Chapter 47: The Unwritten Pact
"You’re not going to sleep tonight, are you?" Magnolia asked as she leaned against the stone balcony, watching Camille watch the stars.
"I don’t think the stars would let me," Camille replied. Her voice was low, steady but her eyes were still echoing with the voices of the wolves who had howled with her hours earlier.
The wind up on the upper tier was sharper than usual. The Keep felt like it was shifting beneath their feet, not crumbling just... changing. The way stone did when rain found its cracks and made something new grow.
Magnolia crossed her arms. "They answered you. All of them."
"They answered themselves," Camille said. "That was the whole point."
"And yet, they still looked to you when it ended."
Camille didn’t respond. She just let the wind fill the silence between them.
"I remember," Magnolia said suddenly. "The first time you were sealed."
Camille turned slowly.
"You didn’t cry," Magnolia continued. "But I did. I wasn’t even in the room. Just outside. Listening."
"I remember the smell of the fire," Camille whispered. "Like burnt leaves and metal."