Chapter Four: Echoes Between the Stone
Part Three – The Echo Beneath the Falls
The water behind them never changed rhythm.
But something beneath it had.
Zephryn stood still, hand still faintly wet from the pool, his eyes tracking the small movements of light across the surface.
Selka hadn't let go of his hand.
She wasn't holding it for comfort.
She wasn't holding it for strength.
She was holding it like something important might slip through if she didn't.
Zephryn looked down at their palms. His was wet. Hers was dry.
But somehow, her fingertips shimmered too.
Just barely.
A trace reflection.
Not from the water.
From him.
He didn't speak.
Neither did she.
But the hum between them began to shift.
—
Not louder.
Not deeper.
Just closer.
The glyph inside him didn't flare, but it tightened.
Like a thread being pulled through a wound it didn't know it had.
Selka's pulse slowed—not in fear.
In rhythm.
Her body adjusted to match his breath.
And Zephryn, without understanding why, exhaled in time with hers.
The air shimmered once.
The reader wouldn't see a cast.
Wouldn't see a flare.
Wouldn't see a mark activate.
But the world around them paused—
Just for a second.
Like the Veil was holding its breath.
And in that silence, Selka said:
"I knew this place mattered."
"But I didn't know why until just now."
Zephryn didn't ask.
Because something inside him already understood.
This was the first time he'd ever shared a hum.
Not projected it.
Not flared it.
Not cast it.
Just… shared.
And she had listened.
—
Selka finally let go of his hand.
But when she stepped away, her palm still shimmered faintly.
The reader wouldn't know what happened.
Not yet.
But the glyphs remembered.
And so did the water.