THE BURDEN THAT REMAINSNight came without permission.Not summoned by ancient cycles or celestial mechanics just the slow, inevitable turning of a world that no longer waited for approval to move. Stars blinked into existence unevenly, some brighter than they should have been, others dim, as if still deciding whether they belonged.Legacy stood at the edge of the camp, arms wrapped loosely around herself, watching the sky learn how to exist again.Behind her, the others worked in quiet coordination. Axl reinforced perimeter wards with raw flame etched into the ground not permanent, not absolute, but enough to warn them if something approached. Nova moved between watch points with efficient grace, adjusting angles, testing sightlines, never resting fully. Cyrus sat cross-legged near the center, hands glowing faintly as he stabilized a fractured ley-thread that kept threatening to tear open beneath their feet.No one told them what to do.That, Legacy realized, was the strangest part.

The light left behind by the First Anchor did not vanish.It settled.Threads of it sank into the shattered ground, spreading slowly, quietly, like roots searching for a world that would finally let them grow. The earth beneath Legacy’s feet was warm not charged, not bound simply alive. For the first time since the beginning of recorded power, nothing was holding reality in place by force.Legacy remained where she was long after the glow faded.No one urged her to move.Not Kingston, standing close enough to steady her if she fell.Not Nova, watchful and alert, already cataloging threats that had not yet appeared.Not Axl, whose usual irreverence had been stripped away by the weight of what they had done.Not Cyrus, whose understanding of existence had cracked wide open and would never quite fit back together.The wind returned.Natural. Uncommanded.Legacy straightened slowly. The effort pulled a quiet ache through her body, but she welcomed it. Pain meant she was still present stil

Night settled over the basin with deceptive calm.The fires burned lower, their flames wavering as fuel thinned and exhaustion deepened. Smoke clung close to the ground, curling between uneven shelters and half-built structures that leaned more on hope than engineering. Shadows gathered in pockets, not aggressive, not ominous simply present, like reminders that nothing was watching over the world anymore.Legacy did not sleep.She sat alone on a fractured slab of stone at the basin’s edge, elevated just enough to see the full sprawl of what had formed beneath her. The encampment no longer resembled a singular gathering. It had become something layered and unstable clusters of people forming temporary centers of gravity, then drifting apart, then re-forming again.There were no banners.No unified signals.No enforced silence.The absence was loud.Legacy felt it everywhere in the air, in the ground, in the way people spoke more carefully now that no divine punishment loomed above thei