Leon stepped through the portal and was back in the tower's main hall.
The grand lounge opened around him exactly as he'd left it — the same steady, unwavering light, the same circular reception desk at the center, the same architectural weight of something built to outlast everything around it.
Behind the desk, the elf looked up immediately.
Her golden eyes found him before he'd taken a full step into the space, the attention in them sharpening with the focused quality of someone who had been waiting and was now watching to see if this time would be different from last time.
Leon didn't break stride.
He found the exit and walked toward it with the same uninterrupted pace he'd used on the way in, the crystalline seed warm in his pocket, the Void Dominion sitting in his right hand like something that had always been there and had finally decided to show its full shape.
The elf watched him cross the entire hall without slowing.
