The purple-gold radiance receded like a receding tide, and Jane's consciousness returned to reality. She opened her eyes to find herself still standing in the center of the Café, but the world had changed.
Outside the window, the cracks in the sky were healing at a visible rate, and the purple-black crystals were peeling away from the roots of the World Tree, dissolving into fine dust of light. Those pedestrians who had been frozen in place began to move once more, as if just waking from a long, lingering dream.
And inside the Café—
Chapter 44