The valley does not recover from the lake breach.
It adapts.
Adapting, Aurora is learning, feels nothing like healing.
The water has been purified, wards reforged, watch rotations doubled. The injured are healing. The dead, none from sanctuary, though several Covenant loyalists did not survive, have been honored in firelight and silence.
But something unseen lingers.
A crack beneath stone.
A tremor inside bone.
The web hums, but not in harmony.
In vigilance.
Aurora feels it every time she closes her eyes.
They did not fail.
But they were reached.
And once something is reached, it can be reached again.
The fracture does not begin at the border.
It begins inside the council.
The Stability Council chamber is colder than usual.
Human delegates whisper before Aurora even arrives.
Mara's expression is not angry.
It is tired.
Darius stands opposite her at the table, unreadable as ever.
"You asked for consolidation," Mara says the moment Aurora enters. "We gave it."
