Lucien stepped out to find Lilith already waiting outside his door.
"My friends will be leaving Starforge," Lucien said first. "They have something to take care of."
Lilith tilted her head slightly. Her gaze flicked past his shoulder. "Friends?"
Lucien lifted a hand.
The air behind him folded like fabric.
Three presences stepped out as if they had been standing there the entire time.
Morveth, Kira, and Aerolith.
Lilith's breath caught. Her composure slipped.
Her spine stiffened, and her pupils tightened as if her instincts were trying to measure the impossible.
Their aura was not simply strong. They carried the weight of existence that only Eternals possessed. A pressure that did not threaten; it simply declared what they were.
Lilith swallowed without meaning to.
Starforge had one Eternal.
And Lucien…
He had been hiding more than one.
Behind him. Inside him. Somewhere.
