Side Story 4.93 - Aftermath

Johanis’ POV

The world didn’t end that night.

But it did fall silent.

The shapes retreated—not with a scream, but a sigh. Like old wind pulling back into deep places. One moment, they were all around us, hungry and terrible. The next, they were… gone. Scattered into the wind, like ash and memory.

I don’t know what did it. Maybe it was Lily. Maybe it was all of us together. Maybe the guardians—the ones we named—finally stirred and remembered who they were long enough to drive the dark away.

All I knew was that the ground had stopped shaking. The screaming had faded. And the only sound left was Lily’s breath against my cheek and the faint hum of Brinn’s sigils glowing in the dirt like cooling embers.

I was still lying there, half-conscious. My bones felt