Fluffy sat beside her, tail wrapped tightly around his paws. His ears kept twitching toward a point northeast of the crater, toward a ridge of jagged glass-like spires. Every few minutes he let out a soft, questioning chirr.
Renkai stood a little distance away, watching the horizon. His posture had changed since she woke. He no longer looked only outward—he looked for danger now. For anything that might try to take her again.
"You feel it too," Lira said quietly.
He didn't pretend not to understand. "Yes."
It wasn't the pull of the giant sphere anymore. That thing had been loud, overwhelming, commanding.
This was different.
Subtle.
Like a thread being gently tugged from very far away.
Lira closed her eyes.
She breathed.
And there it was.
A pattern beneath the planet's hum. A rhythm that did not belong to this world. It vibrated faintly against her bones—familiar in a way that made her chest tighten.
"Home," she whispered.
Renkai turned sharply. "You're certain?"
