Yalira arrived as afternoon light began shifting across the Palace spires.
She paused in the doorway before entering fully.
Her eyes found Owen first.
Still asleep.
Still folded awkwardly into the chair beside Yuki's bed.
For a brief moment, something softer crossed her expression.
Then it disappeared beneath practiced composure.
She stepped quietly into the chamber.
Her amber gaze moved toward the child.
And stopped.
Lord was awake now.
Golden eyes open.
Watching.
Not randomly.
Tracking the drifting patterns of light moving across the ceiling with unsettling precision.
The rainbow aura surrounding his eyes pulsed faintly with each tiny shift of attention.
Yalira approached slowly.
Carefully.
Like a scout approaching unfamiliar territory that might, under the wrong circumstances, decide to become a natural disaster.
"He is small," she observed.
Yuki deadpanned immediately.
"That tends to happen with newborns."
Yalira ignored the remark.
