They began seeing Aurelia everywhere.
And nowhere.
Reports arrived out of sequence—some whispered, some shouted, some carved into rumor and fear. She had been spotted near the western crossings. No—she was at the river gorge at dawn. No—she had never left the plateau. No—she had crossed three borders in a single night.
All of them were wrong.
And that was the point.
Aurelia felt it as she moved through the high scrublands, her presence stretched thin across distance and expectation. The bond beneath her skin no longer anchored her to place. It moved with her—light, responsive, unwilling to settle.
She did not linger.
Lingering created patterns.
"They think you're splitting," Seris said quietly as they descended into a dry ravine. "As if you're more than one."
Aurelia almost smiled. "They're mistaking absence for multiplication."
Lio glanced over his shoulder. "That won't last. Someone will notice."
