Echo returned to the barracks after midnight. The common room was dark, but soft light spilled from Mira's slightly open door.
He found her sitting on her bed, a holographic star chart floating above her palms. She was tracing spatial nodes, her brow furrowed in concentration.
"Can't sleep?" he asked softly.
She looked up, her eyes tired but clear. "The archives here… they have records of World-Walkers. They were once peacekeepers. Bridge-builders. Now they're almost extinct." She lowered her hands. "Did you meet her? Scholar Varia?"
"Yes. She's on our side. For now."
Mira stood and stepped closer. The bond between them hummed, warm and steady. "When you were under the Soul-Reader… I felt your fear. And I reacted without thinking. It was like… the space around you was part of me."
"You protected me," Echo said, his voice low.
"I will always protect you." She touched his cheek. "You awakened something in me. Not just power… but purpose."
Her lips met his—soft, searching. It wasn't like their first bond in the heat of survival. This was slower, intentional. A choice.
He kissed her back, his hands sliding into her hair. Her spatial energy tingled against his skin, a whisper of folded dimensions. She pulled him onto the bed, and the star chart above them dissolved into motes of light.
They undressed without hurry. Her skin was pale in the dim light, marked now with faint silver lines where her bloodline stirred. He traced them with his lips, feeling her shiver. When he entered her, it was with a deep, slow rhythm that felt less like passion and more like merging.
Her spatial senses blended with his Error-Sight. For moments, they didn't just feel each other—they felt the room, the air molecules, the gravitational pull of distant worlds. It was overwhelming, transcendent.
As they moved together, Echo's system chimed softly in his mind:
[ Bond with Mira deepening… ]
[ Emotional and physical synchronization: High ]
[ Bond Points +3 ]
[ Bloodline Resonance: World-Walker Stage 1 stabilization +10% ]
[ Echo receives: Spatial Anchoring (passive) – minor resistance to dimensional displacement ]
Afterward, they lay tangled, breathing in sync. Mira's head rested on his chest. "We're not just getting stronger, are we?" she whispered. "We're becoming something else."
"Together," Echo said, kissing her forehead. "Always together."