Azael walked back to his room with his hands in his pockets and his thoughts going in three different directions at once.

He replayed it again without meaning to.

The closeness. The cool palm against his cheek. The way she had stopped herself mid-sentence like she had caught something before it fell.

That one unguarded second in her eyes before the door closed again.

He couldn’t make sense of it.

’She was teasing,’ he told himself. ’That’s all it was. She did that and feels nothing after. But...she’s teasing...it’s very weird. She’s not that kind of person.

He almost believed it. He pushed open the door to his room, stepped inside, and sat on the edge of the bed.

The room was large and well-appointed, the guest chamber that reminded you quietly and constantly that you were in a palace. High ceilings. Heavy curtains pulled back from tall windows. A fire burning low in the hearth.

He stared at the floor for a while.

Then he lay back across the bed, looked at the ceiling, and decided firmly to stop thinking about it.

He thought about it for another twenty minutes before finally closing his eyes.

On the other side of the palace, far from the guest wing, the corridors grew quieter and more private.

---

The royal chamber was a world apart from the rest of the building vast and still, furnished with the kind of restrained luxury that belonged to someone who had long since stopped needing to impress anyone.

Tall windows looked out over the darkened palace grounds, and the city lights of Valemyr glittered distantly beyond.

A balcony was also there.

Celestia sat alone in a soft chair near the window.

She had changed. Her formal gown was gone, replaced by a full white nightgown that fell in clean, simple lines a stark contrast to the deliberate elegance she wore during the day.

Her soft huge mounds couldn’t hide their prominent size under that nightgown.

Her silver hair was unbound, freed from its braid, falling loose past her waist in long, smooth waves that caught the low firelight.

She held a glass of red wine loosely in one hand, her elbow resting on the arm of the chair, her gaze on the window and whatever lay beyond it.

Her expression was empty.

Not troubled nor content. It was simply still. The face of a woman alone in a room with her own thoughts, wearing no performance for anyone.

She was a woman who had done things that would have destroyed lesser people’s sleep permanently.

She had killed her own husband calmly, coldly, without hesitation. He had been involved in slavery and the drug trade, and when the evidence had reached her hands she had moved without sentiment. If she was honest with herself, she had wanted a reason for years. He had simply been generous enough to finally provide one.

She felt no regret about it.

She sipped her wine.

Then she felt it.

A ripple in the mana of the room. It was subtle and controlled, as if someone very skilled would produce.

An ordinary person wouldn’t have caught it. Celestia caught it the moment it appeared and didn’t react at all. She continued looking at the window. Continued holding her glass.

A figure materialized behind her.

The woman who appeared was tall... taller than most, standing at a hundred and eighty-eight centimeters with a presence that filled whatever space it occupied. Her hair was a deep violet, extraordinarily long, cascading all the way down past her hips to her ankles in a thick, unbroken fall. Her skin was fair and flawless.

Her figure was full and striking. She wore a black magical robe, and her silver eyes were cold and sharp and entirely unreadable.

Her figure no less sensual than Empress. With assest hard to hold on.

She stood without moving. Without speaking.

Celestia didn’t turn around.

"My," she said lightly, swirling her wine once.

"Why is a witch standing in my bedroom at this hour?"

"Because you called me here, Celestia

" the woman said. Her voice was flat and unhurried. "And now you’re asking why I came."

Celestia laughed. It was a genuine, easy sound.

"Oh." She waved a hand loosely. "You’re right. I forgot." She rose from the chair with fluid ease and turned, walking toward her guest with the relaxed confidence of a woman entirely comfortable in her own space. "...what name you used this days...Liona. Hello Liona."

Liona... that was the name she used. The one she wore while living quietly as an old alchemy shop owner in Elaris, the name Azael knew her by stood with her arms at her sides and her silver eyes fixed on Celestia without particular warmth.

"What do you want," she said. "Tell me quickly."

"Sit down first," Celestia said, already moving toward the second chair. "We’re going to have a proper conversation. Not a quick one."

Liona exhaled through her nose.

She sat.

Celestia settled across from her, crossing one leg over the other and holding out the wine bottle with a raised brow.

"Drink?" She asked.

"No." Liona declined. As if she had no interest in it at all.

"Suit yourself." Celestia poured herself a little more and set the bottle down. She looked at Liona with calm, measuring eyes for a moment, the same look she gave everything

she was genuinely thinking about. "Someone awakened phoenix fire," she said. "In the Ignivar estate. In Elaris." She paused. "You’re living there. You already know. Of course, its not like it will be remained hidden from you."

Something moved through Liona’s chest. It was a brief and uninvited feeling. A flutter she didn’t want and didn’t show.

"Yes," she said, keeping her voice level. "I know. What about it?"

She tried to hide her fluttering reaction at the thought of Azael.

Celestia set her glass down slowly.

"Two people awakening phoenix fire in the same generation," she said. "In the same household. That has never happened before. Not once in recorded history." Her voice took on a quieter, more serious weight.

"And you know what the prophecy says. The world is going to shift in the coming years, chaos, conflict, powers emerging that haven’t been seen in centuries. The great geniuses born in this era are part of that. Phoenix fire appearing twice in one generation–" she let the thought sit, "that feels like a sign. Don’t you think?"

Liona was quiet for a moment.

"You’re asking if it’s connected to the prophecy," she said.

"I’m asking what you think."

"I think you already have a theory and you want to see if mine matches."

Celestia smiled slightly. "Maybe."

Liona looked away toward the window. "What else," she said.

Celestia leaned forward a fraction.

"A few days ago, in Elaris. There was an incident. A masked figure using purple fire. The fire contained so much destructive power that Aeliana felt from a considerable distance." She watched Liona’s face carefully. "Do you know anything about it?"

Liona went still.

It was very slight, a small, controlled stiffening that anyone less observant than Celestia would have missed entirely.

Celestia’s eyes sharpened.

"Azael is here, you know," she said, her tone shifting into something lighter but no less precise. "In the palace. If you’d like to see him...I can arrange it."

"Why would I want to see him?" Liona said immediately. Her voice came out a half-step too quickly. A faint color moved across her cheeks before she could stop it. "What are you... why are you saying something like that? Me....wanting to meet that young boy? Why?"

Celestia looked at her.

Then she laughed soft and genuinely delighted.

"Liona." Her voice was warm in the specific way that means I know exactly what’s happening here.

"I am the only woman you have ever spoken to with any regularity. The only person you come close to trusting." She tilted her head.

"And a while back, while you were asking me for advice about human feelings, about the heart, a name slipped through the communication channel."

Liona said nothing.

"You thought I didn’t notice," Celestia continued. "But I did."

Silence filled the room.

"You said his name," Celestia said simply. "Azael. I was quite surprised to hear it. But didn’t question at that time. I thought maybe it was some other person with Azael name."

The fire crackled quietly in the hearth.

Liona sat with her silver eyes fixed somewhere past the window and her jaw set with the particular tension of someone who has been caught and is deciding how to respond to that with dignity. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Celestia watched her with a small, patient smile. "But now after seeing your reaction...I am sure it was Azael of Ignivar Family. He is quite handsome...cute." She leaned foward and said. "You know...I heard him talking secretly...and he was talking about seducing me." She smile...not small. But a wide smile. And said nothing further.

Letting the quiet do the rest.