"So," he said. "Now—"
Leon didn't waste time on pleasantries. Everything between them had been established, the contract was signed and witnessed by something older than anything he'd encountered, and she wasn't a threat to him or anyone he cared about. Which meant the most pressing question could finally get asked.
He pointed at the small spherical object she'd been hovering near since his arrival.
"That thing. The World Fragment. What exactly is it?"
Xyra looked at him, then looked at the Fragment, then looked back at him with an expression that had shifted into something he hadn't seen from her yet—genuine surprise, brief but real, crossing her features before she composed herself.
He got that from the first floor, she thought. The first floor of this tower.
"You got this from the first floor," she said. It wasn't entirely a question. More the specific tone of someone confirming information that their mind is still processing.
"Yes," Leon said.
She was quiet for a moment.
