The sanctuary was no longer just a refuge.
It was a beacon.
Since Eleanor's return from the Archive of Unwritten Days, the very air had shifted. The magic didn't hum or thrum anymore, it sang. A low, resonant pulse that matched the rhythm of her heartbeat. It seeped into the stones, into the trees, into the people.
Time moved differently now. More gently. More honestly.
And now, as she stood in the center of the rebuilt central tower, surrounded by those who had loved, feared, and fought beside her, she felt it again:
The call to become something more.
A Council Transformed
The sanctuary's council had changed as much as the world around it.
Ariella no longer presided as sovereign. She sat beside Nadia, not as ruler and general, but as an equal. Their partnership was no longer built on hierarchy, but on shared belief.
