Going home felt stranger than leaving. Jasper expected his bedroom to feel exactly the same. It did not. The model ferry still missed one lifeboat. The crooked drawing still hung beside the wardrobe. The blanket was the same. But the room felt smaller. Not bad. Only changed by the fact that Jasper had changed somewhere else. His mum stood in the doorway while he unpacked.

"You've grown."

"No I haven't."

"You have."

"It's been one term."

"Exactly."

His father appeared behind her.

"At least nine metres."

"Dad."

"Hard to fit him in the car now."

Jasper threw a sock at him. His mother looked delighted by this normal behaviour. Term break lasted two weeks. For the first three days Jasper slept later than he had since starting school. He ate breakfast without bells. He walked to the local beach with his parents. He saw old school friends who asked questions about magic until Jasper stopped knowing how to answer.

"Can you fly?"

"No."

"Can you disappear?"

"No."

"Can you turn someone into a frog?"

"I can move a cloth one centimetre."

They were disappointed. Jasper found this funny. The biggest surprise was the sea. He had expected the presence to follow. It did not. At the beach, water was water. Cold around his ankles. Foam. Sand. No heaviness in his chest. No awareness beneath it. Jasper stood knee-deep while his father skipped a flat stone.

"Everything okay?"

"Yeah."

"You look like you're waiting for the ocean to answer a question."

Jasper stared at him. His father shrugged.

"Lucky guess."

Jasper looked back at the waves.

"I can't feel it here."

His father did not pretend not to understand.

"The thing from Tidefall?"

"Yeah."

"Good or bad?"

Jasper thought.

"Both."

He had wanted proof the presence was not in his head. Distance gave him that. Whatever he sensed at Tidefall belonged to Tidefall's coast or the waters around it. That should have been comforting. Instead the absence felt like noticing a clock had stopped ticking.

"Do you miss it?" his father asked.

"No."

Jasper kicked water. Then admitted, "A little." His father nodded.

"You can miss knowing something is there without wanting it in your bedroom."

Jasper smiled.

"That's weird."

"Most accurate things are."

He received two letters from Tidefall during the break. Ava's arrived first. It was four pages long. Page one: home update. Page two: weather. Page three: a corrected copy of their Ocean Studies data because she had noticed one wind-direction error. Page four: a question asking whether Jasper could sense the sea from home. Harper's arrived two days later. It read: JASPER, MY BROTHER STILL THINKS I'M A POTATO. CAN YOU FEEL THE CREEPY SEA AT HOME? ALSO I GOT FIVE DEGREES FIRST TRY YESTERDAY. DO NOT TELL AVA I PRACTISED ON BREAK. HARPER P.S. MUM SAYS HI. Probably. Jasper answered both. No presence at home. Normal ocean.

P.P.S. I KNOW AVA WILL READ THIS SO AVA STOP READING. Ava had not read it. He drew a tiny map showing the distance from his house to the beach even though Ava had not asked. On the final weekend, Jasper's mum found him sitting at the kitchen table with his Tidefall books spread around him.

"Doing homework on break?"

"Ava said we should practise."

"Ava sounds dangerous."

Jasper smiled. His mum sat down.

"Do you want to go back?"

He answered before thinking.

"Yeah."

Then felt guilty. She saw it.

"Good."

"You're not sad?"

"I can miss you and want you to love school at the same time."

Jasper looked at the page.

"That's annoying."

"Most parenting is."

The return boat left on a cold bright morning. Jasper's parents waved from the harbour again. This time leaving hurt differently. Less fear. More knowing what he was going toward. Harper found him on deck within five minutes. Ava arrived six minutes later. They argued about whether two weeks counted as a long time. The coast slid away. Hours later the familiar mist rose ahead. Jasper's pulse quickened. The boat entered grey. For several seconds there was only engine noise and water. Then the pressure returned. Soft. Deep. Recognition. Jasper's breath caught. Harper saw his face.

"There?"

He nodded. Ava checked the time. Of course. The cliffs appeared. Tidefall rose from them. Jasper looked down into dark water beside the hull. The presence did not speak. It did not send an image. It simply noticed him again. Jasper had been wrong during the break. He had missed it. Not because it belonged to him. Because mystery had become part of home too. That worried him. It also made him smile.