For eleven days, the presence disappeared.

Jasper did not notice on the first day.

Or the second.

By the fourth, he noticed.

By the seventh, he was counting.

By the eleventh, he hated that he was counting.

Tidefall contained water everywhere. Jasper saw it from Ocean Studies, western windows, high stairs and courtyard walls. Every time, the sea behaved like sea.

Waves.

Wind.

Foam.

No pressure behind his ribs.

No strange images.

No sense of being noticed.

Jasper told himself this was good.

Thorne wanted him not to chase answers.

His mother wanted him safe.

Harper wanted him not to become what she had started calling Weird Dock Boy.

Ava wanted accurate information, although she had stopped asking him every morning whether anything had happened.

Jasper wanted the presence to come back.

That was the problem.

His mind began inventing reasons for the silence.

Maybe talking to Thorne had changed something.

Maybe the presence had moved away from Tidefall.

Maybe the weather was different.

Then came the worst possibility.

Maybe there had never been anything there at all.

Perhaps Jasper's own magic had made water behave strangely.

Perhaps the dreams were only dreams.

Perhaps the lower door had opened because of an old ward.

Perhaps he had wanted a mystery badly enough to build one from ordinary things.

He did not tell Harper or Ava that thought.

During library period, Jasper was supposed to find a book on basic shield geometry.

Instead, he found himself reading old coastal logs.

He told himself he was only checking one reference.

Then another.

One note from twenty years earlier read:

UNUSUAL STILLNESS REPORTED AT WEST WALL. NO STUDENT INVOLVEMENT CONFIRMED.

That should have reassured him.

It did not.

The library window faced east.

Jasper wanted to see the west wall.

He left.

That was the part he knew was wrong before he did it.

Founders' Courtyard was allowed during free period. Jasper did not cross any barrier or go near the lower docks.

He also did not tell anyone where he was going.

The afternoon was cold and clear.

Jasper stood several metres behind the western wall.

The sea rolled below.

Normal.

He closed his eyes.

Nothing.

Opened them.

Normal.

He tried to notice the place inside his chest where the pressure usually appeared.

Nothing.

Then he thought one sentence.

If you're there, notice me.

Still nothing.

Disappointment hurt more than Jasper expected.

"You promised."

He spun around.

Harper stood beneath the arch.

Ava was beside her.

Jasper's face became hot.

"I'm not doing anything."

Ava's expression was worse than anger.

"You left the library alone and came here because it has been quiet."

Jasper stared at her. "How do you know?"

"Because you keep looking at the sea."

Harper stepped closer.

"Were you testing it?"

"No."

The answer came too quickly.

Harper stopped.

Jasper looked away.

"I just wanted to know if it was still there."

Ava said quietly, "That is testing."

"I didn't ask it to move."

"You asked for a response."

The sea struck the cliff below.

Ordinary.

Jasper's throat tightened.

"Maybe there isn't anything."

Harper's anger disappeared.

"What?"

"Maybe I made it up."

Ava came closer.

"You don't believe that."

"I don't know."

There it was.

The real problem.

Jasper did not want to control the sea.

He wanted certainty.

Harper sat on the courtyard step.

"I saw the wave flatten."

"Weather can do weird things."

"I saw the lower door."

"Could have been a ward."

Ava said, "I have records that do not match normal tide behaviour."

"Records can be wrong."

Ava almost looked offended.

Then she understood.

"There will always be another explanation if you need one."

Jasper looked at her.

"That isn't bad."

"No," Ava said. "But you cannot make something prove itself to you just because not knowing feels horrible."

Harper looked toward the sea.

"What if it never answers again?"

Jasper had not let himself ask that.

"I don't know."

"Then we still live here."

She pointed toward Tidefall.

"You still have homework. You are still bad at handball. Ava still spies on us with notebooks."

"Observation," Ava corrected.

Jasper laughed weakly.

Harper looked at him. "You don't need the water thing to make your life interesting."

"I know."

"Good. Because you are not that interesting."

Jasper shoved her shoulder.

She shoved back.

Ava stepped between them before friendship became a courtyard incident.

They told Professor Elowen exactly what Jasper had done.

She listened.

Then asked, "What consequence makes sense?"

Jasper stared at the floor.

"No coastal free periods alone for a week?"

Elowen nodded. "Agreed. Indoor study room during free periods."

Harper whispered, "Self-issued detention."

Elowen looked at her.

Harper immediately became silent.

For a week, Jasper stayed inside.

The presence did not return.

On the eighth day, he crossed a western gallery with Harper and Ava while talking about homework.

He was not looking for anything.

A cool pressure brushed his chest.

Brief.

Soft.

There.

Jasper stopped.

Then it vanished.

He began laughing.

Harper stared. "What?"

"It noticed."

Ava smiled.

"After you stopped asking."

Jasper nodded.

He did not call it back.