Chapter 114: The Return of the Tide
The Song-Cutter carried them up from the abyss not as fugitives, but as vessels of a quiet, earth-shaking revelation. The journey back was different. The ship no longer fought against the crushing pressure of the deep; it moved with it, its song now a gentle, carrying harmony with the stabilized though still wounded First Song. The dark, intelligent malice of the Silence was contained, not gone, but its pervasive pull had receded to a distant, frustrated hum at the edge of perception.
