Morning came without ceremony.
No signs.
No sense of crossing anything important.
Kael welcomed that.
He rose before the others, standing at the edge of the stream and watching the water move.
Lira joined him quietly.
"You're not thinking about numbers anymore," she said.
Kael felt the truth of it.
I'm thinking about direction.
They packed and moved on, leaving the stream exactly as they found it.
The land shifted slowly as they walked.
Less open.
More shaped.
Low stone walls appeared, broken but intentional.
Traces of people who once marked space—and then left it.
Kael slowed near one wall.
He touched the stone briefly.
Not in memory.
In acknowledgment.
Lira felt it through the bond.
"You don't feel responsible for this place," she said.
Kael nodded.
It isn't asking anything.
They passed through without stopping.
By midday, clouds gathered overhead—not threatening, just present.
Sera looked up.
"It feels like a normal day," she said.
Jon smiled faintly.
"I forgot what those felt like."
Kael felt the meaning settle.
Normal wasn't empty.
It was steady.
They rested briefly beneath a tree bent by years of wind.
Kael sat first.
Lira joined him.
The others followed.
The pattern remained—quiet, unforced.
Lira leaned back, eyes closed.
"Kael… if nothing happens today…"
He felt her thought before she finished.
Then that is something happening.
She smiled.
They stood and continued.
No new danger appeared.
No call reached out.
The world did not demand attention.
And for the first time in a long while—
That felt like progress.
Because change that lasts rarely announces itself.
It arrives as another day that simply continues
And continues—
And continues.