The Tempering ยท Book One
THE ANNEALING
Ten years numb. One missed dose.
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Read Stage 5 from his side
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Best read after you finish The Annealing. This scene contains major Book 1 spoilers.
The tonic tasted like nothing. It always tasted like nothing.
For ten years, Mira has swallowed her dose and measured out everyone else's. Healer's apprentice. Good girl. The Sanctum calls the numbness medicine, and every woman in Aethenvale drinks.
Then one morning, she forgets.
The world comes back screaming. Moonlight sharp enough to cry over. Sheets she can feel. And under her skin, something gold and patient, pulsing like a second heartbeat. Fire.
Fire is why the Sanctum sends Zahir. Warden. Weapon. His orders: walk her through the seven stages of Emergence on a leash, or end her before she finishes them. Instead he's started looking at her the way you look at a loaded weapon. She should find it insulting.
She finds it intoxicating.
Every woman in Aethenvale is asleep. Mira just woke up angry.