The harsh features of suspicion and defensive tension dissolved from Marcus's face with extreme slowness, like thick morning fog yielding reluctantly before the relentless rays of a blazing sun. In place of that military rigidity came a deep appreciation and a pure paternal pride. He looked at his son blazing with blue fire, and saw in him for the first time not merely an heir bearing his name, but an exceptional commander forging his own destiny, someone unafraid to break the Empire's stale traditions or challenge his ancestors' fears in order to protect those he truly trusted.
"You are right, my son," Marcus said at last, his deep and resonant voice echoing through the corners of the shattered vault like a formal declaration. "Great families are not built and sustained by the bond of blood and heredity alone, blood can be spilled or betrayed with ease, as Sylvester proved. True families are built through positions of honor, through sacrifice, and through loyalty tested in the fire of adversity."
Marcus took several wide steps forward, moving past Dex, until he stood directly before Lumia. The terrifying, oppressive aura that had surrounded him like a golden tempest suddenly contracted and retreated into his pores, becoming warm, welcoming, and paternal. In a gesture that astonished even Dex himself, Marcus bowed his head slightly forward. This was an extraordinarily rare gesture of respect, bordering on impossible within the Empire's rigid hierarchy, for a lord of SS+ rank, governor of an entire province, to bow toward someone younger and of unknown station. Yet he did it with absolute sincerity.
"Welcome to the Williams family, Lumia," Marcus said with the complete seriousness and gravity befitting the Lion of the West. "Not as a passing guest we honor for two days and then send away, and not as a mercenary whose sword we purchase with gold, but as a true and genuine member of the family, bearing its ancient name and enjoying its absolute protection. Whoever saved my son's life has saved my future and the future of this entire family from oblivion and ruin. Seiron will witness, and the Empire entire will witness thereafter, that the Williams family does not possess only sharp swords and burning fire to terrify enemies, it possesses allies and members before whom legends tremble and mountains bow."
Lumia inclined her head slightly with innate elegance and angelic fluidity, a gesture of reciprocal respect toward the family's lord, and a rare smile appeared on her lips, light and genuinely sincere, lips that rarely parted from their cold composure. "It is a great honor for me, Lord Marcus. I have found in Dex a companion beyond price, and I will be a silent sword and a shield for this family, precisely as I was for Dex in his darkest nights."
Marcus observed them briefly, and his strategic and military mind swiftly resumed working at maximum speed to secure this new alliance and protect it from watchful eyes. The Celestials were an extinct race in the eyes of the contemporary world, and Lumia's appearance in her pure celestial form, her silver aura, her hair radiating like the moon, her cosmic eyes, would immediately attract the attention of the entire world. It would attract the deranged mages who sought to possess her powers, the fanatical temple knights who would brand her a heresy, and even the Emperor himself, who accepted no power outside his control.
"Lumia, you are most welcome among us, and this is a military oath of honor that is never broken," Marcus said, smiling a sincere smile that nonetheless carried the stamp of gravity. "But both of you understand well, and I am certain that Dex with his new strategic mind is already aware of this, that the harsh outside world, and specifically the Imperial capital, will not welcome someone of the Celestial race with open arms. Your piercing silver eyes, and your hair gleaming like liquid moonlight, these are not mere marks of beauty. They are warning signs that will cry out to everyone you encounter wherever you go, announcing that you are different, that you are something from the past that must be studied or exterminated."
Dex nodded in agreement, signs of deep thought drawn across his face. "I know that, Father. I intended to use a mask or an illusion enchantment, but illusion magic can be unmasked by mages of high rank."
Marcus smiled a confident and wide smile, the smile of a man who possesses secrets surpassing the lifespans of kingdoms. "Do not trouble yourself over this, my son. The Williams family has not governed this province for centuries by swords alone. We possess in our secret archives a very ancient technique, used specifically for training our elite spies. It is not a visual illusion that deflects light to deceive the eye, it is a Biological Pigmentation Alteration using mana. A technique that penetrates the cells and changes the appearance materially and temporarily. This technique will help you, Lumia, to change your outer appearance without concealing your true power."
Marcus advanced another step and placed his large, heavy hand, covered in the scars of ancient battles, with profound paternal gentleness on Lumia's small shoulder. "The best and safest thing we will grant Lumia today is a complete and formally documented identity in our records, and a legal protection preventing any noble or priest from questioning it. From this day forward, in the Empire's official registries, your name is Lumia Williams. You are an adopted daughter from a noble lateral branch of the Williams family, one who lost her family in childhood and spent her life in harsh training and isolation in the White Peaks Mountains under my personal supervision."
While Marcus spoke, the hand placed on Lumia's shoulder began to glow with a deep and concentrated dark blue light. That was the pure mana of Water and Earth that he mastered with unparalleled brilliance. "Now, all that remains is a final and important adjustment, changing your eye-catching silver hair to a deep black, as dark as a winter night, which is the color of our family's hair, and changing your cosmic silver eyes to a pure blue to match the archetypal appearance of the Williams bloodline."
The mana flowed with smoothness and extreme gentleness from Marcus's hand into Lumia's body, permeating the strands of her hair and the pupils of her eyes. The technique was highly precise, altering the refraction of light and manipulating the magical melanin pigmentation without causing her any harm or disrupting the flow of her void mana. Within counted seconds, and before Dex's astonished eyes, the liquid silver luminous hair transformed into a thick cascade of gleaming black silk, and the mysterious silver eyes shifted to the deep cold blue of the open ocean.
Marcus stepped back a pace to contemplate his work. Dex looked at her in genuine amazement. She was still Lumia, with her delicate features, snow-pale skin, and captivating cold beauty, yet she now appeared perfectly consonant with the Williams bloodline. She looked as though she were his own close blood relative, a true and enchanting descendant of the Western Duchy.
Marcus smiled with complete satisfaction at the accomplished result, and patted her shoulder once more with the force of a father proud of his daughter. "Do not worry, Lumia. The technique is admittedly rare and complex, considered among the deepest secrets of the Williams family, but on the whole, given your high magical absorptive capacity, you will master it with great ease. I will teach it to you so you can apply it yourself and renew it whenever you wish, without needing my direct intervention."
Then Marcus added in a voice carrying the warmth of the home they had both long missed: "Welcome, Lumia Williams, welcome to your family."