"Mama!" Kaelith called again, grinning with all her tiny teeth, like she knew exactly what she'd done.
The word echoed through the courtyard small, high-pitched, and commanding, as if it had been waiting six months to be spoken aloud.
A hush fell over the construction site.
One of the stonemasons dropped his chisel.
A foreman near the scaffolding blinked twice, muttered, "Did that baby just talk?" and promptly walked straight into a wooden beam.
Elysia, standing perfectly still, felt the world spin just slightly. But not with confusion. Not like the others.
For her, it was delight.
Pure and simple.
She didn't scream or cry or clutch her heart. She didn't flail with joy or shout to the heavens. She just smiled, soft and slow and deeply, her chest warming like sunlit water.
Kaelith, unbothered by the general silence and broken tools, threw her arms in the air again.
"Mama!"
