Rose smiled gently. "Surrender isn't loss. Sometimes it's how we remember how to be whole."
Jude's heart beat faster. He turned to Sophie. "Do you feel changed?"
She hesitated. "Yes. But not like them. Not yet."
"Do you want to?" he asked.
She looked down. "I don't know."
"That's enough," Rose said. "Wanting to understand is a beginning."
Stella reached for Sophie, touched her hand lightly. "It doesn't hurt. It's like remembering a part of yourself you buried."
Sophie looked at her, brows knit, lips pressed. Then slowly - so slowly - she let her fingers curl around Stella's.
"Then show me," she whispered.
Stella nodded. "Together."
The chamber brightened.
The vines rustled.
And in that moment, they all understood.
This wasn't about corruption or seduction or something being done to them. It was communion. Union. Wholeness.
Jude stood.
The others rose too, their bodies bare and unashamed, bathed in golden light and the scent of something blooming deep within the roots.
