A week after the wedding, the barn had returned to normal.
The flowers were gone. The borrowed tables had been returned. Bryce had moved the pews back against the wall, leaving the stage clear except for the chair they had not yet carried away.
The place looked ordinary again.
Vael had said nothing more about the feeling.
Elara still caught him looking towards the western boundary.
He never stared for long. A pause while carrying feed. A glance from the back verandah. His attention shifting beyond the paddocks before returning to whatever was in front of him.
When she asked, his answer remained the same.
He did not know what it meant.
There was no direction he could follow. No signal he could hear. Only the uneasy sense that something had changed.
Then one morning, his place at the kitchen table was empty.
Saige noticed first.
“Where’s Vael?”
Elara looked towards the hallway, though she already knew he was not in the house.
Bryce glanced through the kitchen window.
The ute Vael sometimes used was gone.
“He didn’t tell you?” Saige asked.
“No.”
She frowned, but only briefly. “He’s probably gone into town.”
Elara did not answer.
Saige poured coffee and carried it outside while Bryce remained at the window.
“You think he went back?” Elara asked.
“Yes.”
“He said he didn’t know if there was anything to find.”
Bryce turned from the glass. “Curiosity won.”
That sounded more like Vael than fear ever had.
They did not follow him.
He had made no request for help, and Elara understood that whatever remained beneath the earth belonged to a part of him neither she nor Bryce could enter simply by standing beside him.
The morning passed.
By midday, the sun had burned the colour from the paddocks. Heat shimmered above the track. Elara found reasons to remain close to the house, though none of them required her attention.
Saige noticed.
“You’re waiting for him.”
“I know.”
“Did something happen?”
“No.”
Saige studied her face.
Elara turned back to the washing on the line before the questions could become sharper.
Vael returned late in the afternoon.
Dust coated his boots and the lower legs of his jeans. His shirt clung damply across his back. He parked beside the shed and sat behind the wheel for several seconds after switching off the engine.
Elara watched from the verandah.
When he finally climbed out, he carried nothing.
Saige came through the back door behind her.
“Where have you been?”
Vael looked at her.
“Away.”
“All day?”
“Yes.”
“You could have told me.”
“I did not know how long I would be gone.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
“No.”
He said it without defensiveness. Saige waited for an apology that did not come.
“What were you doing?”
“Looking.”
“At what?”
Vael glanced towards Elara.
It was enough.
Saige saw the exchange and folded her arms.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
“Nothing you need to worry about,” Elara said.
“That usually means there is.”
Vael stepped past them and entered the house.
Saige watched him go.
“He’s been strange since the wedding.”
Elara wanted to tell her that strange was the least accurate word for Vael.
Instead, she said, “Give him a minute.”
Saige looked as though she might refuse, then followed him inside.
Vael drank two glasses of water at the kitchen sink. He rinsed the second and placed it on the draining board.
“Can I speak with you?” he asked Elara.
Bryce heard him from the adjoining room and came through before she answered.
Saige remained at the table.
Vael looked at her, then towards the back door.
Elara understood.
“Outside.”
They walked beyond the verandah and stopped near the shed, far enough that their voices would not carry through the open windows.
Bryce folded his arms.
“You got into it?”
“Yes.”
“How much did you uncover?”
“Only the entry.”
Elara looked towards the paddocks, though the site lay well beyond them.
“Was it still intact?”
“Enough of it.”
“And the feeling?”
Vael shook his head. “I still do not know what it is.”
“What did you find?” Bryce asked.
“The beacon is active.”
The words settled between them.
Elara had expected an answer. Hearing one did not make it easier.
“Do you know if anyone has received it?” she asked.
“No.”
“Or if anyone is coming?”
“No.”
Vael’s tone remained calm. He had opened the craft and found a change. Nothing more.
“Could it have been active since the crash?” Bryce asked.
“No. It was inactive when I sealed the craft.”
“So something woke it.”
“Possibly.”
“That feeling?”
“I do not know.”
Elara watched Vael’s face. He did not look frightened. He did not look relieved.
He looked curious.
Vael reached into his pocket.
The object he placed in Elara’s palm looked like a piece of black stone. It was smooth and irregular, small enough for her fingers to close around it. In the afternoon light, it had the dull shine of obsidian.
“What is it?”
“A locator of sorts.”
Elara turned it over.
“It looks like a rock.”
“That is not intentional.”
“What does it do?”
“If my people come near, it will illuminate.”
Bryce took it from her and examined it before handing it back.
Elara closed her fingers around the stone.
“And if it lights?”
“I will know they are here.”
“What happens then?”
Vael looked at her.
“I go to them.”
There was no hesitation.
The answer struck harder because of how simply he gave it.
“You will leave?”
“If they come for me, I may have to leave.”
“You could decide to stay.”
Vael considered her words rather than rejecting them.
“Maybe.”
Elara waited.
“But you wouldn’t.”
“I do not know.”
It was not the answer she wanted. It was the only honest one he could give.
Bryce rested a hand against the back of her neck.
“Until it lights, nothing changes.”
Vael looked towards the house.
Saige stood behind the kitchen window, watching them.
“Nothing has changed yet,” he said.
Elara slipped the locator into his hand.
He closed his fingers around it and returned it to his pocket.
Inside, Saige moved away from the window before they reached the verandah. She was sitting at the table when they entered, her coffee untouched.
“And what was that about?” she asked.
“What was what?” Elara said.
“Outside.”
“Nothing.”
Vael offered nothing else.
Saige’s mouth tightened.
Elara could see the moment she decided not to push. Not because she was satisfied, but because every answer would only lead to another thing they would not explain.
She stood and carried her coffee to the sink.
“I’m going into town.”
“Now?” Elara asked.
“Yes.”
She left through the back door without looking at Vael again.
The sound of her car faded down the track.
Vael watched the empty doorway.
“She is angry.”
“Yes,” Elara said.
“Because I went without telling her.”
“That’s part of it.”
“What is the other part?”
Elara looked at Bryce.
He did not answer for her.
“She knows we’re keeping something from her.”
Vael lowered his gaze to the table.
“We are.”
For the next six months, the black stone remained dark.
----
Elara found Vael standing alone in the kitchen before dawn.
The house was quiet. Bryce was still asleep. Saige’s bedroom door remained closed at the end of the hallway.
Vael stood beside the table, staring down at something in front of him.
Something in the set of his shoulders stopped her in the doorway.
“What’s wrong?”
Vael stretched out his arm and opened his hand.
The black stone rested in his palm.
Glowing.
Not brightly. A muted light moved beneath its surface, deep blue at the centre and almost white along one edge. It made the object look less like stone than something pretending to be one.
“I woke and found it like this.”
She crossed the kitchen.
The light did not pulse or flicker. It remained steady in his hand.
“They’re here?”
“Yes.”
There was no uncertainty in the answer.
Vael looked worried. Not frightened, but no longer merely curious either.
“When will you go?”
“Tonight.”
The simplicity of it hurt more than surprise would have.
“You always knew this could happen.”
“I knew it might.”
“So you’re leaving.”
“I think so.”
He did not lower his eyes or soften the answer.
Elara turned towards the hallway.
“I’m waking Bryce.”
Vael closed his fingers around the locator. The glow disappeared between them.
Elara went down the hall. When she returned, Bryce followed, pulling a shirt over his head.
He looked first at Elara, then at Vael.
“What happened?”
Vael opened his hand.
The black stone glowed against his palm.
Bryce stopped.
“They’re here,” Elara said.
He looked at Vael. “You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
“And you’re going.”
“Most likely.”
Bryce pulled out a chair and sat. He leaned forward, forearms on his thighs, his hands loosely joined between them.
“You’ve spoken to them?”
“No. I only know they are near.”
Bryce looked down at the floor.
Elara remained beside the table. She wanted to ask questions that would make the answer change. Whether Vael could hide. Whether he could ignore the signal. Whether his people would leave without him if he simply remained at the ranch.
None of them mattered.
“You could stay,” she said.
Vael looked at her.
“Maybe.”
“But you won’t?”
“It may not be my choice.”
The words were not cruel. They carried no rejection.
That made it worse.
“Why do you have to go?”
“I need to know what is waiting.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It is the only one I have.”
Elara turned away.
Bryce stood.
“Will you ever come back?”
Vael was silent long enough that Elara looked at him again.
“I do not know.”
“Will you try?”
“I cannot promise that.”
Bryce nodded once.
No one spoke after that.
Saige came into the kitchen a few minutes later, barefoot and half awake.
“I heard voices.”
She looked from Elara to Bryce, then to Vael.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Elara said too quickly.
Saige frowned.
Vael closed his hand around the stone and slipped it into his pocket.
“You all look strange.”
Bryce reached for the kettle.
“Didn’t sleep much.”
Saige looked at Vael.
He held her gaze without giving anything away.
The day passed slowly.
Vael worked beside Bryce as he always had. Elara fed the horses, checked water and found small jobs that did not need doing. Saige moved between the house and the barn, talking to Vael without noticing the attention Elara gave every ordinary exchange.
Nothing in him suggested he was counting down the hours.
He did not pack.
There was nothing he intended to take.
Near evening, while Saige showered before dinner, Bryce found Vael outside the shed.
Elara followed.
The last light lay across the paddocks. The air had cooled, though heat still rose from the packed ground.
Vael stood with his hands at his sides.
Bryce stopped in front of him.
“You’re going to the craft?”
“Yes. Later, after the house is quiet.”
“You want us to come?”
“No.”
“We could just come to the boundary.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“I do not know what will be waiting.”
Bryce nodded once.
Then he stepped forward and put his arms around Vael.
Vael remained still for the first moment. His hands came up and settled against Bryce’s back.
There was no speech. No attempt to force years of meaning into a few sentences. Bryce held him until he was ready to let go, then stepped back without looking away.
Elara moved towards him.
She put both hands against Vael’s face.
His skin was warm beneath her palms.
“You were supposed to make this difficult,” she said.
“I do not understand.”
“You’re supposed to be uncertain. Or frightened. Or at least pretend you don’t know what to do.”
“I know what I have to do next.”
“I know.”
His eyes remained on hers.
She kissed him.
She did not try to turn it into something that might hold him there. His hands settled at her waist, familiar and careful, and for a few seconds she let herself feel only that.
When she pulled away, she rested her forehead against his.
“Do you understand that we’ll miss you?”
“Yes.”
“Do you understand what that means?”
“Not as you do.”
It was honest.
Elara closed her eyes.
Bryce stepped close behind her. One hand rested on her shoulder. The other reached past her and closed around Vael’s arm.
The three of them stood together until Saige called from the house that dinner was ready.
Vael stepped back first.
He looked towards the open door.
“When will you tell her?” Elara asked.
Vael looked towards the house.
“I will be with her tonight.”
Elara took that as an answer.
They went inside.
Saige had set four places at the table.
Dinner passed as it usually did.
Bryce ate more quietly than normal. Elara barely tasted anything. Vael answered when Saige spoke to him and asked her about the work she had brought home from university.
She complained about an assignment. Vael listened.
She reached beneath the table and rested her hand on his thigh.
He covered it with his own.
Elara looked away.
After dinner, Vael washed beside Saige while she dried. Their shoulders touched whenever she leaned past him to put something away.
Nothing in his manner suggested goodbye.
Later, they sat together in the lounge. Saige tucked herself against him, her legs stretched across the couch. Vael rested one hand on her ankle and watched whatever she had chosen without asking questions about it.
Elara remained in the room longer than she usually would.
Bryce eventually touched her shoulder.
They went to bed without saying anything more.
Elara lay awake beside him.
Some time after midnight, she heard the back door open.
No footsteps crossed the hallway. No voice called through the house.
The door closed softly.
Bryce’s hand found hers beneath the covers.
Neither of them moved.
By morning, Vael was gone.
Saige discovered it when she came into the kitchen.
“Where is he?”
Elara stood beside the sink. Bryce sat at the table with untouched coffee in front of him.
“We don’t know,” Elara said.
Saige glanced towards the back door.
“What does that mean?”
Elara forced herself to meet her daughter’s eyes.
“Gone.”
Saige stared at her.
“He went somewhere?”
“I heard the door during the night.”
The disbelief left her face slowly.
“He was with me.”
“I know.”
“He came to bed.”
Elara said nothing.
“He waited until I was asleep?”
“I think so.”
Saige looked towards the hallway, as though Vael might still walk out and make the conversation unnecessary.
“He didn’t say anything.”
“No.”
“He didn’t leave a message.”
“No.”
Her attention returned to Elara.
“Did you know?”
“We knew he might leave.”
“And you said nothing?”
Elara hesitated.
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
Saige stepped back from her.
“You knew all day?”
Bryce stood.
“We thought he would tell you.”
Saige looked at him.
“Well, he didn’t.”
“I’m sorry,” Elara said.
“No, you’re not. You keep saying that whenever you decide I’m better off not knowing something.”
“That isn’t what this is.”
“Then tell me why he left.”
“There are some things we just can’t explain,” Elara said.
Saige waited.
“Did he say anything about me?”
Elara could have softened it. She could have made something from the way Vael had held Saige’s hand at dinner or sat with her on the couch.
The silence answered for her.
Saige’s eyes shone, but she did not look away.
She turned and walked down the hallway.
A door closed.
Elara sat because her legs would not hold her.
Bryce remained standing.
“She’ll want the truth,” he said.
“I know.”
“We can’t give it to her.”
“I know.”
They heard movement from Saige’s room. A drawer opened. Cupboard doors followed.
Saige came back carrying one bag. Clothes had been pushed into it without folding. A charger hung from the partly closed zip.
“Where are you going?” Elara asked.
“To the city.”
“You’ve got university today?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“I’m staying with a friend.”
“For how long?”
“I don’t know.”
Elara looked at the bag.
Saige had not packed enough to leave permanently. A few changes of clothes. Toiletries. Nothing from the shelves or walls of her room.
Still, the sight of it hurt.
“You don’t have to decide anything today.”
“I’m not.”
“Then stay.”
Saige shook her head.
“I can’t be here.”
“Because of Vael?”
“Because of all of it.”
Her gaze moved briefly towards Bryce, then away.
Every part of the ranch held one of the choices she no longer knew how to live with.
Elara stepped closer.
Saige tightened her grip on the bag.
That stopped her.
“When will you come back?” Elara asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Will you call?”
“Maybe.”
The answer came too quickly to be a promise, but Elara accepted it.
Saige opened the back door.
Elara followed her to the verandah. Bryce remained inside.
Saige put the bag in the car and closed the door.
For a moment, neither of them moved.
Elara wanted to embrace her. She wanted to tell her that Vael had not abandoned her in the way she believed. That he had not chosen another woman or an easier life. That the rules Saige thought he had broken had never belonged to him.
She could not tell her any of it.
“I’m sorry,” Elara said.
Saige looked towards the paddocks.
“So am I.”
She got into the car.
Elara stood on the verandah while she reversed and turned towards the track.
Saige did not wave.
The car passed the barn, then the boundary fence, and disappeared beyond the trees.
Elara remained there after the sound had faded.
Bryce came outside and stood beside her.
Neither of them said she would come back.
Neither said she would not.
Later that morning, after Saige had gone, Elara and Bryce drove west.
The track ended before the scrub thickened. Bryce parked beneath the trees and they continued on foot.
The ground was dry beneath their boots. Nothing marked Vael’s path from the night he left. No broken branches. No prints that lasted beyond the harder earth.
They reached the clearing without speaking.
Elara stopped at its edge.
The craft was gone.
Where it had rested beneath the earth, there was only a hole.
The sides had collapsed inward in places, exposing roots and pale stone. Loose soil lay scattered around the rim, but there was no metal, no damaged panel, no blackened fragment left behind.
Bryce walked closer.
Elara followed him to the edge and looked down.
Empty.
She had expected something. Heat in the soil. A mark where the craft had lifted. Some piece too small to matter to Vael but large enough for them to keep.
There was nothing.
Bryce crouched and picked up a handful of dirt. It ran between his fingers as he stood.
“They took all of it.”
“Looks like it.”
Elara looked towards the sky.
There was no trail across it. No sound beyond the insects beginning in the scrub and the faint movement of leaves above them.
No proof that anything had happened there.
No proof Vael had ever fallen from the sky.
Bryce wiped his hand against his jeans.
“I can’t believe he’s gone.”
Elara had known it before they left the house.
The empty hole made it final.
She stepped back from the edge.
Bryce reached for her hand. His ring pressed against her fingers as his hand closed.
They stood there a little longer, looking at the absence he had left behind.