The moss beneath her knees had stilled. The spiral etched in the dirt no longer pulsed—it simply remained, quiet and waiting.
Elara wiped her face with the back of her hand. Her breath was uneven, but it came. Calvinus didn’t speak. He sat beside her, gaze on the horizon, as if watching for something that hadn’t arrived yet.
She rose slowly, her legs trembling, her palms streaked with earth. The path ahead was unchanged—winding through memoryglass trees and soft moss—but it felt different now. Not because it had shifted.
Because she had.
They walked on.
Vidalia didn’t speak, but it responded. The trees leaned slightly toward her. The moss thickened beneath her feet. A spiral petal drifted past, glowing faintly before dissolving.
Elara reached for Calvinus’s hand. He took it without h
