The valley had changed its clothes. Where once there would have been banners of blood-red cloth and the scent of iron and smoke, there were now lanterns—soft globes of light strung along rooftops, hanging from branches, resting in the hands of children who were being very carefully supervised by parents pretending not to be anxious. No altars stood at the center of the square. Instead, a circular platform of pale stone had been built—not raised for sacrifice, but level with the ground, open on all sides, as if inviting people in rather than keeping them out. Around it, carved into the stone, were lines of text—names, dates, small phrases that had been chosen, revised, and approved not by decree but by consensus. Rin stood at the edge of the gathering, not above it. That had been deliberate. Beside her, Kael watched the crowd with the same quiet vigilance he always carried—but softened now, no longer scanning for threats, only aware. Behind them, voices rose in overlapping lay
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