Night had settled softly over Lueur Ridge, the air alive with turbine hum and the quiet rhythm of crickets. Fires burned low in iron drums across the square, their glow painting the faces of those still awake.

Aria drifted from the gathering, drawn down the slope toward the old resonance pools. Moonlight caught on the surface—black as glass, yet alive beneath with slow-moving veins of shardlight. She crouched at the edge. Her reflection fractured into a thousand rippling fragments.

Clem’s voice murmured through the bangle at her wrist, steady but cautious.

“Resonance spike: seventy-two percent. Emotional sync elevated. Proceed carefully.”

Aria reached into the water.

The instant her fingers broke the surface, the shardlines along her arms flared. The pool pulsed back—alive, responsive—each ripple echoing her heartbeat. Within that rhythm she felt something vast and distant: faint signatures brushing against hers, like threads seeking connection through darkness.

Her breath caught.

“Someone else is out there…”

“Confirmed,” Clem replied. “Multiple faint sources. Interference blocking triangulation. Probability: non-isolated phenomenon.”

She lifted her hand. Droplets clung to her fingers, glowing faintly before fading. The shardlight wasn’t contained anymore. It was broadcasting—her pulse, her presence, her evolution sent outward.

A quiet step behind her.

“Couldn’t sleep?” Virel’s voice, low and familiar.

She shook her head.

“It’s changing. The shardlight isn’t hiding now. It’s… searching.”

He crouched beside her, his hand brushing hers, steadying.

“Or someone.”

From the ridge above came Hale’s shout, sharp through the stillness.

“Movement—south perimeter!”

Maris’s voice followed, firm and clipped.

“Scouts again. They’re watching.”

Aria rose, water dripping from her fingers. Her shardlight answered, blooming across her plating in living arcs. If Reylanda’s patrols saw her now, they would know exactly what she was.

The thought sent a tremor through her—not just of fear, but realization.

They were afraid, too.