Chapter 238

*Elora*

The Aethel-Bulwark did not fall.

It should have—by all reason, by the weight of centuries of curses and battles—but instead it stood, scarred and rebuilt in ways that made it almost unrecognizable. The stone that once trembled with Void-Cursed screams had been reforged, patched, polished, and painted with runes that no longer bound but blessed. The walls no longer felt like cages. They fel