Georgia entered the ruined chamber with steady hands and a healer's composure, though the faint tightness around her eyes betrayed how much she had already endured that night.
Valen followed just behind her, posture restored to disciplined stillness, yet something in the set of her shoulders remained altered, as though she carried an awareness too new to fully conceal.
Lucas moved aside as they entered, his eyes met Valen's.
The glance lasted no longer than a heartbeat, yet within it flickered recognition, tension, and an unspoken understanding that something had shifted irrevocably between all three of them.
Lucas inclined his head once, calm and unreadable, before stepping past them and out of the chamber without comment.
Georgia approached the king immediately.
"Your Majesty," she said gently, setting her satchel upon an intact section of the marble floor, "I am told you have regained consciousness."
Kaelvryn's gaze, however, had not moved from Valen.
