Seraphine POV
To say I was surprised was the understatement of the century. Everywhere I looked—everywhere—there were smiles.
Not polite ones. Not forced ones. Real smiles. The kind that reach the eyes and wrinkle the corners like the face has forgotten how to do anything else. Knights rode straighter in their saddles. Maids whispered and laughed without fear clutching their throats. My people—my people—looked at me like tomorrow was something they were actually allowed to believe in again.
And the land—Gods. The valley breathed. The woodland we had entered days ago, once a graveyard of smoke and rot, was now violently alive. Grass pushed through cracked soil like it had somewhere important to be. Trees stood tall, leaves so green they almost hurt to look at. Flowers—flowers—grew where corpses had been.
