They found her near one of the abandoned gardens.
A young woman, no older than Ira, crouched beside a dry fountain, arms wrapped around herself, breath shallow and uneven. Her clothes marked her as mortal. Dust-streaked. Torn at the hem.
She looked at them with wide, terrified eyes.
"I didn't mean to come in," she whispered. "I was just… walking. And then everything went quiet."
Rehaan swore softly.
Devansh froze.
No mortal had crossed fully into Vayukshi since Ira.
"How long have you been here?" Ira asked gently, kneeling a few steps away.
"I don't know," the girl replied. "It doesn't feel long. But my phone won't work. And I can't hear the world anymore."
Ira felt it immediately.
The girl's emotions pressed outward in sharp, frantic waves. Fear. Disorientation. A rising edge of panic.
Instinct stirred.
For years, Ira would have opened herself without thought.
Would have taken the weight.
Would have carried it until it dulled.
She almost did.
Then she stopped.
The heaviness in her chest responded, waiting.
She placed her hand over her own heart, breathing slowly.
"Tell me your name," she said.
"Meera," the girl whispered.
"I'm Ira," she replied. "You're safe right now."
She reached out and rested her palm lightly on the stone beside Meera's knee.
Not on her.
Beside her.
The fear did not surge into Ira.
It remained where it belonged.
Meera's breath slowed a fraction.
"How did you do that?" Meera asked shakily.
Ira looked at her own hand, then back at her.
"I stayed with you," she said. "I didn't step into you."
Something in her voice surprised even herself.
Devansh watched closely.
He felt the absence of a familiar surge.
The city's hum remained even.
Rehaan's gaze sharpened. "You didn't absorb her."
Ira shook her head. "I… grounded her."
Meera's shoulders eased slightly.
For the first time, Ira realized what she had always been missing.
Carrying was not the only way to connect.
She could hold space.
And that meant she could choose what did not belong to her.
Devansh spoke quietly. "This city is no place for her."
"I know," Ira said. "But it let her in."
They all felt it then.
A faint ripple.
Not from Meera.
From the deeper city.
The boundary had not only weakened.
It had grown… inconsistent.
And Vayukshi, for the first time in centuries, had misjudged a door.