She nodded. “It shows itself only when it wants to.”
We stood in silence for a moment. Not awkward. Just still.
Then she stepped farther in, her eyes following the faint light that danced along the floor, the floating seeds still drifting lazily in the air.
“It’s changed since I last saw it,” she said softly. “But then, I suppose you have too.”
I wasn’t sure how to answer that, so I didn’t.
Instead, I gestured to a brilliant green cushion that looked like it had been plucked from a forest glade. She smiled, walked over, and lowered herself onto it with the practiced grace of someone who’s done it a thousand times but still mutters about her knees.
“I spoke to the Academy,” I said, quietly.
Her eyes found mine. She didn’t blink or react the way I’d half-expected with surprise or doubt or a hundred questions. Instead, she nodded, just once.
“I’m not sure I did muchtalking,though,” I added. “Mostly… I listened.”
That made her smile again. “That’s the harder part, most days.”
The hush returned, broken only by the faint sound of something fluttering in the rafters and the distant crackle of magic settling.
She studied me for a long moment, her face unreadable but not unkind.
“How are you holding up?” she asked.
I hesitated. “I don’t know.”
“Fair enough.”
I looked down at my hands, then back at her. “There’s a lot.”
“There always is,” she said. “Especially at the beginning of something.”
I almost smiled. “Feels like the middle and the end, too.”
She chuckled, low and warm, then leaned back and crossed her legs beneath her cloak.
“But there’s something else,” she said. “I’ve felt it. Since earlier.”
My stomach tightened.
She studied me gently. “I think… something shifted between us.”
I didn’t answer right away.
“You mean after the dragon conversation,” I said finally.
She nodded. “Yes.”
The light in the room seemed to dim slightly, or maybe it was just the way my chest pulled tight again, the way my breath slowed.
“I think I wanted more from you than I had the right to,” I said. “I think… I wanted you to have all the answers, and when you didn’tgivethem, I felt… betrayed.”
She didn’t flinch. “And now?”
I shrugged. “Now I think I understand.”
“Understand what?”
