Seraphine didn't rush to fill the silence.
That, Hezekiah realized, was the point.
"When you listen without reaching," she said quietly, eyes stillon the river, "most creatures eventually notice the absence of a leash." She tilted her head slightly, as if considering how much to give him. "I don't push my thoughts outward. I don't shield them either. I let them sit where they are... clear and unarmed."
Hezekiah frowned. "That goes against everything the Order teaches."
She smiled faintly. "Yes. That's why it works."
She shifted, drawing a slow line in the damp earth with her fingertip. "Mind-links are shortcuts. Efficient. Loud. They're built on a hierarchy of who speaks, who listens." Her gaze lifted. "But creatures like this one? They don't answer hierarchy. They answer honestly."
