The next morning, Zephryn was already up before the light hit the dorm windows.

He sat on the edge of his bed, arms resting on his knees, staring at his hands like they didn’t belong to him.

The pendant around his neck had gone quiet again.

Not dead.

Just waiting.

Kaelen was the first to move, stretching and grumbling as he reached for his boots.

“Training block today. Mid-spire. Tactics rotation.”

Yolti pulled the scarf tighter over her head and mumbled into her sleeve.

“Hope it’s not more Veilmark drills. I don’t feel like blacking out again.”

Selka was already dressed.

She stood at the doorway, back to them all, cloak folded over her shoulder, hair braided with precision.

Zephryn looked at her.

She didn’t turn.

But she spoke.

“Something’s changed.”

The room paused.

Yolti sat up. Kaelen narrowed his eyes.

Selka turned just slightly—just enough for Zephryn to see the edge of her gaze.

“Since the mirror.”

He didn’t deny it.

He couldn’t.

“I don’t know what it means yet,” he said.

“That’s not what I asked.”

The silence after was thick enough to hold breath.

Then—

The floor trembled.

Not visibly.

But subtly. Like a hum running through the bones of the building.

Zephryn stood instantly.

Kaelen was already moving, hands at the ready.

Yolti froze mid-bite of a granola bar. “…did you feel that?”

Selka’s hand hovered near her pulseband.

The hum continued.

Not sharp.

Not violent.

Low. Deep. Familiar.

From the corner of the room came a sound—so soft it almost passed unnoticed.

A long, low exhale.

From beneath Zephryn’s bed.

The scarf lifted.

And there—coiled tight, dormant for weeks—was Bubbalor.

Eyes still shut.

But his body… was pulsing.

The same rhythm as the pendant.

The same rhythm as the mirror.

The same rhythm as Zephryn.

“He’s resonating,” Selka said.

Her voice wasn’t surprised.

It was afraid.

Zephryn knelt slowly, hand hovering near Bubbalor’s body.

He didn’t touch him.

He didn’t need to.

The hum between them wasn’t something that could be spoken.

It had already been shared.