The sun never truly rose in the Lower Realm.
But something brighter stirred in the sky that morning, light not from fire, but from resonance. A shimmer that rippled across the mist.
Elira stood at the edge of the ruin with both twins. Her gaze followed Kael as he returned from the forest.
He looked different.
Not healed. Not whole.
But aligned.
He didn't speak. He didn't need to.
He stepped into the center of the ruin and knelt, placing both hands on the stone floor. The runes beneath his fingers shimmered.
The realm answered.
Elira felt it too.
The ruin trembled, not in fear, but in recognition.
Kael rose and walked to her. "It's time," he said. "For them to begin."
She looked down at the twins. The girl's eyes had begun to glow faintly, not golden like her father's, not icy like her mother's. But a strange, pulsing silver.
The boy cooed softly. The stone at his feet hummed.
Elira nodded. "Then let it begin."
She stepped back.
And the twins crawled forward, into the center of the ruin.
Where the realm waited.
And watched.
And opened its arms to its newest children.