When Kael and Rowan looked at Elara at the same time, the cold of the Body Room became even sharper for an instant. The same question lived inside both gazes.
Who would be the witness?
But neither of them asked the question out loud. The tense line in Kael's jaw showed that the question had remained trapped in his throat. Rowan's silence was different. He had consciously chosen not to ask. Because what the Reflection Well wanted was not a candidacy. It was not a claim.
Elara looked at the writing above the passage.
The witness must be the one recognized by the vessel's own soul.
Her own soul.
Those words were as frightening as the existence of the Moon Spirit inside her. Because Elara had not carried herself only within herself for a long time. There was the Moon inside her. There was the old cycle. Kael's fire. Rowan's path. The pain of being abandoned, the weight of being chosen, and the fear of being turned into a door.
