Chapter 1035

Children placed stones ringwise near the hearth; eldest girl whispered watchersign inviting watchers to live here.

Jude resumed watchersong, soft, slow, layered. Light responded, pulsing across temple skeleton, twisting vines of ribbons and runes. Mist drifted inside temple, forming shapes echoing watcher script in ribs and ribs to light. Walls felt alive. The watchers hovered still, then pulsed bright in unified arc overhead. The earth hummed as ceremony concluded. Wives bowed; children gasped.

They left temple for the orchard. Night stretched across orchard; seedling-ring pulsed like breathing. Wives revealed memory-slates with temple vows drawn at their center. They set them around tree. Flats of flatcake offered. Watchers hovered for ceremony 2. Children cuddled. Wives spoke watchersign narrations: Temple born, watcherscript sown. Memory depth. Child keeper. Covenant home. The watchers responded with pulsing arcs around circle, candlelight flickering.