Aether's Obsession
Below, the second moon sat in the sky and held its secrets.
In the bond, in the part of him that was still open, still running, still carrying the shape of a connection that had gone quiet rather than ended, something moved. Faint. Brief. The way a candle flickered in a sealed room, as though something had shifted the air on the other side of a closed door.
Gone before he could be certain of it.
He stood on the terrace until the sun rose.
Then he went inside, walked to the war room where Draven was already waiting with the fleet coordinates mapped on the crystal display, and said simply: