The morning after Adrian's escape, Umbral felt different.
The eternal twilight was the same, the bio-luminescent streets still pulsed with their familiar purple and blue glow, and the three Houses still watched everyone from their towers of power. But something had shifted in how people looked at the Lightbreakers, a mix of respect and fear that followed them through every market and plaza.
Dante found Seira's departure point, a small transit station at the city's edge where climbers could arrange passage to lower floors. She was already gone, her presence erased from Umbral as thoroughly as if she'd never existed.
Leon stood nearby, watching the same nothing.
"She took the first transport out." Leon's voice was quiet but steady. "Didn't even wait for morning."
"Did you expect her to?"
"No." He turned to face Dante. "I wasted two years on her. Two years of hoping she'd change, that what we had meant something, that I wasn't just a stepping stone to someone better."
"And now?"
