The change did not begin with an announcement.
It began with how people looked at her.
Lyra felt it the moment she stepped out onto the upper terrace.
The air was the same.
The structure of the pack remained unchanged.
But the attention
that had shifted.
No one approached her directly.
No one questioned her presence.
But they noticed her.
Carefully.
Deliberately.
Space opened as she walked.
Voices lowered, not out of secrecy
but awareness.
They were no longer trying to understand why she was here.
They were beginning to accept that she belonged.
Lyra rested her hands lightly against the stone railing, her gaze drifting across the training grounds below.
Everything looked as it had the day before.
Orderly. Controlled.
Yet something invisible had settled over it all.
A q
