Sarah drew a careful breath, the lingering hum of the world still echoing in her chest.
"...Thank you."
Camilla looked at her for a long moment, acknowledging the bridge being built. "You are very welcome."
With that, Stan sat back. He let the two of them have the quiet moment without interrupting it.
Deep in his own awareness, a new notification surfaced, not from the bonds this time, but from the system itself.
[Observation: new bound target perception event. Cultivation lineage established. Mentor imprint registered.]
He hadn't seen that one before. He turned the concept over in his mind. Mentor imprint. The system was telling him, in its clean, impersonal grammar, that it had just recognized him as the origin point for Sarah's cultivation. He wasn't just a benefactor anymore. He was the root of her power.
He filed it away. It was going to matter later.
