---
Exousia rose through the morning sky, her form weaving with mist and fading moonlight. The city fell away beneath her, becoming a blur of glass towers and thin streets. Higher she drifted, until the clouds swallowed her, damp and cold against her silent body.
She emerged beyond the cloud cover into the pale gold dawn above. For a moment she hovered there, feeling the warmth of the hidden sun brush against her face. Then she turned, folding herself into the thinness between worlds, vanishing like a shadow at noon.
When she stepped out again, she was back on the rooftop with her siblings.
Michael stood where she'd left him, arms folded, eyes staring into the city below without seeing it. Raphael sat on the ledge, head bowed, silent prayer slipping through his lips. Uriel stood at the far end of the roof, her back to them, watching the sunrise bleed faint colours across the horizon.
They felt her return before they heard her footsteps.
