The crystal trees thickened until the ordinary pine disappeared entirely. Trunks of translucent mineral rose in irregular columns, some no thicker than a wrist, others wider than a house. Light passed through them and came out slightly altered—warmer, slower, carrying faint after-images of whatever had last touched the surface. When Cal brushed a low branch, the crystal retained the exact shape of his fingers for twenty heartbeats before the impression faded like breath.
“I am never touching anything again,” Kael declared. “I will walk with my hands in my pockets until we reach a proper city with forgetful furniture.”
Nima, already sketching, did not look up. “The retention period increases with size and age of the growth. That large column to the left is still holding a bird that landed
