Location:Obsidian Academy → Nexus Pavilion
Date/Time:Early Cinderfall, 9939 AZI — Evening
Realm:Lower Realm / Pavilion Sub-space
The common room was warm.
Not artificially warm — the Pavilion's warmth was organic, something that lived in the walls and the light and the lived-in quality of air that a pocket dimension produced when it had been inhabited by people who cared about each other. It smelled of Green's tea — always Green's tea, a blend she'd been perfecting for eight thousand years — and of weapon oil from White's corner, and of the faintly metallic tang that Reiko's fur left on every surface he brushed against.
Home. That's what it smelled like. Jayde hadn't had a word for it until she'd lived here long enough to realise that the absence of fear had a scent.
"Wait here," she told Eden. "I'll bring them."
"You're going to introduce me to your interdimensional family one at a time? Like a lineup?"
"Like people who matter to me. And who I'd like to not terrify."
