The others watched quietly as Liora dragged a chair closer to where I was sitting and immediately began firing questions, her bright curiosity cutting through the heavy, lingering atmosphere like a beam of light in a dark room. She hadn't fully grasped, couldn't possibly have grasped, how close we had all come to never returning from Morvalis just hours earlier.
"What happened in Morvalis?" she asked quickly, eyes wide with anticipation. "How did Ivy die? And… how were you able to hold on, Nyx? I need details."
I exhaled slowly, leaning back against the bed furniture as the familiar weight of exhaustion settled back into my bones the moment the adrenaline from her arrival began to fade. I gave her the shortened version of events because honestly, I didn't think I had enough emotional energy left to relive the entire nightmare in vivid, painful detail again. My voice stayed steady, but even I could hear the exhaustion threading through every word.
