Hearth’s call reached the lower shelf through the wall.
The lantern glass trembled first. Then the iron collar beneath Iven’s hand gave a low answering vibration, too faint to hear except where the metal touched his bones.
Sera stopped with the blunt probe above the living band.
“Light here.”
Dessa brought the lamp close.
Inside the opened seam, a narrow fold was moving. It lifted along one edge, strained against the old scar and fell back. Another movement followed deeper in, out of time with the first.
Iven held still.
They had waited days for a clearer response from this deeper pathway. Now that something had changed, the temptation was to help too quickly, to put a tool into the new gap before it closed. He knew the temptation by the way his own right hand wanted to reach.
