As the breath-creatures rose from the lake, the entire basin reacted like a living lung exhaling its deepest layer.
The lake's surface sank in slow, glasslike ripples folding inward as if the world itself were bowing.
And beneath the retreating breath…
A shimmer.
At first, it was faint like a reflection pretending to be real.
Then the light sharpened into a clear outline.
A flower-shaped structure slowly revealed itself from the lakebed. The petals were arranged in perfect symmetry. It looked less like a crafted item and more like a thought the Eternal once held, crystallized into matter.
Its petals were white, yet not white. A tone between frost and moonlight. A hue that felt like the silence before a dream.
A pulse of Stillness radiated from its core.
Eirene inhaled sharply.
"So that's where it was hiding…" she whispered.
All the group stiffened.
"A treasure… in the middle of the lake?" someone breathed.
Lucien narrowed his eyes.
