Two weeks after the first fault line closing, Kael asked me to walk with him.
Not in the castle. In the silver forest, which he had been exploring with the systematic thoroughness of a man who had been between worlds and was making up for lost time with the physical geography of the one he found himself in.
He knew the forest better than me already, knew which paths led to the Ashwood Court and which circled back to the castle, knew where the silver leaves were thickest and where gaps in the canopy let the violet sky through.
We walked for a while without purpose.
This was something we had always been able to do, Kael and I. Comfortable silence was a gift not everyone had and we had always had it.
“You are happy,” he said eventually.
It was not a question but it had a question inside
