To her eyes, it was just air. But she saw how his hands moved with intent. How the tip of the knife traced slow, invisible lines. His gaze tracked each curve like following a thread no one else could see. Every motion exact, measured, some arcs wide, others tighter than a coin.
From afar, Beli stood near the door, arms crossed behind his back. Watching. Understanding every cut, every angle. His voice stayed quiet.
But inside his skull, he was reading it like a book.
Arthur's movements grew more fluid. Lyn tilted her head, catching the slight shimmer now forming between his cuts, thin threads of light emerging like dew strung on glass. The dome trembled slightly, just at the edges.
Then the water below shifted.
It didn't ripple. It… settled.
The surface calmed so completely it stopped being surface. It became mirror. The mana-flare light from the dome's outer edges dimmed, then dulled, then vanished. Arthur had reached beyond the ship, and now the sea responded.
