Sera's Pov
He looked exactly as I remembered him from the gathering—tall, composed, and unreadable. There was a stillness about him, not lazy or indifferent, but coiled. Like someone who moved only when he had to, and when he did, it meant something. His charcoal-gray shirt was buttoned up to the neck, sleeves rolled just slightly at the cuffs like he'd intended to stay polished but got too caught up in the work to care. The look wasn't flashy. It didn't need to be.
No badges, no crest. No trace markers of rank. Nothing.
Just him. A man with no obvious allegiance, yet somehow above it all. Confident. Quietly dangerous.
And his eyes—goddess, his eyes were the real problem.
They were sharp. Focused. Blue so pale they walked the edge of silver. And there was no mistaking their intensity. It wasn't just that they saw you. It was that they read you. Dismantled you.
Made you want to confess sins you hadn't committed, just to get the weight off your chest.
