“To remain human in a world that remembers gods is not humility. It is defiance.”The night came wrong. Not suddenly. Not violently. It simply… lingered. Adrian sat awake while Emily slept beside the low fire they’d built at the edge of a shallow ravine.The flames crackled softly, their warmth real and imperfect nothing like the absolute heat she could summon if she wished.That was the point. The stars above were too numerous, too sharp, as if the sky had overcorrected in its eagerness to exist without instruction.Patterns drifted where constellations should have settled. The world was still learning how to remember itself. Adrian pressed a hand to his chest.The storm answered but faintly. Not gone. Never gone. Just restrained, like a tide obeying a shore it hadn’t yet tested. “You’re doing it again,” Emily murmured without opening her eyes.He blinked. “Doing what?”“Listening like the ground’s about to confess something.”She rolled onto her side, propping her head on her arm, f