The morning after we found the echo the ground felt different under the stones, like it was waiting for us to ask the next question.
I stood with Cassian, Mira, and Thorne at the circle before the girls woke. "Yesterday Mira felt something old under there. Today we listen harder. No forcing. Just asking."
Mira knelt at the edge of the stones. "I can still feel it. Quiet. Like it knows we are here. Thorne, you ready?"
Thorne knelt beside her. "Ready. Dad, Mom, stay close."
Cassian and I took our places just outside the circle. Cassian said, "Slow light. Same as practice. Stop the second anything feels wrong."
Mira pressed her hands to the dirt. "I am asking, not pushing. What are you?"
For a long moment nothing happened. Then the ground gave a very small pulse, soft as a heartbeat. Mi
