Part 5: The Answer
Mara spent that winter rewiring the lamp with her own hands, a little each night. Dell helped carry cable up the stairs. The town chipped in for a new bulb.
On the first night of the next fog, she threw the switch herself. The beam swept out, strong and steady. Out in the gray, a single small light answered, bobbing, like a lantern carried on a breakwater.
Mara watched it come closer, then pause at the base of the tower.
She wrote one line in the logbook: Welcome home, Tobias.
And for the first time in thirty-one years, the ink dried by itself. The END