Dead roots still rot.
