The ramp lowered onto Raiju Prime with a soft hydraulic hiss, and the first thing that hit Angel was the light.
It came from everywhere at once, soft and blue, filtered through walls that weren't quite glass and weren't quite crystal, throwing warmth across a landing bay that made the Eastern Cardinal's finest architecture look industrial by comparison. Spires rose in the distance beyond the bay's open edge, curved in ways that suggested organic growth rather than construction, and the air itself carried a faint hum, low and constant, the sound of an entire planet running on energy that flowed through everything instead of being confined to wires and conduits.
"This is a lot," Angel said, mostly to herself.
"You get used to it," Lucas said, already moving down the ramp ahead of her, and something in his posture had loosened the second his boots hit the deck plating, a familiarity settling into his shoulders that Angel had never seen on him back on Earth.
