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Chapter 62: The Thing That Wasn't Chosen
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CHAPTER 62 — The Thing That Wasn’t Chosen

They did not go west immediately.

That decision alone felt like heresy.

Auren stood at the edge of the ridge long after the others had begun dismantling camp, his gaze fixed on the distant horizon where the Low Cities lay beyond sight. The pressure in his chest pulled him that way — not like a command, but like a ledger left open, numbers waiting to be balanced.

The world wanted closure.

“We can’t chase every correction,” Silas said carefully, as if choosing the wrong words might trigger one. “If we do, we become a reactive element. That’s worse than being predictable.”

Lyra nodded. “Patterns that respond too cleanly get absorbed.”

Corren frowned. “So… we’re deliberately being inconvenient?”

“Yes,” Lyra said. “To the universe.”

Corren grinned weakly. “I’m good at that.”

Eira stepped beside Auren. “You’re shaking.”

“I’m resisting,” he replied.

“That’s worse.”

She wasn’t wrong.

The ground beneath them hummed faintly, no longer distant. The sound
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