She steps into the fog. The gaiden ends—but the real story is just beginning. “A spirit witch doesn’t command the dead. She reminds the living what they’ve forgotten they deserve.”
He then turns to Kaeli and speaks the words he never said: “You don’t need a voice to be heard. You need a witness. I’ll be yours.”
The Hollow Echo shrieks—not in anger, but in completion. A wish fulfilled is no longer hollow. It unravels into golden threads of sound, which flow back into Kaeli’s throat.
She speaks her first word in months: “Papa.”
