Then Scarlet spoke. "If they flow, we can carry too."
Jude smiled. "Ribbon bundles. Tokens. Stories. We float them downstream. And see what arrives."
They planned. At sunset, they gathered memories mixed with petals into bark floats. Words scratched into wood: names, vows, messages of peace. The orchard wives, children, even watchers of mist watched as bundles were set on the river.
The lanterns cast orange halos on water. The current took each float, carrying them eastward.
Jude and Grace held hands and watched the lanterns dim into night.
---
By dawn, watchers reappeared, some at the tree line, others drifting over wreaths of flowers that Ruth had placed at the riverbank. The watchers carried bouquet ribbons on their forms, colors mirroring the floats.
Jude and Grace stood beneath the fig–glyph tree as watchers stood by saplings. The watchers drifted.