The Vale homestead had begun to stir with the quiet cadence of departure. Valery's voice drifted from indoors — soft, measured, speaking with Mariana in that tone Eve had come to associate with important things. Packing sounds followed. The rustle of linen, the shifting of gear.
But Eve had stepped away.
Drawn not by noise, but by stillness, she found herself in the garden again. Dew still clung to the grass. The air was cool, scented with old stone and the breath of flowering herbs. A pale hush blanketed the earth, and her footfalls were almost soundless on the path.
She didn't expect to see her again.
But there — like smoke unfurling from the edge of the trees — the fox had come.
Silver-stripe fur shimmered in the mistlight, and her eyes, those impossibly pale mirrors, met Eve's with a calm so ancient it unmade time. It stood in full view to her. Not hidden, not shy. Simply... present.
Eve knelt slowly.
She didn't speak, didn't dare. Words felt too crude, too heavy. Instead, she extended a hand, palm upturned, fingers open like petals. Her silver eye remained fixed on the fox, every breath drawn with care, reverence humming in her bones. The fox stepped forward. Grace incarnate. Mist whispered around her limbs, curling and parting with every movement.
Then... contact.
A gentle touch. Fur like frost-silk brushed against Eve's fingers, so soft it might have been imagined. But the sensation grounded her, made her breath hitch. A subtle pulse stirred between them once again, like the night before, not quite warmth, not quite light. But something. The Force stirred softly, curling like smoke around the moment.
And in that hush, something... whispered.
It wasn't a voice. Not exactly. But it settled in Eve's mind as if it had always been there.
~Isari~
She blinked, breath catching.
Was it the Force? Was it the fox? Did it matter?
The name rang like wind through leaves, like the breath of an old story finally remembered. Eve whispered it aloud, lips barely moving.
"Isari..."
The fox didn't flinch. She only watched, calm and unblinking, before stepping back. Not far — just enough to remind Eve that nothing sacred is ever taken. It must be chosen. Again. And again.
And then, Isari vanished into the silver light.
