The healers gave Lucifer six hours of forced stillness.
He took five.
It left the wound across his ribs sealed enough to be usable pain, not an open failure. Not enough that he could stand in a planning hall without bleeding through the bandages every time he took a deep breath, but enough to qualify as usable.
The lower strategy hall was already full when he got there.
Lucian had the lattice projections open across the main table, while Aeloria stood at one end with restricted starfire notes hovering above her hands. Nyx took up the other end like a shadow in a chair. Lilith was present and upright in her dark authority, enough to make the air seem sharper. Damaris was sitting rather than standing, gold light under his skin still uneven, but his eyes were clear and working. Rhazor, Zane, Anita, and Heron filled out the rest, and the room had the tight silence of people having stopped pretending that they had spare days.
