---
Three days passed in a strange, soft kind of blur.
The mountain healed the way living things did. Plates got patched. Ramps got scrubbed. Blood dried, then washed away. The hum of the hive settled into a new rhythm, deeper now that so many of its pillars had grown heavier.
In the Lord's chambers, life narrowed down to slower things.
Luna slept more than she liked, grumbling about it every time she woke. Her new body demanded it anyway. Kai spent too many hours sitting beside the bed, doing paperwork he hated and pretending his back did not hurt from staying in one position too long.
Whenever she blinked awake, his aura was there, wrapped around hers, a quiet, steady warmth.
On the morning of the third day, she sat up too fast.
Kai was halfway through counting grain stock on a slate when he caught the shift. Her antennae had risen, alert and still. Her ears mirrored them, rigid.
He put the slate down.
"What changed?"
Luna looked at him, eyes bright and oddly focused.
