The garden is quieter on the way back.
But that's somehow worse.
No [Seraph Coils] pacing at the tree line. No [Petalled Witnesses] reading their emotional states from the undergrowth. Even the sound the branches made when they moved through them earlier, that soft deliberate rustling, is gone. The whole garden has gone still the way a room goes still when everyone in it is holding their breath.
'It's listening,' Yeon Yujun thinks, watching the pale trees as they walk. 'The whole place, the garden... All of it.'
Pouch is pressed flat against his chest again and has been since the God notification at the portal. Whatever calm it had managed during the rescue portion of this disaster has completely evaporated.
"How far?" Chae Yuna asks quietly.
"Close," Seo Hwigeon says, from somewhere slightly ahead and to the left. He's been invisible for the past ten minutes, scouting. His voice arrives without a body attached to it, which Gim Haesung is visibly still not used to.
