Chapter 70: The Fractured Mirror
The victory of the Lantern Walk was not a cure, but a crystallization. Stillwater held its breath, a community that had collectively chosen, for now, to believe in the quiet testimony of mended nets and single blooms over the seductive, tragic elegance of the forged logbook. The white lanterns were stored with reverence, and the children who carried them walked a little taller, their eyes holding a new, grave of patience and understanding.
But the blight, having failed to conquer through hunger, mimicry, or narrative, shifted its strategy once more. It had learned that this family, this town, derived its strength from connection to each other, to their past, to the tangible truth of their surroundings. So, it began to attack the connections themselves.
