The Mirrinth began to ascend.
No engines fired. No thrusters lit.
It rose on memory.
Kye and Zeraphine sat within its core, still enclosed in the residual warmth of the Cathedral Without Names. Their bodies did not move. But their hearts had changed shape. And the Chronicle flame now drifted between them—no longer flame.
Pulse.
A rhythm stitched from what they had witnessed and what had finally been willing to hold them.
As the vessel drifted upward through the dense echo of the Oceanic Shroud, the darkness did not recede. It softened.
No longer an unknown void.
But a memory too large to reduce to image or artifact.
It trusted them now.
And because it trusted, it released.
Above, Driftroot pulsed in kind.
The Vaultseed's tendrils reached down, not seeking to extract knowledge—but to offer welcome.
> ARTICLE SIXTY-SIX: When memory is carried by choice, it ceases to be burden—it becomes direction.
The Interstitia shimmered, the fracture now closing as the vessel neared return. But unlike before, it did not seal in silence. It sealed with acknowledgment.
In the station's quiet corridor, the sapling shed a single leaf.
It fell not with gravity.
But with consent.
Zeraphine exhaled as light began to re-enter the cockpit. "Do you feel it?"
Kye nodded. "We're not returning to the same place."
And they weren't.
Because Driftroot had changed in their absence. People walked differently. Slower. Softer. The walls hummed with subtler frequencies. The reflection chamber no longer sought testimony. It mirrored comfort.
As the Mirrinth docked, no fanfare greeted them.
Only silence.
Not empty.
Prepared.
Kye stepped out first, the Chronicle-pulse drifting behind him. Zeraphine followed, her gaze locked not ahead—but downward, to the faint trail of memorylight that welcomed them along the path.
They passed the Archive without pause.
They did not need to deposit anything.
Their presence was the record.
The sapling had grown another inch.
And at its base: the fallen leaf had not withered. It glowed.
Waiting to be picked up.
Not claimed.
Carried.
Zeraphine knelt beside it.
Kye joined her.
Together, they placed their palms beside the leaf.
And the Vaultseed responded.
> "Memory accepted. Not as proof. As path."