Nothing happened quickly.
Vane had expected it to.
A verdict spoken in front of the whole settlement felt like the kind of thing that should make the world move with it. Something should have shifted the next morning. A new cord. A declaration. Kest walking back through the settlement with everyone suddenly knowing where to put their eyes.
Instead, the first day passed.
Then the second.
By the third, Vane had started to understand that Ossara treated change the same way it treated almost everything else.
Slowly enough to make sure it could bear weight.
Torvin came to Kest's house that afternoon.
Alone.
No crowd followed him. Calder was nowhere in sight. There was no ceremony waiting at the boundary stones.
Torvin simply walked the old path with Kest's cord held in both hands.
Vane happened to be there with the others when he arrived.
Kest opened the door.
Torvin held the cord out.
For several seconds, she did not take it.
Her eyes moved along its length.
