The second day after is always the one that tries to undo the good work. Tired people. Small mistakes. Pride doing laps in empty halls. We treated it like a stubborn door: steady pressure, no yanking.
I woke before the lights and walked the palace once. Valdris felt like a machine cooling down. The ops wing was already humming. Reika had three short lists labeled "keep," "fix," and "ignore." She slid me the middle one. It was a page long. Good sign.
We spent the morning at Stormgate, not to place anything, just to listen. Kade brought a stethoscope for the earth. He lay on the grass like he was sunbathing and then nodded. "Spine's singing the right note," he said.
