The next morning, the Kagu Ancestral Estate went back to work.
Relief doesn't last long in a command centre. By breakfast the Red Chalice had gone from a war to a clean-up: leaderless cells, frightened false Radiants, safehouses to empty. Lyra's brother was asleep in Rachel's ward with Lyra in the chair beside him, and had not let go of her hand. Tiamat and Luna were already bent over star charts, talking about the seven Demon Lords in low voices. I sat through two meetings and gave my report and felt the room go quiet around me in a way it never used to. They were my family. I was also, now, something other, and we were all still learning where to put our eyes.
Halfway through the third meeting, a cold thought touched the back of my mind.
'Master,' Erebus said. 'When you have a moment. Below.'
He never asked for anything. I excused myself and opened a seam into the dark.
