Aftermath and Sealing the Breach

A streak of gray-white appeared on the horizon. The darkness in the deep pit receded farther below, and the rim of the hole resembled a cold, hard ring. The heat within the stone skin had been forced underground, leaving a faint white glow on the surface. The wind circled the ring once, smoothing away the last drifting dust. The ruins of the royal palace were silent, as if trapped beneath glass. Only belated echoes occasionally rolled back from afar, only to be swallowed by more distant mountains.

Netero stood at the center, his shoulders straight. Morel put away the mist bands and sealed every crack in the ground; Knov completely shut the observation opening and confirmed that the support points were no longer shifting; Knuckle and Shoot made another circuit of the outer perimeter, shoving loose beams and sharp fragments down the newly opened chute; Linas wedged her tool across the final narrow ridge at the wind vent, ensuring there would be no backflow; Ryan still guarded the fine line at the entrance, his outer blade forming a steady line with the stone skin, his inner blade held before his chest, the top of his foot pressing down on the hard ridge; Palm arranged the sheets of paper into a stack, sorting them by time and direction, leaving blank spaces for review.

The wind slowed. Morel first tried removing the half of the mist band closest to the entrance. When the residual heat did not swell again, he gradually drew back the thin mist at the edges, kneading it into tiny beads and stuffing them into the deepest cracks. Knov slowly lifted his palm from the stone skin and braced it with his forearm instead. Only after confirming that the ground was no longer collapsing did he change position. He