Nevara
I had heard so much about Blackstone that seeing it felt strangely unreal.
The settlement had existed in my mind as reports, arguments, security briefings, and photographs passed across tables. I knew which buildings had been damaged, which roads had been repaired, where the community hall sat.
None of that prepared me for the fact that people actually lived here.
Children’s bicycles leaned against a fence near the square. Fresh planters hung beneath several windows. Two men carried lumber toward a building with newer siding along one wall, and someone had left a basket of laundry on a porch as though this were any other neighborhood.
Then our vehicle stopped, and every detail became secondary to the baby in my arms.
Thoren stepped out first. Kael followed, scanning the square
