Two days to the tribunal became one day the way the last stretch of anything long became the final part suddenly, without warning, the distance that had felt permanent collapsing into something that could be measured in hours.
Aelara noticed it at dinner.
Not because anything changed at the table. The twins ate. Vaelor talked to Aldric about the formal presentation order. Maren had her arm in a proper dressing now and was eating with her left hand and reading with her right in the way that suggested she had been doing two things simultaneously for so long that an injury to one hand was an inconvenience rather than an obstacle. Reya Soln sat at the far end with the composed, slightly watchful quality she had carried since they brought her back, the expression of a woman recalibrating after a difficult night and doing it efficiently.
