The apex presence returned on a Tuesday morning.
Not with the descended-from-above quality of her previous appearances — not the specific atmospheric distortion of someone materializing from a direction ordinary space didn't contain, not the silent arrival of something that had decided to make its presence known on its own terms. She appeared at the estate gate at a reasonable hour and requested entry through the standard authorization protocol, the same channel that Mira used, that the academy representatives used, that Director Vel used when she came to review the northern corridor's stabilization metrics.
The same front gate that everyone else used.
Kaelith's monitoring registered the request and relayed it with the expression of someone who had encountered a variable they hadn't modeled.
"She's using the front gate," Lyra said.
"Yes," Kaelith confirmed.
"That's — different."
"Significantly," Kaelith agreed.
Adrian authorized entry.
