[Ava's POV]
The whispers of Unbound Luna were no longer mere sounds; they had become a texture in the air of the Den, a subliminal hum of awe and disquiet that followed Ava like a scent.
It was Sable, Lucien's formidable and famously opaque Head of Security, who finally gave the amorphous specter a name, a history, and a chillingly pragmatic warning. She cornered Ava in the relative sanctuary of the hydroponics room, a space of vibrant, humid green and the gentle gurgle of water circuits.
Sable’s arrival was not announced by footsteps, but by a shift in the atmosphere—a sudden, localized drop in temperature and the intrusion of a silence more profound than the ambient hum of the grow lights.
“You are operating with a currency you do not understand,” Sable stated, her voice a low, con
