AELINDRIS — THE FAE PALACE — YEARS THIRTEEN THROUGH SIXTEEN
The shift from childhood to something else happened the way all shifts happen: gradually, then all at once, with a single moment in between where the boy looked at the girl and the looking changed frequency and never changed back.
Fin saw a teenage version of himself. Lucian looked around fourteen. River looked around eleven or maybe twelve.
The math was irrelevant to the moment and essential to the context, because what happened at fourteen was a seed planted in soil that wouldn't bloom for years, and the not-blooming was the point, because Lucian Moon understood patience the way other people understood breathing.
