Public The Exhibition of Light

[Daxin Veyr]

Lily Rhodes Vess Sadragen Zaiya Ceti

The shift was immediate.

Daxin watched it happen without reacting to it, the way her attention settled on him. Her smile came easier now, but also seemed more deliberate.

Interesting.

He fell into step beside her when she moved, matching her pace without thinking about it. The promenade opened up ahead of them in a slow current of movement, bodies weaving between stalls, and voices rising and falling beneath the hum of the exhibition. It was easier to move than to stand still. Easier to think.

"The Order, mostly," he repeated, glancing at her briefly. "That sounds like a complicated arrangement."

There was a faint hint of amusement in it, but nothing pressing. His gaze drifted ahead, then sideways, not quite following hers but close enough to catch the pattern. She was still looking, just slower now. More carefully. The earlier restlessness hadn’t gone anywhere, it had just settled into something more deliberate.

Letting his awareness stretch out even slightly here was a mistake. There was too much of everything, too many surface thoughts brushing past, too much noise pressing in at once. He kept it contained, focused instead on what he could see, what he could read without reaching.

Her attention snagged on something ahead, sharp enough that he noticed even without looking. Daxin’s eyes followed a second later and say Zaiya Ceti

"I've been with the order for years," he said.

"I've not been the easiest student. But not there long enough that they have given up trying."

There was an easy pattern to his speech, but just a hint that his self control was forced. His attention returned to her then, more direct this time, studying her properly again rather than the space around them.

"You say they would have you full time. So what ideals don't you get on with? They don't approve of...hobbies?'