Chapter 989

He stood and looked toward the mountain's peak. "Tomorrow we climb to the heart. With watchers. With memory. And we give it something new to dream of."

The others nodded, quiet resolve in their eyes.

That night, as the fire crackled and children slept wrapped in woven shawls, Jude sat beside Grace and carved one final glyph into the earth: twelve circles around a central flame, lines connecting them like veins in a leaf.

Memory, he whispered.

And in the mist above, the watchers answered.