The sky did not welcome him.
It recoiled.
The wind above the palace—once steady beneath Sebastian's wings—shifted violently, as if something unseen had reached into it and twisted the direction of breath itself.
Aliena felt it first.
Not visually.
Not intellectually.
But instinctively.
A pressure.
A wrongness in the air that made even flight feel suddenly unstable.
Her grip on Sebastian tightened.
"…Sebastian," she said again, quieter now. "Something feels—"
He didn't answer immediately.
That was what made her look up.
His expression had changed.
Not fear.
Not confusion.
Recognition.
But not the kind that brought comfort.
The kind that came with memory missing its edges.
"…It's him," Sebastian said softly.
Aliena blinked.
"Who—?"
The sky cracked.
Not with sound.
With presence.
A ripple tore through the air above them like invisible glass breaking across reality itself.
And then—
he arrived.
At first, it looked like descent.
