The night stretched on longer than I expected.
Cheon eventually retreated to her spreadsheets and timeline projections, muttering about contingency plans and probability matrices. Mera fell asleep against my shoulder sometime around midnight, her breathing slow and steady, her tail still wrapped around my wrist like she was afraid I'd disappear if she let go. Noel stayed until two in the morning, asking questions I didn't have answers to, pushing back on assumptions I hadn't realized I was making.
She was good at that. Finding the blind spots.
"Your father's surveillance team knows about this apartment." She was standing by the window again, watching the city lights. Her reflection ghosted across the glass. "They've documented Mera and Cheon coming and going. They probably have photographs. Audio recordings. Maybe video."
"I know."
"And you're just... accepting that?"
