Chapter 115: The Shape of the Days After
The victory in the deep did not end the work; it changed its shape. The Silence was contained, not destroyed. The First Song was stable, not healed. And on the surface, in the world of sun and soil and community, life had to be lived. The grand, metaphysical defiance had to be translated into the humble grammar of tomorrow's bread, a child's education, and a town's shared future.
The first and most pressing new reality was Aurora's education. She was not a normal child, and no village schoolmaster, however kindly, could guide a consciousness that had anchored the cosmos. Yet she was still a little girl who needed to learn her letters, numbers, and the simple, vital art of being with others. The solution came from an amalgamation of their world.
