"Then stay close to me while I work," she says. "As close as you can. Let me be your reason to stay rooted to reality,”
I brush the loose curl from her face. "You have always been that."
She straightens her torn sleeve, looks at the furnace and the tools arranged on the wall, at the raw bronze stock stacked in the corner.
The competence in her face is extraordinary. It always has been. I simply could not say so for the longest time.
"Ready?" she asks.
I roll my shoulders. Feel the frequencies outside pressing at the edges of my restored control, testing, persistent, but no longer inside the walls.
"Yes," I say.
She takes my hand once as we cross to the broken door and walk back out into the broken festival together.
13
ROSETH
Bellmere trembles beneath my feet as I drag the forge cart through the ruined square.
The wheels catch against broken cobblestones every few seconds, jolting hard enough to bruise my palms against the handles. Sparks spit from the furnace strapped to the cart, its fire fighting desperately against rain, ash, and the violent resonance tearing through the town.
Another pulse rolls across the town, windows burst overhead as people scream.
Khaivor throws both hands outward beside me and the invisible force bends around a cluster of fleeing townsfolk before it can crush them beneath falling stone.
The effort nearly folds him in half.
“Khaivor!”
“I am still standing,” he says through clenched teeth but barely
Blood streaks down the side of his neck from one ear. His breathing comes sharp and uneven now, each inhale dragged painfully into his lungs as he forces more resonance through his body than any living person should survive.
But he stays beside me, always beside me.
“Move!” Brohm shouts ahead of us as he shoves splintered market beams out of the path. “Get the cart through!”
Vi helps pull frightened children toward the shelter of the western streets while the lake continues churning violently behind us. Festival lanterns drift across the flooded shoreline like dying stars.
Everything beautiful about tonight has turned monstrous.
Another resonance wave slams through Bellmere and the temple bells scream.
The ground cracks open near the docks with a violent snap that sends people stumbling backward in terror.
Khaivor catches the collapsing edge of a nearby balcony with raw resonance magic before it can crush a family beneath it. The structure hangs suspended for one impossible heartbeat before crashing harmlessly sideways instead.
Gasps ripple through the crowd.Some stare at him with gratitude. Others stare with fear and he notices both.
I see it in the tightness around his eyes.
“Do not look at them,” I say quickly.
A strained laugh escapes him. “Difficult advice while saving them.”
I shove the forge cart into the center of the square.
