Chapter 127 - The Ghost of the Radiant Arc

The orange glow of the sunset was bleeding into a deep, bruised violet by the time the wind picked up. The mountain air was losing the warmth of the afternoon and turning sharp and dry. Vane stayed seated on the grass with his back against the stone base of a sundial. The silence left by the twins' departure was a physical weight, a sudden vacuum where laughter and wooden sword-clashes had been just moments before. Valerica was still beside him. Her knees were pulled up to her chest and her eyes were fixed on the distant, jagged horizon where the lights of the capital were just beginning to flicker like fallen stars.