Liara walked the halls of the academy like a ghost in her own skin.
She spoke when spoken to. Nodded when needed. Trained with Cassian. Studied with Aeron. But her mind was elsewhere—with him. The silver flame still flickered behind her eyes, in the softest touch of her lips, in the rhythm of her pulse.
Kael.
She didn't say his name, even in her thoughts, but the dream clung to her like smoke she couldn't shake. It hadn't felt like a vision. It had felt real.
Too real.
And that terrified her more than anything.
Aeron didn't say a word.
But he watched.
He noticed the way she flinched when her fingers brushed the old Vault book. The way she avoided mirrors. The way her gaze drifted to the horizon during sparring, like she was waiting for something to come for her.
Or someone.
When she smiled at Cassian, it didn't quite reach her eyes anymore. When Aeron brushed against her arm, she tensed, then apologized like it meant nothing.
But Aeron knew what it meant.
He felt it—the same way he once felt ancient magic stirring beneath the earth. Something was waking up inside her. Or pulling her somewhere she hadn't fully admitted yet.
That evening, he stood outside her door, silent.
He didn't knock.
Didn't ask what was wrong.
He just stood there, watching the candlelight beneath the crack of her door, waiting for her shadow to move. It didn't. She was still.
Or hiding.
Inside, Liara stared at her reflection in the mirror.
Except—this time—it wasn't her reflection.
It was him.
Kael.
He stood behind her, but when she turned, there was no one.
Her knees gave out, and she sat on the edge of her bed, burying her face in her hands.
She wasn't sure who she was becoming.
But whatever it was—it had already begun