The fire had burned low.
Soft embers pulsed in the hearth like a sleeping heart.
Cira didn't move from where she sat across from Elian—legs crossed, hands wrapped loosely around a lukewarm mug she hadn't touched. The air in the cottage felt… thin, like even the walls were listening.
Elian leaned forward, elbows on his knees, gaze fixed on the floorboards.
Neither spoke for a long while.
When he finally broke the silence, his voice was quiet, more human now, but edged with something fragile.
"I only remember two things," he said, eyes still down. "My name. And a sentence."
Cira's fingers tightened slightly on the mug, but she kept her voice steady. "What sentence?"
He paused. Then looked up at her—not in challenge, but in need.
Something about that look made her breath catch.
He spoke the words slowly, like he was still trying to understand them himself.
"The stars forget, but the forest remembers."
A beat passed.
The fire cracked.
Lumen's head snapped up.
The stardust fox, who had been lounging on the windowsill half-asleep, now sat alert—ears perked sharply forward, eyes narrowed, glowing faintly.
Cira noticed instantly.
She turned to glance at him.
"Lumen?"
He didn't look at her.
His gaze was fixed on Elian. Still. Intense. Unblinking.
Almost like… recognition.
Elian shifted uncomfortably under the fox's stare.
"What's with him?" he asked, managing a half-laugh that didn't sound entirely at ease.
Cira didn't answer at first. Her eyes were still on Lumen, trying to read what had changed in that small, sudden moment.
"…He reacts to magic sometimes," she said finally. "Or memory. I'm not sure which that was."
Lumen's ears slowly lowered again, but his tail curled around his paws a little tighter than before.
Cira leaned back slightly, letting that settle between them. She glanced once more at the fox, then back to Elian.
"Did you remember that sentence after you woke up?" she asked.
"No." His gaze flicked to the window, where morning light was just beginning to touch the rim of the trees. "I remembered it before. When I opened my eyes in the forest. That was all I had."
She nodded slowly, choosing her next words carefully.
"Does it scare you?" she asked. "Not remembering anything else?"
He was silent again.
Then, softly: "Yes. But not as much as the feeling that… someone might be looking for me."
She raised an eyebrow. "And you don't want them to find you?"
"I don't know." His expression flickered. "I think it depends on who they are."
Cira crossed her arms and looked at him for a long moment.
"That mark on your chest," she asked, keeping her tone casual, "it doesn't hurt?"
"No," he said. "But it's warm sometimes. Like it wakes before I do."
Cira blinked. "That's… not normal."
He smiled faintly. "Nothing about me feels normal."
She didn't return the smile. But her voice softened. "I don't think I've ever met anyone who truly is."
The silence after that wasn't uncomfortable. It was the kind that came after something honest.
Elian shifted, slowly swinging his legs off the couch to try and sit up straighter. Cira moved instinctively, ready to catch him if he stumbled—but he held himself steady, jaw tightening against the weakness.
"I should go," he said suddenly.
Cira narrowed her eyes. "Where?"
He looked around as if realizing, just now, that he didn't have an answer.
"…I don't know."
"Well then," she said, standing, "until you do, you're not going anywhere. You can't even stand without wobbling."
"I'm not wobbling," he muttered.
She raised an eyebrow. "Lumen?"
The fox made a very small, judgmental snort.
Elian sighed and sank back against the cushions in defeat.
Cira crossed her arms and looked at him for a long moment. Then she said, more quietly:
"You're safe here. For now."
He looked at her again—like he wanted to believe that. Maybe even did.
But just as she turned toward the kettle to finally make the tea she'd forgotten, he said one more thing. Almost too softly to hear.
"Someone said that to me once. That I was safe."
She turned her head.
His voice was hollow now.
"They lied."
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