Everyone reacted at once.
Relief, disbelief, joy, grief, gratitude, laughter, tears... everything struck at the same time and broke across the gathering like a wave that had waited too long behind a dam.
Vivian was the first to move.
She ran to him and threw her arms around him so hard that Lucien nearly rocked back a step.
Lucien laughed softly and held her.
"Sis," he said, voice warm and unmistakably his, "I'm back."
That only made her cry harder.
"I know," Vivian said through tears. "I knew you would."
Behind her, Sebas lowered his head and wept openly without caring who saw it.
"Young Lord..." he said, and the title came out like prayer, oath, and relief all at once.
Cielius laughed like a man who had just been handed back years he had already mourned. His old shoulders shook with the force of it.
Clara fell to her knees immediately. Her hands clasped themselves so hard her knuckles whitened, and as she began another of her absurdly sincere prayers under her breath.
