Chapter Four: Echoes Between the Stone
Part Two – The Water That Doesn't Reflect
Zephryn didn't speak for a long time.
He just stood at the edge of the waterfall, the humless glyph beneath his skin pulling faintly—like a thread remembering how to tighten.
The water wasn't loud.
It wasn't even cold.
It just was.
Endless, soft, falling in the same rhythm it must've held since long before Doctrine built its maps and claimed its laws.
Selka didn't fill the silence.
She let it breathe.
Because this wasn't a moment for explanation.
This was a moment for return.
Zephryn finally asked, "What is this place?"
Selka answered without looking at him.
"They call it Sector Greywater. They say it's a land fracture. A Veil instability. Forbidden territory."
"But that's not what it is."
She turned to him now.
"This is where the Veil never learned to lie."
The words hung there.
Then Zephryn took a step forward, toward the pool's edge.
The water didn't ripple when he approached.
Didn't shimmer.
But the air shifted slightly.
Not with pressure.
With tone.
Like something deeper had just become aware of his presence.
He crouched slowly.
Stretched out a hand.
But paused just above the surface.
"Will it flare?" he asked.
Selka stepped beside him.
"No. That's why I brought you here."
"You don't have to flare. You just have to remember."
He lowered his fingers.
Touched the water.
Nothing happened.
No glyph.
No pulse.
No reaction.
Just touch.
But it wasn't the same.
The water clung to his skin.
Didn't run.
Didn't drip.
It stayed.
Selka watched.
Zephryn pulled his hand back and looked at it.
The water on his fingers shimmered faintly—like it was holding something unseen, something not yet ready to become cast.
He whispered:
"It feels like… like it's listening."
Selka nodded.
"It is."
He stood.
Looked up at the falls.
They didn't roar.
They hummed.
And now, beneath it, he could hear it:
A second tone.
Buried.
Faint.
Like a name trying to rise from beneath the current.
He whispered:
"Tether."
"Ruinborn."
"…Vael."
Selka didn't move.
He looked at her.
"Why do I remember names I never learned?"
Selka stepped forward. Took his hand.
Held it.
Water still clinging to his palm.
"Because you didn't forget them.
They were taken."
The glyph in his body didn't activate.
But for the first time since Caervale—
It responded.
Not with light.
With a pulse.
One beat.
Then silence.
But that was enough.