Chapter 67: The Receding Tide
The victory on the beach was a pyretic flame fierce, illuminating, and leaving behind a deeper cold. For three days, the family moved through the cottage and the still-healthy cove like convalescents. The massive expenditure of will had left them hollowed. Elara's mage-sight was blurred, as if looking through fogged glass. Kaelen's reclaimed warmth had retreated again, the cold settling deeper into his marrow. Lyra slept for twelve hours straight and woke with the distant, glassy look of someone who had journeyed too far in their mind.
