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“I choose you.”

“Because you want me?”

“Yes.”

She smiled. “Okay.”

That was all.

Okay.

And somehow it changed everything.

Silver-white light surged beneath my skin.

I inhaled sharply.

Talia did too.

The circuits along my arms brightened, then spread across my chest and throat in a sudden rush of light.

“Veyr?”

“I am⁠—”

Her eyes narrowed.

I stopped.

“Not injured.”

“Better.”

The light shifted. Not outward. Toward her.

A low pulse moved through me.

Recognition had always felt like orientation. Awareness. A persistent certainty of where she was.

This was different.

My ŭre settled around the choice rather than driving it.

Talia shivered.

“What do you feel?” I asked.

“Warm.”

Her hand moved to the center of her chest.

I covered it with mine. Another pulse passed through us. Her breath caught.

Biology had answered what we had already decided.

Nothing taken. Nothing assumed.

The bond closed because both ends had been offered freely.