The light faded, but the silence did not.
Elena stumbled to her knees, one palm pressed hard against the ground as she gasped for breath. The chamber had returned—or some echo of it—but the stone felt wrong beneath her hand. Warmer. Smoother. Like bone rather than rock. The symbols had dimmed, but they hadn't vanished. They pulsed faintly in the corners of her vision, no longer demanding attention, just... waiting.
Leon stood at the basin's edge. The girl was gone. Or changed. It was hard to say. In her place, a shimmer hovered, the shape of a child in outline only—light folding inwards, as if reality itself had thinned there.
He didn't move. Not yet. He looked older. Not in face, not in form. But in weight.
Elena rose. "Leon."
His head turned slightly, but his eyes never left the shimmer. "I remember."
"What did you see?"
He answered, slow. "Not what. Who."
The shimmer pulsed at that.
