Readiness arrived without ceremony.
Aaliyah noticed it not as motivation, but as a subtle shift in orientation, a sense that something ahead no longer felt distant or abstract. It wasn't calling loudly. It wasn't pulling her forward.
It was simply there.
Available.
The morning carried a familiar quiet. Rowan moved through the apartment with ease, both of them settled into rhythms that no longer required negotiation. Aaliyah drank her coffee slowly, noticing how her thoughts no longer scattered.
They gathered.
Not around urgency, but around clarity.
At the studio, something different happened.
Aaliyah arrived and realized she wanted to bring something with her next time, not tools, not plans, but intention. The recognition surprised her. She hadn't framed anything she'd done there as intentional before.
This wasn't pressure.
It was direction beginning to form.
