Wax felt better immediately, entering the mists. His fatigue washed away, his pains fading. The mist was something ancient, older than Harmony. It had seen the Ascendant Warrior and the Last Emperor stop the end of the world.
It had seen the Lord Ruler rise before that, and protected—perhaps threatened—the world when it had been new.

You’ve done something to me, Wax thought at Harmony, nudging them to the side and landing on the roof. Odd things have been happening to me all day. Is it an aftereffect of holding the Bands?

No, Harmony said. It is something else. But it didn’t work as I’d hoped.