The glow behind his eyes dimmed as he turned, something pulling at the edges of his awareness like a whisper half-remembered. He tilted his head, curls falling into his eyes, the shimmer along his skin fading into stillness. The world held its breath. Whatever it was—out there, just beyond the veil of wind and trees—it was different. Not a bang or a cacophony, not bright, but loud in the way silence sometimes was, like a truth too shy to speak its name. His bare feet stepped forward without sound, the grass beneath them bending in reverence.