**Chapter 13: The Crack in the Ice & The Returning Sun**
The bridge over the Rideau Canal was suspended in a state of gray, misty waiting.
It was the fragile, breath-held hour of the morning, the world still draped in a veil of silver frost, deciding whether or not to wake up. The air held the sharp, crystalline bite of a winter not yet ready to fully relinquish its grasp, but the sun, a pale gold coin cresting the black fringe of the treeline, felt different. It wasn't the weak,