“See?” Inelius murmured, voice pitched low as they stood just outside the chamber. “After that meeting, I’m more convinced than ever.”

  “I have to admit,” Elias replied. “I was a bit skeptical when you first told me, but I think you’re right—I saw it too.”

  “Yeah, I’ve been watching since Altina. The pattern is consistent.”

  Elias scratched his chin. “She has really seemed out of it, I’ve noticed her rubbing her temples a lot. If it’s getting to her that bad, we need to tell her what’s going on so we can figure out a way to make it stop.”

  Inelius looked back into the chamber. Soren and Tamiyo were still inside, it looked like they were idly chatting about something to one another. “Come on,” he told Elias. “Let’s grab them and catch up to Aura before she gets too far away.”

  Elias fell in step beside him as they crossed the chamber.

  “Soren. Tamiyo,” Inelius called out. “Walk with us. There’s something we need to discuss.”

  Soren looked at his translator then fell into step with them, Tamiyo close behind. His expression was alert but relaxed. “What’s going on?” he asked in his old-timey words.

  “We’ll explain on the way,” Inelius replied. “It’s… a bit unusual.”

  They moved through the outer walkway in silence for a moment, their footsteps a quiet cadence on the stone. The air was still heavy with the scent of jungle mist and incense from the mural chamber behind them. The city had quieted somewhat, midday bustle giving way to a softer rhythm.

  “Should we check her house first?” Elias offered. “She might’ve gone to cool off.”

  “No,” Soren said as soon as he read the translation. He turned his head slightly, eyes scanning the horizon before lifting his arm to point down one of the gently sloped paths leading toward the west. “She went that way.”

  There was a pause. Elias glanced at Inelius. Inelius gave the faintest nod. They kept their suspicions quiet.

  “Then let’s move,” Inelius said simply, leading them down the path.

  The trail toward the Reflection Terrace curved through a small alcove of flowering trees and low-humming crystal lights embedded into the surrounding stonework. The sound of water grew louder with each step, soft fountains and slow-dripping rivulets that cascaded down polished walls.

  “What’s this about?” Tamiyo asked curiously.

  “Inelius has a theory about Aurania’s headaches,” Elias said. “We need your help sorting it out.” He didn’t elaborate further.

  At the edge of the open terrace, framed by gentle ivy and the golden haze of the late afternoon light, stood Aurania.

  “Easy guys,” Tamiyo said as they caught sight of her. “Even from here I can see her body exhibiting indications of stress and pain.”

  Aurania didn’t turn as they approached, but Inelius could tell she knew they were there. Her hands rested loosely on the stone railing in front of her, shoulders rigid. She wasn’t emitting the anger she had been routinely portraying over the past several days. She just seemed exhausted.

  They stopped a few paces back.

  “What,” she barked at them in a hoarse growl.

  “We need to talk to you Aura,” Elias said gently.

  “Can it wait? My head feels like it’s splitting apart. Even the sound of your voices feels like someone is stomping on my skull.”

  “That’s… actually what we need to talk to you about,” Inelius said.

  She turned and glared at all of them. “It’s just stress and grief.”

  “I don’t think it is,” Inelius responded. He tried to keep his voice low so as to not cause her any extra discomfort.

  “You a doctor now, Inelius?” she spat at him. Now she was starting to emit some anger.

  “I am,” Elias said. “And I think he’s onto something.”

  Aurania sharply exhaled a breath out of her nostrils, but she leaned against a pillar and slid down to sit on the ground. “Fine, spit it out.”

  “I think…” Inelius began, “that Soren is causing your headaches.”

  “What?” Tamiyo said.

  “Ah-hah, heh, ow…” Aurania started an exhausted laugh but then winced in pain. “You better have more than that. I’m hardly in the mood to joke around.”

  “I’m not joking,” Inelius said.

  Soren caught up enough on his translator and looked around at them in confusion, but he stayed quiet for the moment.

  “When we first arrived in Altina, you barked at Soren to get moving because he was giving you a bigger headache than you already had,” Inelius told her.

  “Oh come on, that was just a figure of speech,” she bit back.

  “I think you were onto something more than you realized.”

  “And why is that?”

  “Because,” Inelius said. “You said more than a couple words—directly to Soren. You said something he should have needed to consult his translator to understand. But I watched him look at you and then respond without so much as glancing at the screen.”

  She glared up at him from where she was sitting but didn’t respond.

  “I thought maybe I just misinterpreted the situation at first,” Inelius continued. “But I kept an eye out from that point on, and I have seen consistent repeated examples. I haven’t seen him respond to anyone else without needing the translator, except Tamiyo of course, but that’s because she keeps using the same old words he understands. But with you,” he paused and looked at Soren, then back to Aurania. “With you, I’ve seen him respond multiple times without looking at that tablet, and each time you wince a little bit in pain.”

  “Aura,” Elias chimed in. “Would you say that your headaches are worse when Soren is around?”

  She looked like she didn’t want to admit it, but eventually she gave a reluctant nod.

  Soren leaned in and whispered something to Tamiyo.

  “Aww,” she said and looked back at him. Then she turned to the rest of them and said, “He doesn’t want to hurt Aura by talking since his voice is so unnaturally… boomy.”

  Aurania rolled her eyes.

  “But,” Tamiyo continued, “he wants to know when she first started experiencing the headaches.”

  Aurania grimaced from another bout of pain, then growled through her teeth, “After the first vision.”

  “First?” Elias said, raising his eyebrows.

  Aurania growled at them again. Then she took a deep breath and sighed before saying, “Yeah… I had another one last night.”

  Tamiyo and Soren glanced at each other.

  “Did it seem connected to the previous one?” Elias asked.

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  “I was seeing through his eyes again, ah—” she flinched in pain. “But it wasn’t recent. It seemed to be, from before he… transformed I guess.”

  The group exchanged glances.

  Inelius turned to Soren. “Have you noticed anything? It seems like there’s some sort of… mental link—I guess. But to what purpose?”

  Soren read the translation then whispered to Tamiyo.

  “He says that he feels like he’s slowly starting to understand what we’re saying more and more. But mainly when Aura speaks is when he feels like he can understand better.”

  Soren whispered to her again.

  “Also he apparently had the same dream as Aura last night,” Tamiyo relayed.

  Everyone turned and looked at Soren.

  Aurania flared out at him, “How do you know it was the same dream? I didn’t even say what I saw! Fuck—!” she quickly grabbed the side of her head, attempting to ease the pain.

  Soren whispered to Tamiyo.

  “I don’t think she’ll respond well to that,” Tamiyo told him.

  He shrugged at her, like he was urging Tamiyo to say it anyway.

  She looked at Aurania hesitantly and said, “He says maybe you should stop talking.”

  Aurania looked like she wanted to get mad but the pain was stopping her. Then she let out a small laugh, a noise more from stress than humor. She was starting to shake a little.

  “Elias,” Inelius said, “Do you have any theories about what is actually happening or how to fix it?”

  Elias rubbed his chin as he thought for several moments. “Well, some of this may just be speculation, but maybe Soren’s mind reached out when he was unconscious and grabbed onto Aura’s since she was nearby. And now his subconscious is using that link to pull language understanding out of her head. But there seems to be some bleedthrough which I guess is why Aura is seeing some of his memories. The link is a two-way street I guess.”

  “Interesting,” Inelius said. “Wait, why specifically Aura? He was lying unconscious for a while, why didn’t he link with anyone else? Tamiyo found him first, and then Elias was hanging out in there a lot monitoring him while he slept.”

  “Plus Riza, Violet, and Amalia,” Elias added in. “They all were there at one point or another standing guard over him.”

  Soren read the translation and whispered to Tamiyo.

  “None of them hit him in the face with a giant axe,” Tamiyo said.

  “So what?” Aurania exclaimed. “I try to kill him and he imprints on me like some AHhh—” she grabbed her head with both hands.

  Tamiyo giggled, and when they all looked at her, she glanced at Soren and muttered, “He’s like a baby duck.”

  Elias and Inelius choked back laughter.

  Tamiyo forced herself to stop smiling and said, “Ok I think I have an idea on maybe how we can help Aura.”

  “Awesome,” Elias said, “let’s hear it.”

  “Well,” Tamiyo said, “if he’s scraping pieces of language off your surface-level thoughts, then up until now, it has been unintentional. So it’s wild, unfiltered, like erratic neural current running all over the place. That’s why it’s painful.” She paused and looked around at them. “So let’s try giving the runaway current a proper conduit, maybe we can stabilize the connection now that we actually know about it.”

  Elias and Inelius looked at each other, then at Soren, and finally to Aurania.

  Aurania aggressively pointed at Soren and then feigned plugging her ears.

  Soren raised his hands up and pressed his palms against his ears, then looked away so he couldn’t read Aurania’s lips.

  “So what do we do?” Aurania muttered quietly. “Meditate? Stare into each other’s eyes?” She sounded very unamused by the situation.

  “It’s not like there’s a precedent for this kind of thing,” Elias said. “Let’s try one and then the other, unless anyone has any better ideas.”

  Inelius shook his head.

  Tamiyo was holding the translator tablet up so Soren could read it. She leaned around him to look at Elias and shook her head.

  “Alright, great,” Elias said.

  Tamiyo told Soren the plan and then pointed to a patch of open stone a few feet away, shaded by the terrace overhang and still warm from the day’s sun. “There,” she said. “Sit down. Both of you. Quietly. Just try to focus on… existing near each other without flaring up the connection. I’ll monitor your vitals.”

  Soren walked over and calmly sat down cross-legged. He placed his hands on his knees and sat with a straight posture, but not stiff.

  Inelius helped Aurania to her feet and she walked over to where Soren was sitting. She stared at him for a beat before letting out a sigh like she was surrendering to the dumbest idea anyone had ever spoken aloud. Then she dropped down aggressively across from him.

  Inelius observed as Tamiyo’s electric blue eyes faintly pulsed a couple times, blinking slightly brighter. She seemed to be accessing some sort of internal diagnostic. “Why did you come to Owangara seeking medical scanners again?” he asked her curiously.

  “I can monitor basic vitals with what I have installed,” she answered him. “Blood pressure, BPM, things like that. I can’t do any x-rays or MRI or anything.” She kept her eyes on her two patients as she answered him. “Okay you two. Close your eyes. Slow your breathing. Don’t think at each other, just think around each other. Focus on the mental link.”

  They both shut their eyes. Silence fell, broken only by the gentle splash of water nearby and the distant rustle of jungle canopy.

  A minute passed. Then another.

  Tamiyo frowned.

  Inelius tilted his head slightly. “Anything?”

  “Some minor fluctuations,” she said. “But nothing irregular. Nothing seems to be getting worse, at least.”

  “I feel dumb,” Aurania muttered without opening her eyes. “I’ve meditated plenty of times before, even meditated alongside others, but at the end of the day, meditation is about internal reflection. I don’t know how to literally connect to another person’s mind.”

  Inelius watched them closely. Soren’s lips twitched like he almost understood what she had said. Aurania didn’t cry out in pain after speaking.

  “Okay,” Tamiyo said. “New approach. Open your eyes.”

  Aurania cracked one eye open. “Seriously?”

  Tamiyo nodded. “Eye contact might create stronger resonance. We know he’s been responding to her words. If her face, her tone, her emotions are the source of the pattern, then that might strengthen the link just enough to give it shape.”

  Aurania sighed heavily, but she opened both eyes anyway.

  Soren mirrored her.

  They stared. Harder than necessary. Inelius wasn’t sure but it looked like they both might have been blushing. Or fighting against blushing. Aurania’s jaw was clenched.

  Tamiyo leaned forward. “Okay, now try saying something simple. Something Soren might understand.”

  Aurania’s eye twitched. “Like what?” she said to Tamiyo but kept her eyes on Soren. Then she focused back on him and said quietly, “Sorry, I’m not trying to be impatient.”

  “It’s ok, you’re just in pain,” Soren responded. Not only did he respond, he didn’t use ancient Terr-English to do it.

  Everyone froze.

  Tamiyo’s eyes quickly lit up a couple times.

  Aurania blinked. Her shoulders dropped a fraction. The tension in her jaw slackened.

  “He understood?” Elias asked with amazement in his voice. “Wait no, he didn’t just understand you, did you hear how he responded?!”

  Aurania was intently focused on Soren, it looked like she was analyzing him. Her head tilted slightly.

  “How are you feeling?” Tamiyo asked.

  Aurania’s eyes stayed locked on Soren’s, albeit with a stern expression. “The pain isn’t as intense.”

  “Your body seems less stressed,” Tamiyo said. “Whatever just happened, it helped. Try saying something else.”

  Aurania furrowed her brow a bit in concentration. “Your eyes are insane… The color is this strange green, but there’s silver in there too. And I keep seeing gold as well but I can’t seem to get my eyes to focus on it.” Her tone sounded analytical, but there was an undeniable hint of awe underneath it.

  Tamiyo giggled a bit.

  “Did he understand it?” Elias asked.

  Inelius saw some sort of exchange pass between the two of them. He thought he saw Soren blush a little.

  Aurania broke eye contact and made a tch sound with her mouth. She grinned and started to stand up. “Yeah he understood it. I wasn’t flirting with you, Little Boy.”

  Soren’s mouth opened like he might say something, but no sound came out. His face flushed slightly and he looked away from her.

  Aurania ignored it. “So where do we go from here? Do we need to do this every day?”

  Inelius watched her carefully, then turned his gaze to Soren. “We may not be able to sever the connection. But if we can stabilize it… that might be enough.”

  Elias nodded. “Short sessions. Controlled space. With any luck, it’ll keep getting easier from here.”

  Aurania blew out a breath through her nose, then shifted her eyes down at Soren, staring over the bridge of her nose. “Alright. Fine. But if I start leaking black goo or speaking in riddles, I’m blaming all of you.”

  Tamiyo grinned and turned her eye-scanners off. “Deal.”

  Soren gave a polite nod.

  As the group began to move out of the Reflection Terrace, Inelius handed the translator tablet to Soren, still sitting on the ground. He helped him back to his feet, almost getting pulled down in the process.

  For a brief moment, it was just the two of them, the others already drifting ahead.

  “You alright?” Inelius asked.

  Soren nodded after a second. “Yeah. Just… something feels different.”

  Inelius gave a sidelong glance. “Different how?”

  Soren’s gaze flicked forward. Aurania was several steps ahead, walking with that same controlled grace. He looked away quickly. “…I think I just really looked at her for the first time,” Soren said. “Not as the person who chained me up or tried to kill me.”

  He hesitated, searching for the right words. “She’s still… intense. But now I’m noticing other things about her. It caught me off guard.” He rubbed the back of his neck.

  “Hell Soren,” Inelius said, “you caught all of us off guard. Maybe it’s a good thing at least one of us can do it to you too.”

  “Yeah,” Soren responded quietly. “Maybe.” The giant man sounded lost in thought, and his gaze drifted ahead toward the woman who’d just called him Little Boy.