The Night I Spoke, Against His Chest, About Why I'd Kept the Mark Quiet

Airnote  ·  Lysa  ·  Jun 29, 2026

Upstairs at Tide and Gears, on the bed in Lysa's room. Held in Yu's arms, my head being stroked against his chest, I slowly put into words why I'd kept the mark on my back a secret for so long.

Wanting to show him Karimatra for the first time, without the mark in the picture. Having quietly decided, on my own, that the price of the summoning was mine to pay with my own body. I handed it all over as messy as it actually was — kindness and stubbornness and self-sacrifice, tangled together, no order to it at all. And Yu took it in, gently: So it was for a kind reason that you kept quiet.

Even the half of it that had been punishing myself, dressed up as kindness — even that was seen, and still, I was told I was kind. And in that, I felt the time I'd spent holding this alone begin, slowly, to turn into something else: a history of choices we'd made together.