Damian talked for a long time.
He told her all of it, the old beggar who had appeared in Alessio's childhood, the tattered novel read aloud in exchange for scraps, the novel about a world with Aura and Monsters and portals that turned out to be this world, the manipulated memories, the sealed ones.
Elizabeth's Seer ability and what she'd seen in his past, the hooded figure, what the sealed memories felt like when they broke open, the way the information arrived not gradually but all at once, like a door swinging wide.
And how one had unlocked the moment Elizabeth was about to die.
He didn't rush… Just laid it out piece by piece, calmly, the way he'd learned to talk about things that had weight.
When he finished, Luna said nothing.
Several seconds passed.
She opened her mouth, closed it, looked at the ceiling, then back at him.
"...Okay," she said. "Give me a moment. This is... this is a lot to take in."
She reached across and picked up his glass.
"Luna–"
