The man who stepped through the gate wore simple white, no crown, nothing marking rank at all. Vane's passive read threw a single line across his vision the instant the man crossed the threshold, the same line it had thrown once before, months ago, from a hidden distance.
Danger: Error.
Near the side entrance, the Grandmaster's knees hit stone before he'd finished saying the name. "Alexander Aurelia." His voice broke in the middle of it. The two instructors beside him dropped a half second later, foreheads nearly touching the floor.
The Emperor didn't look at them. His eyes found Nyx and stayed there, unhurried, the way a man looks over a piece he's already decided how to move.
"So this is what a Calamity actually looks like." He tilted his head slightly. "The reports never quite capture it."
Ashe was already moving, blade low, crimson climbing her forearms in a wave. She closed half the distance before his hand came up, almost lazy, two fingers barely lifting off his side.
