Gamma noticed the change. It wasn't just the clinging – Saria had always sought proximity after nightmares as a child. This was different. Deeper. More desperate. Saria's fingers, when they weren't clutching Gamma's hand, traced restless patterns in the air, like plucking invisible harp strings only she could feel. Her eyes, when she wasn't staring blankly at the courtyard below, darted to corners of the room, tracking movements Gamma couldn't perceive. And there was… something else. A faint, almost subsonic hum that seemed to emanate *from* Saria herself. It wasn't the discordant phantom noise Gamma associated with the silence entity's lingering effects. This was different. A low, resonant thrumming, like the deep vibration of a tuning fork struck against bedrock. It felt ancient. Unsettlingly potent. Gamma felt it through her boots on the floor, a subtle tremor beneath the guildhall's own wards.
It started subtly. A teacup rattled inexplicably on its saucer near Saria's chair. The foxfire lamp on the bedside table flickered erratically, its blue flame pulsing in time with Saria's shallow breaths. Gamma watched, her silver gaze sharpening, cataloging each anomaly. Was it lingering psychic trauma? A side effect of Mire's anchoring stone? Or… something else? The thought coiled cold in Gamma's gut: *possession*. Residual entities sometimes latched onto trauma victims, feeding on vulnerability. The silence entity had been banished, but its kin were legion in Atrium's shadowed seams. Gamma's protective instincts screamed. Her fingers twitched, frost sigils itching to bloom across her knuckles. Yet… Saria didn't feel *wrong*. Not cold, not invasive. Just… amplified. Strange. Like a room suddenly filled with unseen, resonating crystal.
One afternoon, as Gamma read aloud from a dull treatise on ectoplasmic containment protocols – a soothing drone meant to anchor Saria – the humming intensified. Suddenly, the windowpane beside them *sang*. A pure, clear note, high and sweet, vibrating through the glass. Saria gasped, flinching violently against Gamma. Her eyes flew wide, not with fear, but with startled recognition.
Gamma stopped reading instantly. The silence that followed was thick, charged. "Saria?" Gamma's voice was carefully neutral, devoid of accusation, but her senses were screaming alarms. She kept her arm firmly around her sister, a grounding presence, while her other hand subtly traced a warding sigil against the armrest with her fingertip. Frost bloomed faintly on the polished wood. "Did you hear that?"
Saria trembled, pressing closer. "It… it felt like…" She struggled for words, her voice still raspy. She lifted a hand, fingers trembling, towards the singing glass. As her fingertips neared the pane, the humming emanating from her intensified. The glass note shifted, deepening, harmonizing with Saria's internal resonance. A delicate fractal pattern of frost instantly bloomed across the surface *where her fingers pointed*, intricate and beautiful, completely unlike Gamma's controlled sigils.
Gamma froze. This wasn't possession. Possession didn't create spontaneous ice art attuned to the victim's resonance. Possession didn't harmonize with glass. Possession felt parasitic, invasive. This… this felt *organic*. Like something waking up. Something intrinsic. The cold knot of dread in Gamma's stomach thawed instantly, replaced by a shockwave of electrifying disbelief. Her protective fury dissolved, replaced by a dawning, terrifying, exhilarating hope. She stared at the frost fractals, then at Saria's trembling hand, then back at the frost.
"Saria," Gamma breathed, her voice thick with awe, the guildmaster stripped away, leaving only the sister. "Sweet, impossible Saria… that wasn't the entity." She gently turned Saria's face towards her, her silver eyes blazing with sudden, fierce understanding. "That was *you*."
Saria blinked, confusion warring with the lingering phantom ache in her throat. "Me? But… I couldn't… I *can't*…" The denial was instinct, carved deep by years of failure. Yet, the evidence shimmered on the windowpane – frost fractals blooming where her trembling finger had pointed, a silent symphony etched in ice.
Gamma didn't argue. She acted. Moving with a fluidity born of pure exhilaration, she swept aside the medical charts and diagnostic screens crowding the small annex. "Forget 'can't'," she commanded, her voice vibrating with suppressed joy. "Forget manifesting like me. You don't throw storms, Saria. You *sing* them." She grabbed Saria's hands, pulling her gently but insistently to her feet. Saria wobbled, weak from recovery, but Gamma's grip was ironclad, supportive. "Listen. Not with your ears. Listen *here*." Gamma pressed Saria's palm flat against her own chest, right over her sternum. Beneath the sturdy fabric of her guildmaster's coat, Gamma's heartbeat was a strong, steady drumbeat. "Feel that? That's your baseline. Your anchor. Your resonance starts *there*."
Saria frowned, trying to focus past the exhaustion and the strange, low hum vibrating within her own bones. "It's… buzzing. Like bees trapped under glass."
"Good!" Gamma's grin was fierce, almost feral. "That's the power waking up. It's not force, Saria. It's *harmony*. You don't push it out; you *invite* it in, then shape it with your intent. Like… like tuning forks finding each other." She released Saria's hand and stepped back slightly, holding her own palms out, fingers spread. Frost instantly bloomed across her skin, intricate sigils forming with geometric precision. "See? Mine is deliberate. Ordered. Like writing in ice." She clenched her fist, and the frost shattered into glittering dust. "Now, *you*. Don't think 'cold'. Think… *stillness*. Think *listening*. Feel the hum inside you. Let it fill you. Then…" She nodded towards the empty teacup rattling on the bedside table. "*Want* it to be quiet."
Saria hesitated, overwhelmed. The buzzing intensified, a chaotic thrumming beneath her ribs. She closed her eyes, trying to mimic Gamma's focus, but her thoughts were a jumble of fear and disbelief. The teacup rattled louder, skittering towards the edge.
"Stop *trying*!" Gamma's voice cut through the panic, sharp but not unkind. "Stop fighting it! It's *yours*, Saria! It's not an enemy. It's the part of you that heard the locket, that understood the dust circles! Let it *be*. Feel the vibration, the hum in your chest. Now… imagine wrapping it gently around that cup. Like putting a hand on a frightened bird."
Saria took a shaky breath. She stopped trying to command the buzzing energy. Instead, she acknowledged it – the deep, resonant thrumming that felt less like bees and more like the earth itself humming. She imagined that vibration flowing outwards, not as a blast, but as a soft, encompassing wave. She pictured it settling over the frantic teacup like a velvet blanket. *Be still*, she thought, not as an order, but as an invitation. *Just… be quiet.*
Suddenly, the rattling ceased. The teacup settled onto the saucer with a soft *clink*. Utter silence filled the annex – a peaceful, profound silence, devoid of the earlier terror. Saria's eyes flew open. The cup sat perfectly still. The low hum within her hadn't vanished; it had shifted, smoothed into a deep, contented purr. A gasp escaped her, half sob, half disbelieving laugh.
Gamma surged forward, grabbing Saria's shoulders, her eyes wide and triumphant. "Yes! *That*! That's it! You didn't freeze it, Saria. You *harmonized* with its resonance! You made its frantic vibration match your calm!" She laughed, the sound bright and clear. "You didn't manifest sparks. You manifested *stillness*! You sang the chaos into quiet!"
Saria stared at her hands, trembling not with weakness now, but with burgeoning wonder. The phantom ache in her throat felt distant, replaced by this new, profound connection humming through her veins. "It… it listened," she whispered, her voice still rough but filled with awe.
"It always listened," Gamma said, her voice softening, thick with emotion. "You just finally spoke its language." She pulled Saria into a fierce embrace, not possessive, but celebratory. "