None of them spoke right away.
He didn't either.
Not because he was avoiding it. Just because he wanted to see how long they would wait.
The mana was still moving under his skin. Faint, but stable. It had weight again. Control. No more flickers. No more pressure spikes behind his ribs. No more random pulses that hit the wrong limb.
It was his again.
Elara shifted slightly. Not toward him. Just… re-centering her stance. Like she was trying to get a better read.
Her eyes were fixed on his face, but the way her fingers twitched near her side told him she was cataloging everything.
His movement. His posture. How clean the cuts on the monsters had been.
'She's recalculating something..'
Nathan stepped forward, boots scraping lightly over the stone.
Then he pointed at the nearest corpse.
"That was you?"
Merlin looked at him.
Nathan blinked.
"Right. Dumb question."
He scratched the back of his neck.
"I just—when did that happen? Your core was wrecked."
