Lucy touched her arm. "We all did."
Emma exhaled. "It tried to enter with the dawn steam, only we named it."
Jude put a hand on Grace's shoulder. "Stay with me. Speak your memory: what did you see?"
Grace exhaled again and spoke softly: "It looked like my reflection in water, but as I spoke my name, its face changed. The edges blurred. It stepped away."
"When I spoke your name, it lost shape," Lucy said. "That's our strength."
Jude looked at them. "We have three more nodes to mark. Let's go. Climb together."
They resumed, stepping close, no one more than arms' length apart. The trail grew steeper. Occasionally they found fungus rings, carvings in bark, spiral fractures in stone. At each, they paused to reapply offerings and pledge again.
They reached the ridge as the sun leaned toward midday. Beneath them lay the volcanic crater, rim blazing hot above living magma. A deep humming echoed beneath their feet. The island's heart.
