Just as the space between them thinned to a single breath, a quiet, careful voice drifted in from behind, gentle as a leaf falling onto still water.
"That… did you forget about me?"
The moment was shattered. Fenraya startled as if struck by lightning.
Her fingers slipped from Aerondor's hand, and in the next blink she had already leapt backward, light on her feet like a startled deer. She vanished between the trees in a few quick bounds, moving faster than words could follow. Only the fading red at the tips of her pointed ears gave away how deeply that moment had touched her.
Aerondor stood there in silence, the warmth still lingering in his palm, and slowly turned his head.
"Aeltharion," he said, his face stiff in a very specific kind of suffering. "So you were here."
