C167 THE NIGHT THAT REFUSED TO END

The night should have ended.

That was the strange part.

Dawn was late.

Not late in the way storms delay the light, or clouds linger too long—but late as if the world itself paused to move ahead.

Elara stood at the edge of the high ridge, her cloak stirring lightly in the cold air. Below her, the land stretched in dark layers—forests folding into hills