So Kaelen gave the Blight his memory of the first sunrise he’d seen after surviving the war that had killed his family. He gave it the sound of his little sister’s laugh. He gave it the terrible, beautiful ache of missing someone so much it felt like dying.

The shard in his hand didn’t just glow. It sang . A new pattern unfolded from his own flawed, bleeding heart. It wasn’t a stone or a drop of water. It was a seed. A tiny, silver acorn that hummed with a warm, steady light.

He began the long walk toward the heart of the Blight, one boot in front of the other, training reality back into existence one heartbeat at a time.