Lira sat on the low stone edge of the chamber, her hands clasped tightly between her knees. The weight of her silence pressed more than her confession had. Kael stood in the center, the prism hovering behind him, still pulsing with the memory of a firelit smile and a kiss to the wrist.
He looked at her, eyes soft but uncertain.
"Why hide it?" he asked. "You could've shown me that shard the day we met."
"I didn't want you to look at me and remember something you were supposed to feel," she said, voice flat. "I wanted to earn it. Or not."
Kael frowned. "That doesn't make sense."
"It makes every kind of sense," she snapped, then softened. "If I handed you a memory like a script, how would you know if the feelings were real now—or just an echo?"
Kael crossed the room, then sat beside her. Their shoulders didn't touch, but the space between them felt thinner.
"I don't remember everything," he said.
"I know."
"But when I touched that shard… the feeling—that moment—it felt real. Present. Not just from a past life."
Lira turned her head, met his eyes.
"Maybe it is."
Neither of them looked away.
Kael spoke first, quieter now.
"I don't know who Rin really was. But I don't think I want to be him again."
Lira nodded slowly. "Then don't be. Be whoever you are now."
They sat there in silence. It wasn't peaceful. It wasn't perfect. But it was real.
And that was enough for the moment.
When they finally stood, they didn't speak of the shard again.
But something between them had changed.
Not fully spoken.
Not fully hidden.
Just like a memory.