The morning air in Imperial City did not merely carry the scent of the rising sun; it carried the heavy, golden hum of the previous night's date. The city below the palace seemed to vibrate with a borrowed energy, as if the very stones were exhaling the sapphire-orange brilliance that had lit up the Solarium Garden. Every breath Vera took felt charged with ozone, a lingering reminder of the way the air had shattered when their resonances finally fused into a single, unbreakable frequency.
