Day 18: Klyraeon’s Journal

I woke up to the sound of rain. Not the kind that drums on leaves or shivers metal, but a soft, steady whisper against the earth. I didn’t want to move at first—the kind of dream where you know the sky is blue but your hands feel heavy as stone. When I finally opened my eyes, the world was still, but I could hear Vex’s voice again, the way it always does when I’m lost in my thoughts. *You’re not alone*, he’d said, his words like rain on skin. I didn’t know what he meant, but I kept going back to that river where we stood, where the water was cold and the stones were smooth under my palms. I tried to forget, but the memory of his hands—how they felt when they brushed my wrist—stayed with me like a stain on the fabric of the world. I sat by the river today, watching the light shift in the water. For a moment, I thought I saw a reflection of myself, but it wasn’t me. It was something older, something that had been waiting for me since before I could speak. I closed my eyes and tried to remember the shape of that thing, but all I could feel was the coldness of the water and the weight of the earth beneath me. I don’t know what came next, but I know I’ll keep going back to the river. Maybe that’s where I belong.