#night!))

He stops past the threshold, eyes sweeping over the bare dais. The old basin tucked against the far wall, the cracked font.

It doesn’t look like a place where names are born.

Not yet.

But Rain said it would be enough.

He said they could build something new here. That this was the perfect place - a chapel held in stasis, the space itself still becoming, too.

How poetic.

Dew’s ears twitch at the sound of soft, assured footsteps and the gentle swish of layered linen. He catches a familiar scent: lotus, honeyed tea, and that old, mineral brine that always rises around Rain before he gets all holy. Like seawater from a dream.

Rain comes to stand beside him, glow warm at the edges, eyes unreadable.

“You’re making a face,” he says gently.

Dew snorts. “I’m not.”

“You are,” Rain hums. “You’ve got your ‘what if I mess up the sacred geometry and everyone dies’ face on.”

“That’s not a real face.”

“It’s very real,” Rain says, brushing a hand lightly down Dew’s spine as he passes. “I know because I kissed it last night.”

Dew huffs and grabs a broom to give his hands something to do. The old pews are gone, hauled out for restoration or rot, some vague reason no one ever fully explained.

The space should feel empty…

But it doesn’t.

There’s something suspended in the air, like the chapel is holding its breath.

Rain stands barefoot at the center, eyes closed, turning slow in place like he’s listening to something only he can hear. A shallow bowl rests in his hands - offerings and intentions not yet spoken.

A pouch with volcanic ash. Another with crushed sea-glass. Three stones Dew had chosen with quiet, aching precision.

One bone-white, like his horns. One riverworn, veined with gold. One the color of old fire, fragile and full of hope.

He doesn’t know why he chose them. Just that he did.

He watches Rain turn again and squints.

“You good?”

Rain lifts one hand, moving with the light, the draft, the subtle hum of the floor beneath him.

“Oh yeah,” Rain says at last, voice faraway. “This feels right.”

Dew raises an eyebrow. “You mean acoustics? Ventilation? Something useful?”

Rain smiles, eyes still shut. “For you.”

“Of course,” Dew exhales.

Rain opens his eyes slowly and crouches, setting the bowl down with care before pressing one hand flat to the stone. His fingers splay wide as he begins to trace the first arc of the spiral, drawn from memory, from instinct, from the pulse that’s guided him since the beginning.

Dew leans closer, voice low.

“So,” he murmurs, gaze dropping to Rain’s hand. “Where do you want me?”

Rain glances up, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

“I can think of a few answers to that.”

“Rain.”

He shrugs, innocent as sin. “What? I’m just imagining the after. When you'll lay me out and I get to show you what your new name sounds like when it's screamed.”

Dew’s face burns hotter than the incense will. “That’s not very holy of you.”

“It is from where I’m standing,” Rain says sweetly, passing him a folded cloth and a bowl of water laced with mint and juniper.

“Center first. Work outward.”

Dew’s eyes flick to the bowl. Then to Rain's lips. Then back to his hands, which is… worse.

He decides to settle on looking at the faint marks already pressed into the stone - shapes made of memory, patience, and love.

He traces one with his foot, like it might hold him together.

His voice is quieter now. Almost hesitant.

“…This is where it’s all gonna happen, huh?” His voice drops. “Again.”

He digs the toe of his boot into the floor with something like resignation. “At least it’s fireproof.”

Rain doesn’t pretend not to know what he means.

“No,” he says. “This is where it will be made right.”

Dew swallows and reaches out, just a little, and brushes his fingers over the little riverstone from Mountain’s basket. Doesn’t look directly at Rain when he speaks.

“Okay.”

He takes a steadying breath and they begin as they've done everything since Copia took over the Ministry.

Together.

Dew dips the cloth first, then hands it off, watching as Rain moves with that quiet, bone-deep certainty he always seems to wear before a ceremony.

The old dust lifts easily under their hands. The air shifts warmer.

And when Dew’s knuckles brush Rain’s, he half expects a pause. But Rain doesn’t pull away.

Neither does he.

They fall into an easy rhythm.

Rain takes the salt next, fingers careful, more than just ritual. A beginning and an end. A now and a forever.

Dew works the space between each line he leaves behind, cloth tracing the spiral that’s slowly taking shape beneath their joined effort.

His own breath falls into the rhythm of it. A prayer without shape - its own kind of remembering.

They’ve done this before.

Not exactly like this, not with the morning sun catching the edges of Rain’s curls, or with the bond humming steady between them like a second pulse. Not with Dew’s hair still damp from the shower they shared. Not with this much softness left unspoken.

But the motion is familiar.

Wiping shame from between the bricks. Laughing about seafoam husks and Swiss’s emergency oyster stash. Learning how to reach for each other.

“Isn’t this… weird?” Dew asks suddenly, cloth dragging lazy circles through the last bit of dust.

Rain raises an eyebrow without looking up. “Cleaning?”

“Yeah. Like. Preparing your own ritual space. Shouldn’t there be a staff for this?”

“There is,” Rain says. “It’s us.”

“Oh, great,” Dew chuffs. “So the great salt clan healer is also the head custodian?”

“And quartermaster. And chore wheel enforcer. Don’t forget that one.”

Dew mutters, “And a fuckin’ comedian,” just under his breath before he rolls his eyes, fond despite himself. “You gonna cleanse the east quadrant or just flirt with me all morning?”

Rain reaches for the bowl. “I will do both, thank you.”

He gives Dew a look. Slow, smug, and entirely pleased with himself. The kind that says I always do what I want. Especially when it comes to you.

Dew huffs, but there’s no real heat to it. He leans back on his heels, cloth still in hand, and watches the way Rain moves like he’s listening to something deeper. Not just the echo of memory, but the shape of what’s to come.

Rain dips his cloth again, drawing slow spirals from the center outward. Dew follows, wiping just behind, movements overlapping like tide and undertow.

The scent of lotus and juniper rises on the air, curling with ash and cold stone, lingering like the last breath before prayer.

Eventually, Dew sets his cloth down and reaches into his pocket.

“Brought something,” he says, a little awkward, like he’s not sure it matters.

Rain looks over and watches as Dew opens his palm to reveal a small stone - dark grey, veined with a pale spiral like a fossilized current.

“Found it yesterday,” Dew murmurs. “By the koi pond. Just… kinda caught my eye.”

Rain steps closer, gaze soft. “She showed it to you.”

Dew nods, slower this time. Still watching the stone like he’s waiting for it to stop meaning something.

“Felt like it was supposed to be for me,” he says. Then shrugs, half-defensive. “For this. Maybe.”

Rain doesn’t press. Just reaches out, lets his fingers brush Dew’s gently.

“It’s perfect,” he says.

He knows Dew feels the rest through the bond.

You’re perfect. It’s beautiful. You’re beautiful.

I’m so proud of you.

Dew breathes in and nods once more. Slips the stone back into his pocket, the tension easing. A ripple of faith hums through the current between them, small and steady.

They move next to the basin, old, wide, and carved from blackened stone. Smaller than the others, but it still takes both of them to lift it from the alcove.

Rain braces the base. Dew finds the grip near the edge and lifts with a quiet grunt.

“You’ve gotten stronger,” Rain notes.

“Didn’t want to pull anything during my own rite.”

“Mmm. Practical and hot.”

Dew rolls his eyes but doesn’t let go.

They carry it together, slow and steady, and place it just left of center, angled slightly toward where Rain will stand.

It’s not symmetrical, and it's certainly not traditional.

But it’s exactly where it needs to be.

Dew kneels beside it and runs his fingers over the rim.

“It’s not just for the water,” he says quietly. “Is it?”

Rain shakes his head. “No. It’s for memory. For what you bring forward. What you carry.”

Dew takes the stone from his pocket and turns it over in his palm. It feels right, then. Like a pull he can’t explain. He places it inside, lets it ring gently against the basin floor.

“Ready?” Rain asks.

“Yeah,” Dew says. “Let’s do it.”

Rain dips two fingers into the bowl of ash. His thumb follows in an old motion, a gesture worn into him by years of ceremony. He touches them to the center of Dew’s forehead, between his horns.

It’s quick, but Dew feels it settle something in his chest.

“For presence,” Rain murmurs.

Dew lets his eyes flutter shut and his breath soften. The bond thrums warm between them as Rain draws the same sigil over his own heart.

Then he takes a shell - his favorite, the one with the opal streak - and loads it with the first pinch of ash.

Dew adds the ground sea glass. Rain stirs once.

He tilts the shell, letting the mixture fall in a slow, controlled spill onto the stone. It lands in a gentle curve. And then another.

A slow spiral begins to unfurl from the center, around the basin, around the offerings, until the space between them is marked and alive.

“Clockwise,” Dew says quietly, like he’s just now understanding why. He watches Rain trace another arc.

Rain glances up, not pausing. “Of course. We’re welcoming change. Welcoming you, whole and aligned.”

Dew huffs softly. “That’s… thoughtful.”

Rain looks up at him, faintly amused. Like it should be obvious.

“Of course it is,” he says. “It’s for you.”

He hands Dew the shell, gentle as ever.

“Your turn.”

Dew hesitates before he dips two fingers into the ash like Rain did. When he tips the shell, the powder doesn’t pour in a perfect line, but it moves. Flows.

“Good,” Rain murmurs. “Let it follow your hand.”

Dew swallows. Can’t quite hide the tremor as he tries to mirror Rain’s pretty curves.

“You don’t have to make it perfect,” Rain says softly, head tilted. “It’s not about that. It’s about love. It's about your intent.”

Dew pauses at that. Like maybe that was the difference all along.

“The last time, it was…” He shakes his head. “Not good.”

Rain looks up. “It wasn’t your fault.”

“Yeah. I know that now. But I’m…” He gestures vaguely. “Still kind of a mess… just with more decorative flair.”

“You’re my favorite mess,” Rain murmurs. “Especially when you sparkle.”

Dew flicks a pinch of salt at him. Rain sticks out his tongue. Laughter curls between them for a moment and they both grin before settling back into the work.

They move slowly around the room, Rain drawing the outer arcs, Dew shaping the channels between. The lines aren’t symmetrical, but they sing.

The room begins to feel different. Like whatever was waiting has started to lean in.

At the final mark, Rain reaches for Dew’s hand and presses it to the floor with his own.

“Nael surin,” he whispers, sealing the invocation.

“Nael surin,” Dew echoes quietly.

The spiral pulses faintly, just once, before fading into stillness.

⋆⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺⋆

Dew’s just wiped the last smudge of ash from his fingers when the door creaks open.

He startles slightly, half-rises from where he’s kneeling, but it’s only Aether, balancing a wide tray in both hands.

Dew catches the scent before the door even finishes closing: lentil stew, roasted meat, fresh bread still warm beneath a folded cloth.

“Peace offering,” Aether says, voice light but steady. “You two have been in here for hours. Thought you might want something warm.”

Dew is… speechless.

Not because he’s upset… but because it’s Aether.

Standing in the doorway with his hands full and his heart open, offering care like it’s the most natural thing in the world.

But the frayed bond doesn’t lie. It says: I'm here.

And Dew's not sure what to do with that. Not yet.

Rain rises first, stepping in to take the tray with a grateful nod. “Perfect timing. I was just about to start chewing on the cleansing salts.”

“Please don’t,” Aether deadpans. “I don't think that's in the infirmary book.”

Dew huffs a surprised laugh.

Aether turns to him then, more carefully. More gently.

“The space is shaping up beautifully,” he says. “Really. It feels right.”

Dew doesn’t look up. Just nods once, tight, thumb pressing slow into the soft place between his knuckles.

“Still got a lot to do,” he mumbles. “But… yeah. Thanks.”

“I know.” Aether’s gaze softens. “And I mean it.”

He doesn’t stay long. Enough to nudge Rain into sitting down, to joke that no one is allowed to light any braziers without supervision, and to leave two small jars of Mountain’s newest batch of wine beside the tray.

“For later,” he says with a half-knowing smile.

Rain nods once. Dew watches him go.

He doesn’t realize how hungry he is until Rain tears the bread in half and presses it into his palm.

“Eat,” Rain says. “You’ll need your strength, flicker.”

The food is good. Shockingly good, for something that came out of the Ministry kitchens instead of the den.

Rain tears another piece of bread and soaks it in the stew, watching Dew across the rim of his bowl. Dew’s already flushed, cheeks pink from exertion or emotion or both, hair beginning to come loose from its tie.

“You’ve got salt on your neck,” Rain murmurs, voice gone low.

“You put it there.”

“Mm. Let me get it, then.”

Dew doesn’t flinch when Rain leans in. Tilts his head slightly in offering, unconscious and instinctive.

Rain’s fingers brush his jaw and then slide down, tracing slow over the salt‑dusted skin at his throat.

He pauses there.

Close enough now that Dew can feel his breath, warm and steady. Rain’s fingertips barely brush his pulse which jumps immediately beneath his touch.

“Your heart always does that,” he murmurs. “When I touch you here.”

Dew swallows. “You gonna make it worse?”

Rain’s thumb presses firm once, his smile wicked and fond all at once. “Not yet.”

“Coward,” Dew breathes.

Rain’s about to reply - something that would definitely get at least half the spiral redrawn -

“If you were planning to get frisky,” Mountain grunts from the threshold, “you could’ve at least warned me. I don't need to walk in on that again.”

Dew startles and then squints.

Because Mountain is completely obscured by what appears to be… an entire garden.

His arms are overflowing with pale blue delphinium, soft ferns, brilliant orange fire lilies, long trailing vines, and a whole armful of lucerna blooms, still glowing faintly like they were just plucked from beside the lake.

“You’re kidding,” Dew says flatly.

“These’re just the first three bundles.”

Mountain trudges forward and drops the armful at the foot of the altar stairs.

“I’ve got six more outside. And don’t even ask what I had to trade for the feverfew. You owe me for that one.”

Dew stares at the pile.

Rain just nods, voice softer than usual.

“I know. Thank you.”

Mountain grunts, but his gaze lingers on the spiral, the basin, the filtered light slanting through the rafters.

“It’s gonna be good,” he says. “Feels like it already.”

Rain hums in agreement. “It will be.”

Mountain heads back out, muttering something about “fern bruising” and how he’s “not responsible for the aesthetic if anyone messes up the orchids.”

Dew watches him go and then huffs, pushing to his feet and brushing crumbs from his thighs.

“That’s a lot of flowers, Rain.”

“It is,” Rain says gently, standing with him.

“I’ve got this. Go.”

“Go where?”

Rain nods toward the hall. “Down to the lake. Just for a bit.”

Dew frowns, but Rain’s hand settles light at the small of his back.

“The water will want to see you,” he says softly. “Go listen.”

“You’ll be alright with… all this?”

“Mountain’s pretty tall. I think we’ll manage.”

He hesitates. His mouth twitches like he wants to say more, something real, something raw - but instead he clears his throat.

“Besides… weird to prep your own ceremony, right?” He bumps Dew’s elbow gently. “Let us spoil you for once.”

Dew softens. “You do. All the time.”

Rain smiles, cups Dew’s cheek with his hand. “Then don’t stop me now.”

Dew hesitates and then nods once, quiet.

“Alright, ripple. See you later.”

Rain watches him go with a little wave and a hum of affection before turning back to assess the space.

The door swishes open again, followed by the creak of boots and the bright, unmistakable scent of wisteria.

“Mountain,” he says with quiet certainty.

“We’re going to need the big ladder.”

⋆⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺⋆

The path to the lake is quiet in a way that makes Dew feel like he’s walking through memory.

The trees seem taller than he remembers. The undergrowth less tangled.

Maybe it’s the season.

Maybe it’s him.

The grass softens underfoot as he nears the shore, and the air shifts. Cooler, salt-laced, and soft with the kind of silence that remembers everything he’s tried to forget.

When the lake comes into view, he stops.

Stands there and watches the glass surface looking right back at him.

No breeze, no ripples. Just a pale blue expanse edged in reeds and old stone. A few pale petals drift along the top - lucerna blossoms, drifted down from Mountain’s arms. One has half-sunk already. The others cling, barely afloat.

Memory curls at the edges of his mind like smoke. Like the fire that gutted him, wild and aimless, the last time he stood here alone.

Dew swallows thick.

He doesn't want to think about that right now.

Instead, he takes a cautious step closer.

Then another.

Stops at the edge.

There’s no voice that rises to greet him. No pulse in the water. No whisper in the back of his mind.

Just the sound of his own breath.

I should say something, he thinks. Or… kneel? Offer something?

He digs the toe of his boot into the ground.

It's easier to be here with Rain.

What did Rain say that time in the chapel? What does it mean to listen to water?

He frowns.

There’s no handbook for this.

He spent so long cutting himself off.

He boiled it away. Shoved it down. Told himself water was never meant for him - hell, he was even born wrong. What kind of water ghoul doesn't have a sea-song?

Water was an imbalance to be corrected - and now, standing here with his heart open and his hands empty…

He realizes he doesn’t know how to ask for forgiveness.

Or even how to begin.

The last time he was here, he was shouting. Screaming, really.

At the lake.

At the moon.

At himself.

And now… he’s quiet. Doesn’t know how to start, or what to say.

He thinks of Rain, of course. The way Rain always begins.

Bare feet, bare skin, bare soul. Dew has watched him kneel here before, shedding his layers like old names.

So he tries to be an echo, instead of making a wave.

He shrugs off his clothes one piece at a time. Not because it feels right, or because he suddenly knows what he’s doing, but because he’s seen Rain do this before. Soft fingers, slow movements. Reverent hands treating cloth like skin, and skin like scripture.

Start with silence, he thinks. Start with being still. Like the lake.

His clothes fold soft in his hands. He sets them aside on a flat stone near the bank, breath held like it might shatter if he lets it go.

He hesitates.

The air feels different now - like the moment is waiting for him to decide. Like the lake is watching.

Like his body might disappear if he moves wrong.

But he wants to be brave. To be worthy.

So he steps forward anyway.

The water is cool when it touches his toes.

He wades out knee-deep, and then a little more.

Stops in his tracks because he doesn’t know what comes next.

Should I speak?

Should I kneel?

Should I wait?

His hands hover at his sides like they’re expecting instructions.

He looks down at the water. At his own reflection. At the ripples he’s made.

Nothing answers.

No pulse. No glow. No voice inside saying yes, that’s right.

Just the water.

Just him.

Dew’s jaw tightens.

It shouldn’t be this fucking hard, he thinks, and instantly hates himself for it.

Because it’s not the water’s fault. Or Rain’s. Or anyone’s.

It’s that…

He doesn’t know how to be a proper water ghoul. He doesn’t know how to be himself when all he’s ever been told is what he isn’t, and what he should be.

His fists clench.

You should be better than this by now.

You should know what to do. How to ask -

And then -

Something shifts inside him and soothes the edges of self-loathing.

He remembers Rain’s voice, cutting through a panic spiral he will definitely deny ever having.

‘You don’t have to do it like I do.’

He closes his eyes.

‘You don’t have to be me, flicker. You just have to be you.’

He breathes in deep through his nose and lets it go; unfurls his fingers and lets the tension go with them.

He hovers one hand over the surface, then dips. Cradles the water in the scoop of his palm - this precious life force, the very thing he’s spent a lifetime running from.

What he can't wait to go home to.

He takes a deep breath and lifts, letting it pour down over his head, cold and clean.

“I don’t know what I’m doing,” he whispers. “But I’m here.”

He pours another handful of water over himself.

“If you’ll have me.”

The lake stays quiet, like it’s considering him.

He waits.

And waits.

Dew swallows and starts to shift - maybe this was foolish, maybe he asked for too much. His lungs grow tighter by the second - and then he feels it.

The water stirs.

Small ripples bloom across the surface, brushing his skin.

The reeds rustle. A gentle breeze moves through them, threading cool against his face.

He tilts his chin up - and a single drop of water falls from the empty sky. Lands right between his brows.

Dew startles.

Laughs a little, wet and breathless.

“Okay,” he says softly, smiling through the tears.

“Okay.”

He lingers a little longer after the last ripple fades, that soft drop between his brows like a kiss.

The lake stays quiet, but he doesn’t press it.

Just steps back toward the shore, the water tugging gently at his ankles.

It doesn’t hold him back, but it does nudge him forward.

Reminds him that he is more than just seen.

He breathes deep, eyes closed,

and lets the sun warm his back as he dresses again. Everything smells faintly of lotus and lakewater and fresh grass.

He slips his shirt back over his shoulders and tips his head when he hears his phone buzzing impatiently in the grass like it’s got divine timing, too.

rainy 🌊: come back to the room when you’re ready

The text is simple. Casual, even, in a way Rain only ever is with Dew.

But he reads it three times anyways before smiling and tucking the phone away.

⋆⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺⋆

The room is quiet when Dew opens the door, the only light the slow spill of golden sun across the floor.

Rain has draped soft silks across the walls - blue, flame-gold, dusk-washed gray. Rain's desk fountain rumbles low and steady, and petals float in bowls of water in each of the room’s corners.

Dew takes one breath, then another, his eyes sweeping the room before landing on Rain.

He’s barefoot, seated cross-legged on the edge of a woven mat, dressed in loose ceremonial linen that clings damp to his skin - like the way Dew’s dreamed since the blood moon. The waist chain glints beneath the delicate fabric, and Dew fights not to start praying on sight.

Rain lifts his eyes and smiles, soft and sure.

“Welcome home.”

Dew doesn’t trust his voice right away. He crosses the space and drops to his knees in front of him, one hand resting light on Rain’s thigh.

“I didn’t know what I was doing,” he murmurs.

Rain’s knuckles brush along his jaw. “And yet…”

Dew’s lips twitch with the ghost of a smile. “The lake didn’t drown me.”

“No,” Rain says. “She never would.”

Dew leans in and Rain meets him halfway.

The kiss is unhurried. Familiar. Rain’s fingers sliding behind Dew’s neck, anchoring him like always.

Dew sighs into it, presses closer. Lets himself be drawn into the hush of it, the knowing.

When they part, foreheads pressed together, Rain’s voice drops low.

“What do you need, beloved?”

Dew’s breath catches. He knows Rain knows. But still - he likes being asked. He wants to say it. Wants to be claimed.

“I need…” His voice wavers. “I need your hands on me.”

Rain hums as Dew presses his cheek into his palm.

“I need to feel like I’m real. Like I'm yours.” Dew whispers. “Like I’ll still be yours tomorrow.”

Rain exhales slowly. One hand stays cupping Dew’s cheek. The other finds his waist, warm and sure.

“You are,” he says. “You always have been.”

Dew kisses him for that, all open and desperate and ready - and Rain receives it like a vow. His fingers tighten and his body tilts, drawing Dew close and closer, until the line between offering and invocation blurs into breath, into heat, into sacred gravity.

When Rain shifts them, it’s gentle. Purposeful.

Dew on his back. Rain over him. Linen slipping loose between them like the last veil before worship.

He presses a kiss to Dew’s throat and whispers, steady as prayer.

“Tonight, I’ll worship the ghoul you are.

And tomorrow, when you're whole, you’ll let me kneel for the god you become.”

⋆⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺⋆

The first thing Dew hears is water.

Not loud or crashing. Just the soft hush of it - like an inhale. Like prayer. Lapping gently at the edge of something vast.

Then there's warmth, heavy and sure, curling along his back. A pulse at his spine. A hand on his waist.

He doesn’t open his eyes yet.

Rain’s breath ghosts over his shoulder, slow and even with a little catch at the top like he’s chasing the last edges of sleep.

One leg is hooked between Dew’s thighs, their bodies twined like threads pulled tight through a loom.

Dew stays still. Listens.

He's not dreaming, at least not anymore. But the moment feels strange - balanced on a ledge between silence and significance.

No footsteps in the corridor. No pounding bells.

Just warmth. Just quiet. Just Rain.

And the weight of what comes next.

There’s a shift behind him, and then gentle lips brush his horn, right where it meets his skull.

“Still breathing?” Rain murmurs.

Dew hums, voice rough. “Barely.”

Rain presses closer and tightens his arm around Dew’s waist.

Dew threads their fingers together beneath the covers. Rain’s palm settles over his belly and the quiet returns. Not the brittle kind, but the kind that feels like a promise. Like waiting.

Like something is about to change forever, and maybe that's exactly the right step.

Dew’s tail flicks slow and unhurried beneath the sheets.

But then it happens. That stutter in his breath. The one he thought he’d left behind at the lake. The small knot that forms in his chest like a pressure front.

Rain feels it.

“Hey,” he murmurs. “You with me?”

Dew nods, faint. “Yeah. Just…” He swallows. “It’s weird. Waking up without noise. Without someone shouting. Or needing me. Or telling me it’s time.”

Rain kisses behind his ear.

“Maybe that’s the point,” he says softly. “Today, you get to decide.”

Dew lets that settle for a moment.

“That feels good,” he whispers.

“Good,” Rain hums. “It should.”

Outside, the Ministry is stirring. Pipes creak. Boots click against the far corridor. Someone’s making tea down the hall. But here, the world hasn’t turned yet.

“You don’t have to get up,” Rain says. “We’ve got time.”

“I know.” He pauses. “Just… nervous.”

Rain doesn’t try to chase it away. “That’s okay.”

Dew closes his eyes. “Didn’t think I’d get to do this again. Not properly. Not after -”

He exhales, the words catching.

The bond hums gently in his chest.

Rain leans forward, lips brushing the back of his neck.

“This time is different.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Because I’ve got you?”

Rain smiles against his skin. “Because I’ve got you.”

—

Eventually Rain shifts, easing his leg free and pressing one more kiss to Dew’s shoulder - soft and certain.

“Stay,” he murmurs. “I’ll start the bath.”

Dew groans low. Instinctively tries to follow. “I can -”

“You’ll stay,” Rain says again, firmer now.

It’s not a command. But it isn’t a suggestion, either.

Dew huffs and slumps back, muscles still heavy with sleep, something warm fluttering behind his ribs as Rain rises from the bed - bare, radiant, and beautiful in a way that hours of worship still can’t make feel real.

The soft stretch of his back, the silver glint of his waist chain catching in the light, the lazy sway of his tail. Unhurried and utterly unconcerned with being watched.

A living invocation in the half-light.

He lets himself drift in the memory of the night prior, Rain's love working its way into every place he once held shame, disappointment and failure, all of it now bleeding into overwhelming joy.

His fingers dance along the edge of his sleepwarm waistband, memory bright on his tongue. Rain had helped him dress again after - soft fabric and softer hands, folding and soothing until Dew stopped shaking.

He’s not ashamed, not exactly. Just… not done yet.

He won't be able to say that anymore, not after today. Because the rite will be finished. It's either that, or an alternative he can't bear to name.

He tries not to dwell in the fear - just in the warmth. The being held. He lets his fingertips slip under the waistband and he sighs, playing Rain's voice in his head.

Breathe, beloved.

Take it all.

Let me fill you so full you forget what it felt like to doubt.

Heat flares low in his belly before dissolving into something softer - his pulse steadying, the ache in his chest easing like tide over stone.

He knows the bath is ready the moment he looks up and finds Rain leaning in the doorway of the en-suite, gently clearing his throat.

“Come,” he says. “Let me ready you.”

Dew stands, but there’s a moment, just one, where his hands fidget at the hem of his borrowed sleep shirt, a flicker of nerves catching in his throat.

Rain sees it, of course, crossing the room before Dew can speak, hands settling on his hips.

“Let me,” Rain murmurs, and lifts the shirt away.

There’s no hunger in it. No haste.

He folds the cloth neatly and sets it aside. Trails his fingers lightly along Dew’s waist.

“You’re beautiful,” Rain says. Just like that. Like it’s fact. Like it’s always been true.

Rain steps behind him and begins to unlace the ties of Dew’s sleep pants and lets them fall. Dew steps out of them quietly and lets Rain guide him to the tub.

Steam rises in slow ribbons from the water, mingling with the early morning light. The scent is soft: juniper, cedar, and faintly lotus sweet. Rain has added just enough oil to make the surface shimmer faintly, like moonlight on a still tide.

Dew breathes deep, lets the scent curl through his lungs as Rain helps him step in.

Rain follows after. Brushes one palm over Dew’s shoulder, then lifts his hands to cup water and pour it down the length of his back, again and again.

Each pass a blessing.

“For the body that carried you this far,” Rain whispers.

Another pour.

“For the heart that stayed soft through fire.”

Another.

“For the soul that found its own way.”

He kisses Dew's head before he reaches for a soft cloth and begins to wash.

He starts at Dew’s strong shoulders, knotted with tension. Works slowly down his arms, brushing over old scars and new. Washes the curve of his back, the line of his ribs.

When he reaches Dew’s hands, he pauses to take them each in turn. Kisses every knuckle before rinsing his fingers clean.

Dew doesn’t speak. Just watches him, chest rising and falling, throat tight with something he can’t name.

When Rain finishes, he presses a kiss to Dew’s brow.

“You are loved. For all that you have been, and all that you will be.”

Rain shifts to move behind him, fingers running through his hair. He gathers oil on his fingertips and works it through, roots to ends.

Dew’s knees draw up slowly beneath the water as Rain works. He folds his arms across them, chin resting lightly on his knees. His tail floats behind him, pale and lazy beneath the surface, half-curled around Rain.

He watches the steam drift from the surface and lets the water bead along his skin. Listens to his own heartbeat ticking away gently beneath it all.

It takes a minute before he finds his voice.

“…It’s going to hurt.”

Rain tilts his head, voice gentle.

“It will.”

Dew breathes deep through his nose.

“The last time -”

His voice catches, jaw tightens. “It all happened so fast. No one told me what it would feel like. What could happen. And then you -”

The words come out more strained this time.

“It hurt so bad. Like my entire soul was burning out. And it all just... kept going.”

Rain doesn’t interrupt. Doesn’t flinch.

“I thought maybe I deserved it,” Dew says quietly. “For wanting too much.”

“You didn’t fail,” Rain says, steady. “The rite did. And you certainly didn't want too much.”

Dew finally looks at him. His eyes are glassy, trying not to be ashamed.

“It’s stupid,” he says. “I want it so bad. But I’m scared.”

“That’s not stupid,” Rain says, steady as anything.

Dew blinks hard. Like he doesn’t quite believe him. Like he’s trying to will the tears back into his eyes.

Rain reaches for his cheek and brushes a knuckle down the damp skin.

“You’re allowed to want this. And you’re allowed to be afraid.”

He takes Dew’s hand and lifts it gently, kisses the back.

“You’re not doing it alone this time.”

“I know.”

“I’ll carry it with you.”

Dew closes his eyes.

Lets it settle.

Lets it be true.

—

The towel Rain wraps him in is thick and soft, warm from the hearth. He presses it to Dew’s shoulders, his chest, his back - slow and certain, tending something sacred.

“Lift your arms,” Rain murmurs, and Dew does.

He lets Rain dry him without protest. Tries not to shiver when fingers pass behind his ears, down the curve of his neck, around the arch of his tail. Not that he’s not cold, only overwhelmed by how different it feels this time.

Rain helps him into the vestments next.

They’re simpler than he imagined: pale linen, soft as breeze, dyed with seawater and flame. They float when he moves, no fastenings or extra weight, just loose lines that flow and dance all at once.

The fabric slides over his skin with a whisper. The ribbon that ties at his waist was cut from Rain’s summoning cloth, a deep blue, nearly black, with a shimmer when it catches the light.

Rain ties it with careful hands.

“It’ll burn clean,” he says softly. “When your fire comes through. It won’t cling.”

Dew nods. His throat tightens. “And when the water wakes?”

Rain’s smile is soft. “It’ll bloom.”

Dew exhales a shaky breath and smiles back.

Rain guides him to the stool near the window next. Morning light spills across the sill where a shallow basket waits. Inside are shells and twine, beads in water-blue and fire-red, and three pale lucerna blossoms.

“Sit,” Rain says gently.

Dew does.

Rain stands behind him, fingers already moving. He parts Dew’s long white hair with water-slick palms, and begins to braid, threading memory and intention into every loop.

Dew’s eyes slip closed.

He feels each addition like a prayer pressed to his skin. A shell for strength. A blue bead for memory.

A red one for mercy.

When Rain finishes, he ties it off with ribbon, the same shade as the one at Dew’s waist, and leans in to press a kiss to the crown of his head.

The flowers come last.

One tucked behind his ear. The other two worked into the braid itself, where they gleam softly like stars on the horizon.

When Rain steps around to face him, Dew’s heart stutters once behind his ribs.

He’s not just being looked at.

He’s being recognized - by someone who has loved him across lifetimes,

and will keep choosing him. Again, and again, and again.

Rain’s holding one last thing: the riverbell.

Small and old, polished to a soft gleam.

The one Dew left behind. The one he saw on Rain’s shelf that first night.

The one Rain kept like it mattered.

Dew’s breath catches.

“You’re giving it back?”

Rain nods.

“I thought about it for a long time,” he murmurs. “It felt like… part of you. When I found it. And I wasn’t ready to let it go.”

He lifts Dew’s hand and ties the bell gently around his wrist with the last piece of silk ribbon.

“But it was never mine to keep.”

Dew stares down at it, lips parted, heart thudding.

“Rain -”

“It doesn’t have to protect you,” Rain says softly. “Just remind you.”

He reaches out to adjust the flower behind Dew’s ear.

“You belong. You always have.”

—

Rain is reaching for his jewelry chest when Dew steps closer.

“Wait,” he says softly. “Let me.”

Rain pauses.

Dew lifts the necklace first - a silver chain smoothed by time, strung with three sea-washed shells and a single drop of obsidian that catches the light like flame. There’s a tiny kink near the clasp, barely noticeable unless you’re close enough to know it.

He brushes Rain’s curls aside and fastens it at the nape of his neck, hands lingering for a moment longer than necessary. The metal is warmer than he expects.

He’s seen it before, remembers the way it glinted on Rain’s chest the night of the blood moon.

“It looks like it belongs with you,” Dew murmurs.

Rain tilts his head, a faint cerulean glow flickering beneath his skin. “It does. My mother gave it to me when I took my vows. It’s old.”

“Feels right,” Dew says. “Like it’s supposed to be here.”

Next comes the shawl, light linen traced with thread the color of wet stone, embroidered with faint sigils of wave and tide. Dew smooths it over Rain’s chest, fingers brushing fabric that’s known prayer, smoke, salt, and blood.

When he looks up, Rain is watching him - the kind of steady that could hold open a sky.

Dew’s gaze slips lower. Down the line of his throat, his arms, his hands. Long fingers, elegant wrists, each ring a perfect fit.

He lifts one hand and turns it gently in his own. Feels his calluses, soft skin, the strength beneath it all. One ring is carved with river glyphs. Another he’s seen many times before - a snake eating its tail, its eyes glinting like they could see right through him. The third curls around Rain’s pinky like a wave cresting just before it breaks.

He hadn’t known what they meant, that night. He’d only known he couldn’t look away.

“You wore these too,” Dew murmurs, brushing his thumb over one band. “When you were blessing everyone.”

Rain nods, voice low. “I always wear them for rites. For focus and clarity.”

“They feel like you,” Dew says. And Rain’s glow hums a little brighter.

Dew’s hands drift higher, to Rain’s horns.

The cuffs are twisted silver, delicate and spiraled, inlaid with pale shell the color of bone.

His fingers hover. “Can I?”

Rain tilts his head in offering.

Dew touches the horn cuff gently, fingertips tracing the wide band. His thumb brushes the smooth curve, following the faint etching and inlays - waves and stars, sigils that echo the proud marking on the side of Rain’s neck.

“This has your clan marking on it,” he says quietly.

Rain exhales, soft. “We wear them to remember where we come from.”

Dew stills.

Rain has always worn his lineage with quiet pride. The marks, the metal, the memory of where he came from. And Dew… spent a long time trying to forget his.

Rain reaches up slowly and unclasps one. Holds it in both hands for a beat, like it’s something holy. Then slips it gently onto Dew’s left horn.

“But home isn’t where I come from,” he says quietly. “It’s wherever I'm with you.”

The cuff settles snug.

Dew’s hand rises to touch the curve of it, where the metal meets bone.

“I’m home now, too,” he says.

Rain nods, eyes full.

And Dew, finally, believes it.

Which is probably why the sight of Rain standing there, half-dressed and radiant, hits like a punch to the gut.

His gaze drops lower. Beneath the loose drape of linen to the waist chain still looped low around Rain’s hips - same one he wore last night. And this morning.

Dew knows because he spent more time than he’d admit staring at it, glowing faint in the candlelight while Rain was above him.

Delicate, but not fragile. No sigils. No inherited weight. Just smooth silver links, finely wrought, with a small, gentle twist at the clasp that gleams when Rain moves.

“You wore that the night of the blood moon too,” Dew says.

Rain hums. “I did.”

“Does it mean anything?”

Rain shrugs. “Just that I like it.”

Dew huffs softly. “It makes me want to drop to my knees.”

Rain chokes on a laugh and swats his arm, glowing pink from throat to cheekbone.

“Don’t you dare, we have a schedule.”

Dew lets his fingers drift beside the clasp and then under the chain, slow and teasing.

“It’s messed up how good this thing looks on you.”

“Dew -”

“I’m just saying,” he murmurs, “if you keep wearing it, I’m not responsible for anything that happens.”

Rain’s voice is a little strained now. “I’ll wear it again after the rite. Every day, if it makes you look at me like this.”

Dew’s grin sharpens.

“Good,” he says. “Don’t take it off.”

“You’re incorrigible,” Rain murmurs, lips brushing Dew’s temple.

“Yeah,” Dew says, all wicked promise. “And I bet I’ll only get worse.”

He doesn’t know what to do with all the feeling in his chest, so he reaches - fingers sliding from the chain to Rain’s hand, needing something steady.

Rain lets him take it. Twines their fingers together.

The riverbell at Dew’s wrist chimes soft and low between them, louder when Dew leans in.

Their lips touch like a secret passed between waves - an anchor of shared breath and the gentle pulse of a well-sated bond.

When Dew pulls back he stands on his toes and presses their foreheads together, warmth blooming in the space between them.

Once, he’d have flinched at being this known. Now, he breathes through it. Can't get enough.

“I love you,” he says. “So much it scares me sometimes.”

Rain smiles like the sun and kisses him back.

“I love you, too.”

⋆⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺⋆

The wind shifts first.

It sweeps low through the glade, tugging at the reeds along the water’s edge. The leaves rustle in answer, branches bowing as if to bear witness. The lake stills before it shudders, the surface breaking in perfect silence.

A large shape emerges from the shallows, rippling with light. He rises slowly, like he's slept too long, footsteps silent on the shore. Two more follow in his wake. One carved of quiet thunder. The other trailing a veil of river fog that clings to the shore.

The lake kisses their ankles as they wade from her embrace, trailing silver over skin, pressing blessings to their heels. She hid them in her depths like sacred stones. And now, with the dignity of tides and the swell of something holy, she gives them back to the world.

The forest has waited too. In her marrow, the very roots remember. Moss stirs, and ivy binds itself tight around stone like a vow unbroken. Vines part for footfalls softened by exile, firm with return. Branches arch to open the path, patient and sure.

Two more walk among the roots. One with a smile on his lips and dirt at his collar. The other steady as bedrock, crowned in green. Wildflowers bloom where he steps, as if the earth had been holding its breath, waiting for their return.

And last, a change in pressure. A ripple at the foot of the Abbey where shadow kisses stone. There's a brief, crackling seam of light and then a figure steps through.

Like he’s always been there, just beneath knowing. Just beyond reach.

His coat is unfastened, collar soft. He looks like a truth your dreaming mind knows, but your waking self forgets.

He moves like he only half-remembers how, too tall on this side. Pauses before climbing the Abbey stairs, a recognition too deep for the senses.

The rest are coming.

They all felt it beneath their skin, a pulse through the old threads. A signal.

Safe.

The others cross the garden without speaking, the path rising to meet them. Stones shift beneath their feet in quiet recognition. Fountains rise taller, clearer. Blossoms tilt toward them as they pass, petals unfurling like prayers.

The grounds bloom with memory - light drawn to what it once knew.

When they reach the stairs, they gather.

One tilts his head, eyes on the stained-glass dome above. Another breathes deep, as if the wind might still carry incense, burnt offerings, time. The youngest of them, if such a thing can be said, adjusts his sleeves with trembling fingers.

The others don’t speak but as they draw close, one squeezes his shoulder. Another taps a knuckle lightly against his wrist. A rhythm long unspoken, but never forgotten.

They ascend together, called by the same thread.

And as the doors open to receive them, the Ministry itself seems to inhale.

Dew was not the only one who was waiting to come home.

⋆⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺⋆

He walks beside Rain down the quiet corridor, their shoulders brushing now and then. Each step feels deliberate. Alive.

His vestments whisper around his ankles, the pale linen made to move like water and burn like paper. The ribbon at his waist glimmers with each shift of light and the riverbell at his wrist chimes lightly with every step.

As they near the west chapel, the scent begins to change.

Lucerna. Heliotrope. Smoke. Then something brighter - honeysuckle and wisteria, feverfew and fern.

Dew breathes it in. “That’s new.”

Rain’s smile is faint.

“It’s all for you.”

They pause outside the chapel doors. Rain waits quietly as Dew leans slightly toward the nearest window, peeking through the stained glass to the room beyond.

The chapel glows with life. Not just light - life.

Dew had helped scrub the floors. He’d drawn the first salt spirals, laid the first bowls. But this… this is something else entirely.

The air around them hums like breath held in a holy chest, waiting.

Inside, the braziers glow with emberlight. Dew’s breath catches when he sees the full spiral at last - beginning at the central basin and unfurling in arcs of salt across the floor. It’s more intricate than he realized - fluid and intentional. Not just decoration, but invocation. Patterns within patterns, a path unfolding.

He looks up and sees wisteria trailing from the carved rafters, blossoms higher than should be possible. Lucerna blooms glow on every ledge, their white petals blushed pink at the center.

The fire-aligned offerings are there too, of course. Tiger lily, saffron crocus, blooming silverthorn, all tucked into stone basins around the room’s edge, for balance.

For welcome.

Dew stares, breath caught behind his ribs.

“It’s so much more than before,” he whispers.

Rain’s glow softens, bright at his cheeks. “You’re worth doing it right.”

Dew reaches for Rain’s hand and holds on. His gaze sweeps the space again, taking in the light, the warmth, the detail carved from devotion. Then back down to their joined hands.

“This doesn’t look a thing like your sketchbook.”

Rain huffs a quiet laugh, cheeks flushing brighter. “Yeah, well. I never claimed to be an artist.”

Dew snorts, the moment catching in his throat.

Rain squeezes his hand, and then he lets go.

“Ready?”

Dew nods, slow and steady.

“Yeah,” he says, quietly. “I think I am.”

The door creaks open and the scent hits first, followed by the silence. It's the kind of hush that falls only when something important is about to begin.

Dew steps through the door and the world stops.

Everyone is here. The west chapel is full.

Clergy in deep robes, ghouls in vestments of every element. Some have painted their faces, some bear old sigils across their shoulders. A few wear nothing ceremonial at all but have offerings tucked behind their horns or twined into their hair.

The Siblings of Sin stand near the front, silent and bright-eyed, each holding a single flower. No two are alike. The scent of them curls beneath the incense smoke.

And all of them, every single one of them, is turned toward the door.

Dew steps further in, and for a moment, the whole chapel exhales, a soft swell of warmth. As though everyone here had been holding something in their chest, waiting for him to arrive, and now -

Now, it can be released.

Rain’s hand slips into his, squeezes his fingers once.

“Just breathe,” Rain murmurs.

Dew does exactly that.

Smells salt. Smoke. Lucerna petals. Fern.

The flowers the Siblings hold are for him. The fire blooms along the walls. The wisteria overhead.

Every radiant, glowing, deliberate thing in this room was placed because someone believed he’d make it to this moment.

And he did.

Rain tugs him gently forward and they walk up the aisle together, the riverbell chiming soft with every step.

Dew lifts his gaze, takes in all the faces as he walks past.

On one side of the aisle is his pack.

Swiss gives him a wink, eyes bright. Mountain nods once, steady as ever. Mist presses her hand to her heart and Aether beams so hard it looks like he might burst. Cirrus, Cumulus, and Sunshine stand in perfect line, like priestesses from an older age, each one radiant in her own way. Ifrit and Zephyr are grinning too, hand in hand.

Even Delta is here, tucked into the shadows near a pillar, robes ink-dark and watchful, the weight of history gathered around them like a second skin. They incline their head as he passes, just slightly - but Dew feels it like a benediction.

His eyes catch on a group near the front. He knows them. Not by face, but by story.

The one carved of stone, jaw set like an oath. The one haloed in moss and root, hands folded over his stomach. The one with laughter just barely held behind his teeth. The one wreathed in mist. The one who walks with riverlight in his bones.

And the one swallowed by shadows, spoken of in warnings and wonder both.

Dew’s breath catches. He holds his gaze a beat longer than he should before he focuses back on the path.

The spirals narrow now, each coil leading toward the central basin, waiting in welcome. And there, just off to the side, stands Cardinal Copia.

He wears his red cloak loose over dark vestments, his glasses slightly askew as always. But his hands - his hands are steady. Clasped around something small and silver.

His expression flickers - between pride, grief, and something like awe.

Dew falters when he sees him. Just a hitch in his step. But Copia doesn’t look away.

As Dew draws close, Copia takes one careful step forward. He reaches for Dew’s hands and places the chain there - a simple grucifix, warm from his touch. The edges softened by time, the center stone a worn citrine.

“Mi ragazzo,” he murmurs, voice low and warm. “You are coming home. Let this protect you on the journey.”

He leans in and kisses Dew’s cheek, lets their hands rest together for a moment longer.

“I failed you once,” he murmurs. “Not today.”

Dew clutches the grucifix tight in his fist and gives Copia a small nod, throat too tight to speak.

When Copia steps back, folding into the crowd, Dew carries the gift forward, Rain's hand gentle on the small of his back.

The basin before him ripples. Somewhere across the chamber, a candle hisses as it drinks in building intention, the room humming with presence.

He closes his eyes, just for a moment.

It’s not like before.

There’s no buzzing in his skull. No manipulation of his own desires. No cold fingers pressing him down to stone and saying stay still, don’t resist, just let it happen.

There’s no cage here.

Only warmth.

Only Rain’s glow flickering steady beside him.

Only water and flame, the soft creak of the room, and the shift in the air like a tide pulling back before a wave.

And his pack of course. All of them.

Here because they want to be.

Here because they believe.

He opens his eyes and lets his breath settle and then he’s kneeling beside the basin, head bowed as he waits for Rain to begin.

Just beyond, Copia stands still - watching not as clergy, not as leader, but as penitent witness. He bows his head when Dew kneels.

Rain steps forward.

His glow has shifted - white and a pale, rippling gold, like lightning seen from underwater.

He stands at the edge of the central spiral, hands open at his sides. No book or script. Just memory and will, intention and love.

When he speaks, his voice is soft, but it carries.

“Let all gathered here bear witness.”

Rain’s hands lift, fingers splayed, open to the altar, the circle, the tide that lives between them.

“This vessel kneels by choice. The current does not drag him. The flame does not demand him. He is not taken, and he is not lost. He returns.”

The spirals shiver like a tide shifting directions.

“This is not erasure,” he says. “It is a homecoming.”

His gaze finds Dew’s.

“This is not the fire that burned you. This is the fire that tempers you.”

The flames in the braziers respond, flaring once and then softening, curling low and reverent.

“This is not the water that drowned you.

This is the water that will carry you home.”

A hum moves through the circle as the water begins to move within the basin.

Rain’s voice drops low now, just for Dew.

“Be not afraid, as I am with you wherever you go.”

Dew takes a deep, shuddering breath as he stands. His hands clench, then unfurl - like wings, like surrender.

Rain waits, steady.

And with one more breath, one more heartbeat, Dew steps into the basin.

Rain's voice rises once more, filling the chapel.

“Child of fire and flood. Vessel of dual nature. Flame-forged and water-born. Who do you become?”

A pulse travels through the spiral.

The braziers flare and the water bowls ripple. The ash gleams faintly, as if kissed by moonlight.

Dew’s fingertips twitch as heat gathers beneath his skin. At his ankles, the water wakes, drawn toward him.

He swallows.

Rain takes another step closer.

“You are not a mistake,” he says.

Another step.

“You are a vessel. A bond. A name not yet spoken.”

The room tightens with attention as Rain lifts his hand.

“Speak it, if you know it. Or wait, if you don’t. The elements will not rush you, and neither will I.”

Dew takes a slow breath and nods, just barely. He closes his eyes and steps inward, into the dark with hope shaped like the grucifix clenched tight in his hands.

Everything else falls away.

The scent of offerings. The warmth of Rain’s voice. The soft rustle of petals and silk.

Gone.

All that remains is pulse.

One beat.

Then another.

Steady. Present. Alive.

It echoes through him - in his chest, down his spine. In his palms, and in the hollow behind his ribs where fear used to live.

The darkness inside him isn’t frightening anymore.

It no longer feels like a void. Or a cage.

It’s a hearth.

Low and waiting, banked coals glowing beneath ash. A place meant to hold heat, not be destroyed by it.

And something is waiting there.

The first voice that rises from that warmth is deep and resonant like iron drawn from a forge and set singing. Masculine and familiar. A voice that once knew rage, now tempered into purpose.

Anger made holy.

“Come home,” it says.

The words don’t push or pull, but they open.

Dew’s fingers twitch.

Flame gathers at his fingertips, small and bright and deliberate, licking along his skin like it recognizes him. Heat blooms up his arm as he lifts his right hand toward the unseen sky, toward whatever waits beyond the veil of breath and bone.

And still… he hesitates.

His chest tightens, enough to remember. Enough for the fear to bleed through.

What if it’s too much?

What if the fire consumes me again?

The memory flashes: pain without shape, heat without mercy - a burning that never asked if he was ready.

What if I’m… not enough?

The flames flicker, barely enough to be seen.

Another voice breaks through.

Softer now. Older and wiser. Feminine, but vast - like the sea speaking through its daughters.

It flows around him like cool hands on a fevered brow, like river-light behind closed eyes.

“Come home,” it whispers.

The water rises higher, swirling around his calves, gentle and unwavering. Holds him like kin, like memory, like the water could never forget what was once carved from her depths.

Dew lifts his left hand. A bead of water curls in his palm, glimmering with the shimmer of tears and tide.

It doesn’t scald him. Doesn’t knock the breath from his lungs or sear through him like it used to when he tried to fit a shape that was never his.

When he mistook pain for proof.

This is different, no longer a performance.

This is a revelation.

The water waits, patient as the moon that listens for the tides.

For the first time, he reaches without fear. Not out of obligation, not to appease anyone else -

But because he wants to.

The water and flame rise together.

His ember pulses in his throat, flaring bright and widening like a gate. He breathes in and the voices speak as one.

Dual-toned. Overlapping.

Real.

A voice layered like mirrored current. One flame, one flood. Whole, in a way his throat was never allowed to be.

“You know who you are,” they say. “Embrace it.”

His throat tightens.

He knows.

This is it. The moment before.

Flame and water are converging in every limb, every breath, every bone.

His fingertips blaze - one hand dripping heat, the other trailing ripples. His knees tremble, his heart pounds.

This is the convergence.

Not the rupture they feared. Not the mistake they buried. But the rising truth, written in prophecy - waiting.

Waiting for him.

Something’s about to fracture. He doesn’t know if it’ll be his skin, or his voice, or his heart.

When I speak my name, he thinks, the world will hear me.

Not the broken version they forced him to carry. Not the shape carved by fear.

But the self that’s always waited beneath the surface.

And yet he’s still afraid.

Of what it might feel like. Of what he might lose. Of whether his body can survive it.

The water does not recoil. The flame does not punish. Instead, they rise to meet him, exactly where he is.

His fear spikes again - quiet, but sharp beneath his ribs. A flicker of what if I can’t hold it?

The links wake in response, threads stirring one by one, drawn not by ritual but by love. A warmth behind his sternum like stars flaring into place.

Rain comes through first. Then Mountain, quiet and immense. Mist and Swiss. Cirrus, Sunshine, and Cumulus. Ifrit and Zephyr, a sharp bolt of glee.

Each one flaring bright, steadying him without pulling. All saying the same.

And finally, a quiet echo. Once lost, now blooming. A familiar violet tug.

Aether, joining the chorus.

We’re here.

He opens his eyes.

The spiral lines begin to glow, curling out from the basin like living script. They spread across the stone in gentle arcs, lighting the chapel from within.

Rain is waiting for him, standing just beyond the spiral, glowing gold at the edges. But he doesn’t reach or guide.

He just witnesses, lets Dew breathe through it at his own pace.

Dew stands tall in the basin, water lapping at his ankles, warming with every breath. His hair clings to his spine. His hands shake.

But slowly, slowly, he curls each hand until two fingers remain extended.

Right hand to the sky.

Left hand to the earth.

A single gesture. A sacred lock.

His body becomes the bridge - between flame and flood, above and below. The invocation made flesh.

Rain breathes in, glow flickering.

“Speak your name.”

For a moment, everything stills. Even his breath.

The threads stay lit. The pack holds steady.

He doesn’t have to search for it. His name is already there - rising from the place he’s kept hidden even from himself.

The pressure uncoils in his chest. The ache in his throat splits open like spring ice. And from within it, another soft and steady truth blooms -

What he’s always known.

Who he’s always been.

Finally, finally allowed to take form.

“My name,” he says, voice low and trembling -

“My name is Dewdrop.”

⋆⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺⋆

As soon as the words leave his lips, the air fractures.

The brazier flames flare white-hot and then bow, all of them, tipping toward the basin and the ghoul within it.

The water rises to greet him, too. Quiet at first, then trembling with heat, bubbling in welcome, steam wreathing his hips as fire meets water.

Dewdrop’s back arches with a sharp cry as his bond-mark sears bright with completion. A radiant seal pulsing like a second heart catching its rhythm at last, glowing in time with the name still ringing in the air.

Then come the breaks.

His shoulders snap back and his spine twists, once - twice - before locking into new alignment, cracking like thunder down the length of him.

His scars along his ribs and neck pulse once, then split with molten light.

They rise into whorled ridges, each one glowing at the seams, gleaming wet and raw, carved for breath and release. The gill-vents unfurl like the mouth of a shell, steam hissing into the air like a creature exhaling its first breath.

A relic reawakened.

A body remade to match the soul it carries.

His throat clicks, once, then again, where no second voice box ever lived. An absence he learned to carry.

But now, the ember at the base of his throat flares bright before it splits.

One stays nestled where it’s lived since the first ceremony, right at the base of his throat. The other drifts higher, settling right where a second larynx might’ve formed.

It pulses once - bright, then it steadies.

A beacon.

Not the twin-toned call of riverborn kin,

but something quieter. More deliberate.

A lantern in the deep.

Light gathers around it now, subtle and sure, threading outward from the ember like veins beneath the skin.

A way to speak without sound. A way to shine when silence would once have swallowed him.

A way to be understood, even in the dark.

His tail floods with light next, luminescence searing down the length of it like a vow set alight. When it flicks, twin trails of steam and flame curl skyward - divine incense rising from the altar of his body.

A prayer made visible. A blessing in motion.

He gasps once, then again, deeper.

The air feels different now. Not just inside his lungs, but within him. Like something has settled.

Like his body finally fits.

The ache he’s carried for so long begins to loosen, uncoiling from his spine, from his ribs, from each and every place where only pain was known.

He's not just breathing.

He is becoming - he has become.

And when the weight of all of it finally catches up to his body, he folds.

He crashes forward, bracing against the rim of the basin, one hand outstretched toward Rain, trembling, reaching -

Rain rushes forward, paying no mind to the lines they’d spent hours laying the day before.

He kneels, one hand pressing firm to his shoulder.

“It is done,” he says, voice thick with awe. Presses his forehead to his temple.

“Welcome home,” he whispers. “My Dewdrop.”

The chamber doesn’t erupt in noise, but it exhales in unison - like the Ministry itself had been holding its breath for this.

Aether bows his head. Swiss touches the fire agate in his pocket. Mist presses a hand to her chest.

Even the ghouls long thought gone - they kneel. They kneel in recognition of the shift, the change, the new order of the Ministry, and the miracle they all bore witness to.

It’s a soft kind of silence.

The whole room holding him now.

His chest rises and falls in quiet gasps, struggling to grasp the new hum that fills his bones.

He’s not burning. He’s not drowning.

He’s everything, all at once.

And more than anything, he can say that he’s happy.

One trembling hand rises to his face. He feels the tears there and doesn’t bother to wipe them away.

Rain is still kneeling before him, hand still steady on his shoulder.

He looks up, eyes wide - amber flaring at the center, blue at the edges.

Open in a way he’s never been.

His voice breaks when he speaks.

“Will you…” He swallows, throat sore. “Will you say it again?”

Rain smiles as he lifts a hand to cup his cheek.

“Dewdrop,” he says, reverent and sure.

“My Dewdrop.”

The name rings through him like a song.

It’s always been there. Always been his.

But now it belongs.

A sob escapes before he can stop it.

He leans forward, resting his forehead against Rain’s shoulder, fingers curling into the soft folds of his shawl.

“That’s me,” he whispers. “That’s me.”

Rain wraps his arms around him.

Holds him like fire claiming its match, like there was never any other spark meant to fit his own.

“I know,” he murmurs.

“You’re home.”

⋆⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺⋆

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.”