The garden waited.
Breathing.
Listening.
Amelia stepped forward, eyes locked on the glowing figure.
> "What happens if we refuse?"
she asked.
The figure smiled.
Not kindly.
Not cruelly.
Like someone who had watched this question be asked a thousand times.
> "Then you'll return," it said.
"To the city.
To your case.
To the script you thought was yours."
Alexis stepped beside her.
> "And if we choose?"
"You stop solving the spiral.
And start writing it."
Silence.
Then Amelia turned to Alexis.
> "We've been chasing something someone else planted.
What if it's our turn now?"
Alexis reached out, took her hand.
> "Let's grow it.
Our way."
The soil beneath them shivered.
The garden trembled.
The spiral lit up.
And all the buried memories—
began to bloom.