Nobody moved for a moment.
Then Caelum reached out and took the pack from Lyra's hands before she could open it.
"Don't," she said.
"Not yet."
"It's addressed to us."
"I know who it's addressed to." He set it on the table face-down and put one hand flat on it, the way you put a hand on something you're not planning to let go of. "We don't open anything from an organization we thought was dead until we know more about what we're opening."
Lyra looked at him for a long second. Her jaw was doing the thing it did when she disagreed with him but was being patient about it, the very slight tension, the breath through the nose. She looked at Vaelor.
"You knew about this," she said.
It wasn't an accusation. It was just a question, and it was direct, and Aelara watched Vaelor receive it the way he received things he'd known were coming squarely, without flinching.
"I knew it was possible," he said. "I didn't know it was active. There's a difference."
