CHAPTER EIGHT: PULSE AWAKENS (Part five)
They stayed there for a long time.
No words.
No ritual.
Just two echoes resting in the roots of something that had never stopped waiting.
The Heartbloom Tree didn't move again.
It didn't need to.
It had said what it needed to say—
Through wind.
Through pulse.
Through the mark it left glowing beneath their hands.
Zephryn finally stood.
The scarf around his neck shifted in the breeze,
but didn't fall.
Didn't loosen.
It held.
Like it belonged here.
Like he did too.
Selka rose a moment after.
They didn't face each other.
They didn't need to.
She stepped past him—toward the edge of the hill.
Looked out over Celestis Veil.
The wind lifted stronger now,
and with it, the glyph dust in the grass curled skyward.
Selka watched it go.
Then whispered—
"You're home."
Zephryn didn't reply.
He didn't have to.
The hum had already answered for him.