Sunrise came slow and reluctant over the fractured skyline.The citadel tower no longer stood isolated. Its upper levels had partially collapsed during the envoys’ retreat sections of stone simply erased, leaving the remaining structure leaning like a broken tooth. Smoke still rose from the lower city, but the fires were smaller now, contained by coalition forces who had suddenly stopped advancing at first light. As though someone very high up had given a new order: wait.Elias sat on the edge of what used to be the platform’s northern battlement. Legs dangling over a sixty-meter drop. The Core’s glow had retreated to a faint warmth beneath his sternum quiet, almost polite. His nose had finally stopped bleeding, but the taste of copper lingered on his tongue. He hadn’t spoken since Aetheris vanished.Liora stood behind him, arms folded, watching the horizon where the first pale gold touched the clouds. Her lightning had gone dormant; the air around her smelled faintly of ozone and bur