Kael's POV
The Phoenix spoke to me on a Wednesday morning while I was in the middle of a council report that had been requiring my full attention and was, as of that moment, no longer receiving it.
She did not speak often. In the years since she had chosen me, our communication had lived almost entirely in the bond's physical register… pressure and warmth, the occasional sharp absence of both when she had opinions about something I was doing or the specific quality of attention she directed at me when she was tracking something I hadn't noticed yet.
Words were not her preferred mode. She used them the way I used apologies: rarely, and only when the alternative was insufficient.
So when she spoke, I listened.
She was on the roof of the building, which was where she spent most of her time when I was working. I felt the shift in the bond first… a gathering quality, like the moment before someone in a room decides to say something that changes the nature of the conversation.
