"No."
"You speak as though Bellmere has already become home."
The word startles me with its accuracy. Home. Not a place I'm passing through. Not a temporary refuge. Home.
"I am staying," I say.
Ysoria studies my face in prolonged silence before nodding once. When she speaks again, her tone has shifted—less manipulative, almost genuinely concerned in a way that unsettles me more than her threats did.
"Then stop hesitating. If Orrick activates that bell during the festival, the resonance will travel far beyond Bellmere's borders. Nobles from Kantor will hear it. They will recognize the signature of your work in how the frequencies respond. They will come. Bellmere will become a battlefield, and you will have drawn the line yourself."
"Then we end this before it begins."
She leaves without farewell, her silks fading into the morning mist.
I make my way to the forge.
Roseth stands at the workbench,sleeves rolled, hair already escaping its braid. She looks up the moment I enter, as though she has been waiting.
"You found your book," she says. It is not a question.
"Yes."
She wipes her hands on a cloth and steps closer. "Good. Teach me."
No fear. No doubt. Only determination.
I open the book and lift two small bronze bells from the table.
"A frequency can counter another not when the resonance is stronger," I say, placing one bell in her hand, "but when the precision is exact. Two opposing waves at the perfect moment will collapse into silence instead of chaos."
I strike the bell and a warm tone fills the forge.
Roseth tilts her head, listening carefully to how the sound moves through the space, settles into the corners.
I nod toward the bell she holds. "Now."
Her strike comes a fraction too late. The tones clash, vibrating harshly through the table.
She winces. "That sounded wrong."
"It felt wrong," I correct gently. "Try again."
She inhales, listening to the fading echo in the air. This time her strike lands perfectly. The two tones fold into silence so complete it feels like the world pauses to breathe.
Her eyes widens. "They cancelled each other."
"Yes."
She laughs softly, astonished. "Again."
Hours pass unnoticed.
Roseth begins testing tones while I shape the resonance around them. Without discussing it, we fall into rhythm. Her hammer rises exactly when my magic gathers. My magic shifts the moment her metal sings. Every strike becomes a question. Every resonance becomes an answer.
At one point she taps the rim of a half-shaped bell and the tone wavers unpredictably. My magic responds instantly, stabilizing the vibration before I consciously decide to act.
Roseth blinks. "I didn't ask you to do that."
