The first clash — that oppressive pressure she hadn't felt from anyone else — told her she had underestimated him beyond reason.
She blinked the memory away, jaw tight.
"…That was different," she muttered.
Lucavion lifted a brow. "Was it?"
Valeria didn't respond. Couldn't, not without revealing too much.
Because he was right.
She had judged him through the sword first — and it had overturned every assumption she held. She had walked into that duel confident, disciplined, certain of her technique. She had walked out breathless, shaken, and forced to acknowledge a truth she hadn't wanted to name:
He was not someone she could measure with words.
Elowyn observed the shift in Valeria's posture — the small curl of her shoulders, the slight downturn of her lashes — and glanced subtly toward Lucavion, as if trying to understand what ghost he'd stirred up.
Lucavion didn't miss any of it. His smile softened, just barely.
