Location: Nexus Pavilion
Date/Time: 10 Emberrise, 9939 AZI — Night (Pavilion Days 1-3)
Realm: Pavilion Sub-Space
The disguise came off like armour.
It always did — that first breath inside the Pavilion when the artifact released its grip on her features and everything she'd been holding in place just... let go. Brown eyes melting back to gold. Black hair bleeding silver-white from root to tip. The cheap, forgettable face of Jayde Ashford dissolving until her real one surfaced: sharp-boned, luminous, the gold-and-phoenix glow of eyes that didn't belong to any human girl.
Her talons extended. Diamond-hard, catching the Pavilion's ambient light. She flexed them once — the reflex of a creature unsheathing — and then curled them into fists.
(I forgot. Every time, I forget how tight it is.)
