The sun rose without celebration, its pale gold spilling across the fractured stones and quiet bodies as though unaware it illuminated the aftermath of something that had altered more than the night alone, its light soft yet merciless in what it revealed.
Elara stood slowly, not with strength, not with triumph, but with a deliberate effort that carried the weight of everything she now bore, her fingers lingering for a brief moment longer upon Sarah before finally releasing.
The absence of contact struck sharper than any wound, her hands remaining suspended for a heartbeat as though unsure what to do without something to hold, something to anchor her to the world she had just reshaped.
Her breath steadied by force, not by calm, her shoulders rising and falling in quiet discipline as she lifted herself fully upright, her gaze drifting not outward but inward, lost in something deeper than the battlefield around her.
