Page 178 of She Who Was Severed

But they don’t look up. Not until I climb the bones of the broken tower and let the stone bite into my boots. Not until I stand above them, breath caught in my throat like the wind’s waiting for me to fail.

Still, they don’t speak.

And neither do I.

I scan the faces below. Vale’s at the front, arms crossed, expression unreadable. There’s a kid behind her—trembling, holding a blade too heavy for his wrist. A woman near the edge wears cracked suppression cuffs like bracelets, even though they’re dead. I register the fighters. The risks. The gaps in our line. One gap in particular makes my heart pulls tight.

Kellen should be here.

He should be circling above, fire threading through his dragon’s wings, steady and sure in all the ways I can’t be right now. Close enough that I could feel the heat of him—not on my skin, but inside it. The kind of heat that says, I’m here. That says, you’re not alone.

Instead, there’s only the wind.

And the Chain tightening like it knows what I won’t say out loud.

He’s not here.

But I lead anyway.

I step to the edge of the tower platform. Let them see me. Let them feel the silence before I break it.

“They left us to die.”

My voice doesn’t echo. It lands.

“Every one of you. They called you cursed. Weak. Said you failed.”

I turn slowly, letting them see it’s cost me to speak this aloud.

“They said being unbonded meant we weren’t worth saving.”

A few heads dip. No one dares nod. Good. They know the truth already.

“But look at you.” I sweep my gaze over them. “Look at us. Still here. Still breathing. Still standing.”

The Chain pulses. Not a flare. A confirmation. Like it’s listening too.

“They thought Severing us would be enough.”

“But I’ve learned something in the ruins they buried us in. And so have you.”

“You learned to bleed without dying. To break without disappearing. To build from what they tried to erase.”

“I learned the truth.”

The Chain slides across my spine like breath made of barbed wire.

“I’ve seen what they buried.”

My voice stays level. Truth doesn’t need volume.

“Every unbonded across Aetherra—they weren’t broken. They were left behind. Left waiting.”

The Chain shifts—tight, steady, like it knows what comes next.

“Not for rescue. For a path. For this path.”

I lift my gaze to the faces watching me now. Some wide-eyed. Some hardened. All listening.