Emma nodded. "We thought, what if the watchers respond not just to names and offerings, but to shared experience? To love. To story."
Sophie, overhearing, joined them, wiping her hands on her tunic. "I've been carving a sequence of our days here into the flatstones behind the orchard. I think we show them, not just tell them. Let them see who we are through what we remember."
Jude looked to Grace. "And you think they'll respond to that?"
"I think they already have," Grace said. "They've been calmer since we started the memory book. And they've stopped retreating at night. They're holding the edge now. Silent. But not gone."