Chapter 5: The Long Way Home
The sky of Aetheria turned gold. Floating islands realigned. The Songlines mended themselves with visible stitches of light. Citizens sang in the streets—messy, imperfect, gloriously alive.
The Warden stepped through a newly stable rift, older than Finn remembered but smiling. He embraced his brother, then his daughter. Finally he turned to Finn.
“You have done what I could not,” he said. “The Veil is healed. Both worlds will remember each other now.”
Finn looked at the new compass in his hands. Its needle pointed home—back to Brinehaven, to his mother, to the life he had left behind what felt like both yesterday and a lifetime ago.
