Morning came quietly to Velaris.
The pale light of dawn spread across the settlement, touching the darkstone walls and the roofs of the Garden Villas. The two moons that had watched over the territory during the night were already fading from sight, leaving behind a sky washed in soft shades of blue and gold.
The air was cold, but no longer carried the same oppressive feeling Iris had become accustomed to.
Perhaps it was because she was no longer standing outside a settlement that belonged to someone else.
This place was hers.
Not because she owned every stone within its walls, but because she had built it.
Piece by piece.
Iris stood beneath the old tree for a moment longer.
She had spent most of the night there.
Thinking.
Remembering.
Trying to separate the story she had once known from the world she was living in now.
But for the first time, she did not feel the same desperate need to compare the two.
The original story had ended one way.
Her life had not.
