Chapter 59: The Librarian of Salt and Memory
Morning in Stillwater brought no relief, only a confirmation. The pallid light seeping through the high window of their room at the Anchor held no warmth. Aurora woke fussier than usual, her usual sunbeam disposition clouded by the pervasive gloom of the place. Lyra, ever vigilant, had dark smudges under her eyes, her sleep having been a series of shallow, watchful naps.
The plan formed over a sparse breakfast. They would split their intelligence gathering. Kaelen would go to the Fishermen's Guild Hall. His approach would be that of a concerned veteran assessing a logistical crisis: charts, tide reports, the precise timeline of the blight's spread. He would seek patterns, vectors, hard data.
Elara's path was different. She would seek the oldest stories, the ones not written in guild ledgers but carried in the memories of the very old and the very quiet. She would visit Morwen.
