Chapter twelve · A curious invitation
By the time Mina reached the , a stillness had settled over the garden. Rain held the last of the evening light.
The waited beneath the cedar, one hand resting on a silver key. Their expression was unreadable, but not unkind.
Beyond the wall, the city exhaled—bells, wheels, and distant voices merging into something almost 
.
She crossed the threshold. The rain map stirred inside her coat, and every street she had memorized quietly rearranged itself.
Later, beneath the old observatory, Mina wrote one sentence and underlined it twice: A place can keep a secret longer than a person.
At the next corner, the Gardener spoke her name as if testing an old memory. Mina did not ask how they knew it. Somewhere behind the wall, the ninth bell began to ring, and she kept walking.
