No one argued. The public accounting in the great hall had left little room for it.
When the session ended, two of the quieter elders lingered.
"The young are watching how we recover," one said. "If we return to ordinary work too quickly, they will think we are pretending. If we linger in the fear, they will think we are still owned by it."
Lila considered that. "Then we do the work in the open. The boundary posts tomorrow. The first full Moon Blessing since the failures in three nights. No spectacle. Only the rite, clean, with every wolf who wishes to stand in the circle. The ones who are not ready may watch. No shame attaches to either choice."
The elders accepted it. The vacant seat remained vacant when they left.
In the afternoon the pack began the small repairs that fear had postponed. A broken hinge on the eastern bunk-house door. A section of training-yard fence that had leaned since the last storm.
