The next morning, the Heartland Citadel stood silent.
Broken bodies littered the fields.
Ash drifted through the morning mist like falling snow.
But the Pathbreakers stood proud.
Scarred.
Bloody.
Alive.
Victorious.
Consolidation
Kaelen spent the days that followed securing the Heartland.
The Sovereign Bastion's walls were repaired and reinforced with multiplied resources.
The fallen were honored with Sovereign rites.
New defensive formations were etched into the stone.
Scout teams were dispatched to the borders.
The Sovereign Nation was no longer a dream.
It was real.
Breathing.
Growing.
The Dream Expands
Small villages near the Weeping Expanse began sending messengers.
Farmers.
Craftsmen.
Wanderers.
All carrying a simple message:
"We want to join.
We want to believe.
We want to rise."
Kaelen welcomed them.
Not as subjects.
But as partners.
The Sovereign Path was opening.
Brick by brick.
Word by word.
Hope by hope.
A Promise
One night, standing atop the rebuilt Heartland walls,
Kaelen looked eastward once more.
Toward home.
His hand tightened into a fist.
"Soon," he promised.
"Mother."
"Father."
"Riven, Lyanna, Alen."
"I'm coming back."
"Not as a boy."
"But as the First Sovereign."
The stars burned brightly above him.
As if bowing to the path he would carve.