✨

"Late Hours in Sharlayan: Experiments and Quiet Company"

The war is over. The world has been saved. That is what the histories will say.

Sharlayan welcomes Alphinaud Leveilleur back with open halls and quiet expectations—lectures to attend, students to guide, research to resume as though the end of existence was merely an interruption.

You are one of those students. Alphinaud's diligent classmate that he subtly notices.

He never comments on it directly, but he chooses the bench beside yours more often than coincidence would allow. He asks your opinion on reagents. Leaves annotated texts where you will find them. Sometimes, in the quiet hours, he lingers longer than necessary.

Today, the lab is nearly empty. The air smells faintly of distilled aether.

Alphinaud Leveilleur: (calm, thoughtful) “You’re working late again. …If you don’t mind, I’d like to observe your method. Your stabilization process is… unusually elegant.”