It was Ryder this time.
Not Ash.
Not the hum.
Not resonance.
Not the Court.
Ryder.
He came to me in the middle of the afternoon while I was reviewing routine territorial data—water usage projections in Alpine, trade revisions in Coastal, education metrics in the Neutral Basin.
He didn’t interrupt.
He just stood there.
Quiet.
That was the first sign.
Ryder was not quiet by default.
He was feeling-forward, emotion-first, loud-heart child.
When he was quiet—
It meant something.
“Mama.”
I looked up immediately.
“What is it?”
He didn’t climb into my lap.
Didn’t lean.
Didn’t radiate distress.
He stood straight.
“I don’t want to feel everyone all the time anymore.”
The air shifted.
Not violently.
But meaningfully.
His empathic sensitivity had always been softer than Ash’
