Chapter 981

They spent midday exploring the stones. The children stayed under Susan's care, tracing moss shapes with twigs. Scarlet and Serena uncovered carving: a council of watchers and humans, sitting together, sharing scrolls and tokens. Layla found glyph books baked into clay sheets. Emma recorded every etching.

Jude and Grace followed a stairway down to a subterranean chamber beneath broken columns. The earth still hummed here, a quiet heartbeat that echoed in their footfalls. Stone benches ringed the center where water seeped through cracks. Petals stained from past offerings lay on arches overhead. Jude's pulse quickened.

He reached out and traced one of the watchers' symbols painted on a column in cobalt pigment. A rush of recognition pulsed through him: memory of meeting watchers first in orchard, of building ribbons of story. Grace placed her hand over his. "It remembers us."

He exhaled. "Let's add to it."