Chapter 19
The Weight of the Feast
Mireth wakes in Kayline's house for the first time, her skin clean of the entity's marks. She joins Kayline and Aldren for breakfast, and the three share a quiet morning of bonding. Mireth explores the house and grounds, feeling the house's song for the first time. Later, she goes alone to the hot spring and experiences a vision of the entity's four faces, which speaks through her with a warning: the fourth face is coming. Kayline and Aldren find her, and they prepare for the entity's next approach.
The fire had burned down to embers, casting a soft orange glow across the kitchen. The venison was reduced to bones, the plates stacked neatly by the basin. Mireth sat at the table, her hands wrapped around a cup of warm spring water, watching the steam rise and curl. She felt hollowed out, but not in the way she had felt for years—that empty, aching void left by the flood that had taken Maren. This was a different emptiness, one that felt like space for something new to grow.
Kayline stood by the hearth, adding a log to the embers. The flames caught, licking at the bark, and the kitchen brightened. Aldren had gone to check on the hide, his footsteps retreating toward the workshop behind the house. The companions had settled into their nightly rhythms: Harrow lay by the door, his amber eyes half-closed; Corvus perched on the windowsill, his head tucked under a wing; and Vesper had flown to the attic, where she nested in the rafters.
'You should sleep,' Kayline said, turning to face Mireth. Her voice was gentle, but there was a weariness in it that Mireth recognized. The ritual had cost Kayline something, too.
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