The cave went very, very quiet.

Raizen's hand was already halfway to his sword when Elin moved.

One heartbeat she was just standing there.

The next, both of her forearms snapped down with a quick, practiced motion.

Metal gleamed in the colorful light.

Thin blades slid out of the leather guards on her arms, one into each hand. The knives were short, no longer than her palm. Silver. Razor thin.

Red Eon coiled around them at once.

It wrapped around the steel in tight, precise loops, like threads waiting for a command.

Raizen had never seen her move that fast.

The figure at the table lifted both hands, palms open.

"I mean no harm" he said. His voice was calm. "If I wanted to kill you, Sky Sovereign, this would have been a very bad way to start."

Elin did not relax.

She didn't even blink.

She shifted her weight just enough to put herself slightly in front of Raizen. The red threads around the knives tightened, humming in the air.

"Stand up" she said. "Slowly. Into the light."

The man obeyed.

He uncrossed his legs, rose with unhurried care and stepped out of the deeper shadow, toward the closest lantern.

The light found his face.

Raizen's breath caught.

"I know you" he said before he could stop himself.

The man's gaze flicked his way.

"Good evening, Raizen" Alan said. "We meet again."

Images crashed together.

Ukai's outer fields.

Solomon walking ahead, calm as a cliff.

The guard who had met them. Ichiro's... Creator.

The one who had a stone in his own chest and somehow walked free in a city that should have hated him.

Alan.

Raizen's fingers eased off his sword just a little.

If Alan was here, then this wasn't some random enemy raid. Ukai was involved. That was bad, but at least it was… A familiar face.

Elin didn't share his relief.

"You sit at my table like you belonged here."

she said. Her voice had lost its playful edge. It was flat now. Steady.

Alan's hands remained up.

"If I'd broken in, you wouldn't have noticed" he replied. "I came the polite way!"

She didn't like that answer.

Red threads tightened around the knives until the air around them seemed to blur.

Raizen could feel it from where he stood.

"Elin" he said quietly. "He's with Ukai. I've met him before. He's not… Reckless."

He almost said dangerous.

Her eyes didn't leave Alan.

"He's not normal either" she said.

Raizen frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"His Eon is leaking" she answered. "Constantly. It's like standing near a broken pipe."

Alan's jaw moved just a little, as if he wanted to argue and decided against it.

Instead, he slowly unbuttoned the front of his dark coat and pushed it open.

Underneath, he wore a simple black shirt. Through the fabric, where his sternum sat, Raizen saw it.

The faint glow.

The soft, steady pulse of pale light, beating in a rhythm that looked like a heartbeat.

Luminite.

"It's not my choice" Alan said quietly. "You know that better than most, Elin."

Her grip on the knives didn't change.

"You didn't come here to show me your fashion choices" she said. "What do you want?"

Alan sighed.

"I'd appreciate it if we could talk sitting down" he said. "And without your threads carving through my throat, prefferably."

The red Eon around the blades hummed even higher.

"That depends entirely on what you plan to say" Elin replied.

Her voice stayed calm, but Raizen could see small things now that he hadn't noticed before.

The way her shoulders were too still.

The almost invisible tremor in the wires.

The fox-deer on a lower platform had gone rigid, eyes fixed on the strangers above. The dragon's tail twitched once in its sleep and stilled again.

Elin never got visitors.

Of any kind.

"Please" Alan said. "Sit. If I wanted to drag you back to Ukai, I would not be here alone, and I would not start with a... Friendly conversation."

He looked odd standing there with his hands slightly raised, like a man too used to this position.

Slowly, Elin lowered one knife.

The red threads around it softened, loosening, then sank back into her skin. The metal slid into the leather guard with a small click.

She kept the other blade out.

"One knife stays" she said. "And if you breathe too wrongly, I use it."

"Acceptable terms" Alan said.

He dropped his hands, careful and deliberate, and sat back down at the table. He didn't lean against the backrest. His posture stayed alert, as if he were ready to move anyway.

Elin didn't sit immediately.

She walked closer, each step measured, her bare feet almost soundless on stone. The knife remained in her right hand, red light still sleeping along its edge.

Raizen stayed a half step behind her, eyes flicking between the two.

It felt strange seeing her like this.

In the cave, in the rainforest, speaking about war, ecosystems and stubborn cities, Elin had felt untouchable. A force. A Sovereign who could lock his body without even lifting a finger.

Now there was something else underneath.

Wariness.

Not the wild fear of someone outmatched. The sharp, contained alertness of someone facing a problem that couldn't be solved by throwing power at it.

She reached the table, looked at the empty chair across from Alan and then at him.

"One question before we start" she said.

"That seems fair."

"How long have you been here?"

Alan thought for a moment.

"A little over two hours."

Her eyes narrowed.

"You found this place. Alone. In two hours."

"I found this place a long time ago" he corrected. "I just never needed to come inside."

That didn't help.

Her knuckles tightened around the knife handle.

"Elin" Raizen said under his breath.

She ignored him.

After a long beat, she let out a slow breath and sat down.

She chose the chair closest to the cliff edge, knife resting on the table between them. Not hidden. Not pointed outward. Just there.

Alan's gaze flicked to it once, then back to her.

Raizen remained standing, just behind Elin's right shoulder. If he stepped forward, he'd be at the corner of the table.

He didn't like standing there empty handed, but drawing his swords now would only tangle the room more.

"So" Elin said. "You were very brave coming here, Alan. Or very stupid. Which one?"

"Both, probably" he replied. "Desperate, definitely."

"Desperate people make messes" she said. "You know how I feel about messes."

He smiled faintly at that.

"Yes. The gray forest remembers."

"SHUT UP-"

The reference landed. Raizen saw it in the small twitch at the corner of her mouth.

"Ahem. So you were watching even then" she said.

"I told Ukai not to anger you more than they already had" Alan replied. "They didn't listen. They almost never do."

"They listened when the meat stopped feeding them" she said dryly.

"Pain is a better teacher than words."

Silence stretched again.

Raizen shifted his weight, eyes bouncing between the two of them.

"You know each other?" he said.

"We know of each other" Alan corrected. "Elin Ciela, Sky Sovereign, war criminal and environmental saint, force of nature, depending on who you ask. Former founder of things Ukai should never have allowed. Protector of a forest that wants everyone else to die."

Elin raised an eyebrow.

"That was almost flattering" she said.

"Almost" Raizen muttered.

"And you" Elin added, ignoring him, "Alan of Ukai. Very polite. Very good at pretending your hands are clean."

Alan's jaw tightened a little.

"They're not clean" he said. "They never were. You know what we did in that facility, Raizen. You know what they did to me."

Her gaze sharpened.

"Finally" she said. "Say what you want."

Alan drew in a slow breath.

"First" he replied, "I want you to stop pointing that knife at me."

"It's lying flat" she said.

"I can still see the wires."

The faintest threads of red Eon were indeed still curled around the blade. Subtle, but there.

Elin looked down at them, then sighed, as if this whole thing were an inconvenience that had ruined an otherwise good day.

"Fine."

She flicked her fingers.

The red threads lifted in a lazy arc and vanished into her skin. The knife itself slid back into her wrist guard with another quiet click, disappearing from sight.

Her hands remained on the table, fingers relaxed, palms empty.

Raizen could feel the tension in the air anyway.

Alan let some of his own shoulders loosen.

"Thank you" he said. "Now we can pretend this is a normal conversation."

"There is nothing normal about you sitting at my table" Elin said. "So speak, before I change my mind and feed you to my dragon."

The dragon snorted on the lower platform as if it had heard its name.

Alan managed to small smile at that.

"Elin" he said.

He paused.

For the first time since Raizen had met him, he looked… Unsure.

Not afraid. Not shaken.

Just tired. Heavy.

He met her eyes.

"The Ruler sent me" Alan went on. "Not the city. Not the tamers. Not the little idiots and people you hate so much. Just him."

Elin's eyes went colder at the word Ruler.

"He knows where I live" she said. "He's the only one who does."

"He knows you can still hear him, when you choose to."

Her jaw flexed once.

"What does he want?" she asked. "Another apology? A new forest? A second war?"

Alan shook his head.

He folded his hands on the table, fingers interlacing, leaned forward just a little and spoke in that same cool, even tone.

"No speeches" he said. "No demands. No threats."

His gaze didn't leave hers.

"Elin…" he said quietly. "The Ukai Ruler is dying."

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