Chapter 79

I felt entirely spent but renewed. As the powers drained from me, the heaviness lifted, and now, as I lay there depleted, the rush of magic settled around the place, warming me from within. I lay down on the cool stone and let it wash over me.

It was a sense of calm I could not ever remember feeling.

After a while Nova spoke, “It was said our lands were connected between the pools.” She was speaking to me as much as she was speaking life into the caverns.

I glanced at her to see she was lying near me, staring at the ceiling where the muted blue lights danced across, making waves in their wake.

I looked around the space—my eyes snagged on a bit of mortar that seemed different, a cracked brick, a stone slightly off in color—but nothing stood out to indicate that this place ever connected elsewhere.

But there was magic I had seen today I had never thought true, so I wouldn’t debase what she said off logic alone.

I looked back up,

“I-I—” she choked, seeming to shed something herself. I