“Hi,” she says, waving a little too brightly as she tugs her cloak tighter. “Sorry. We’re still negotiating safety protocols.”
Okay, that is not something I want to get in the middle of.
I incline my head.
“Welcome to The Barrow. My home is yours.”
“Damn,” Phoebe whistles, turning in a slow circle to take in the chamber. “You weren’t exaggerating, Kael. This place is like if a cathedral and a mountain had a very intense baby.”
“The stonework is breathtaking,” Jules adds, fingers grazing one of the glowing root-veins. “It feels alive.”
“It is,” I say simply.
They take their seats—Lords at the stone table, viyellas beside or slightly behind them.
Delia drops into the chair next to Thorne and immediately reaches for the basket of bread a servant has placed in the center.
Alina’s place beside me is still empty, and the absence is a physical ache.
“You look like someone stole your favorite boulder,” Kael says, watching me with sharp blue eyes. “Where’s your viyella?”
“With Brianne,” I say. “Preparing. It is the first day of Sowing.”
“Ah, the Marches’ big dirt party,” Phoebe says, grinning. “Kael told me about it. Apparently your people get very excited about seeds.”
I give a single, slow nod.
“Without seeds, there is no food. Without food, there is no hope. We honor the beginning.”
Jules sobers. “And you bless it,” she says softly. “As Lord.”
“Yes,” I confirm. “Tonight, under the Glowworm Moon, before the gathered Marches.”
“And your viyella stands with you,” Alaric says, not a question.
“If she chooses to,” I reply.
Thorne snorts. “She chose you. I would be more concerned with whether you are ready to stand with her.”
His words land harder than I like.
Because he is not wrong.
The Rite of Bonding was more than I anticipated.
The zareth did not just seal. It surged.
The Marches themselves bent around it, around her.
For the first time since the Prime fell, I feel something like balance.
Like possibility.
Which makes the thought that I might fail her all the sharper.
“Enough,” Kael says, though not unkindly. “We did not come here to pick at Dagan’s anxieties. We came because there is work to be done.”
The air shifts.
