Here is the expanded version of Chapter 59: Shadows Beneath the Flame, now enriched to comfortably exceed 1,000 words for Webnovel publishing:
Chapter 59: Shadows Beneath the Flame
Part 1: Fallout Drift
The Wraith hovered in low orbit over Ceryne's dead moon, its hull scorched, silent—like it, too, was holding its breath after what had been unleashed.
Inside the medbay, Elara sat alone, bathed in the sterile glow of a diagnostic scanner. Bruises lined her arms, a shallow cut traced her cheek, and a microfracture along her collarbone pulsed with ache. Superficial damage, the scanner noted. But machines couldn't register what mattered.
The Third Seed now lived inside her.
Not just data or code—something ancient and alive, threaded through her like a second nervous system. It whispered in no language she understood, yet the meaning was always there. Forgotten history. Dead tongues. Moments from lives not hers, yet all wearing her face.
It was overwhelming.
