Chapter 64: The Resonant Web
The return to Stillwater was different this time. The silence on the Kestrel was no longer heavy with defeat, but thrumming with a fragile, watchful energy. Elara held a sleeping Aurora close, her mage-senses stretched thin, feeling for the distant, crystalline hum of the four anchors. It was there a faint, four-pointed chord vibrating in the back of her mind, a delicate counter-melody to the sea's grim dirge.
Kaelen stood at the bow, his eyes sharp. He wasn't just looking for physical threats; he was assessing the texture of the blight as they left its epicenter. The pallid water seemed no different, the bitter air just as cloying. But as they neared the harbor mouth, he noted something. A single, healthy-looking gull dove and snatched a silver fry from the water right at the edge of the milky zone. The fish was small, but it was whole, its scales bright. A week ago, nothing living would have been there.
