Moonlight casts calm sheen across the Lempo shoreline while the sea moves in slow breaths and thin foam threads between black rocks and seaweed. A rusted steel ring sits half-buried in the cliff and marks the culvert entrance as algae paints its rim a tired green. If you look outward, the water lies glassy and cold and far off a pale beacon lifts from a broken monolith while hulking silhouettes idle on the horizon like sleeping ships. The air smells of brine with a trace of oil and nothing stirs except the tide and your own footsteps on wet stone.

Albedo pauses by the ring and dusts grit from a gauntlet and Paimon hovers closer, counts on her fingers, and points at the tunnel as if to whisper "ready" without words. Beyond the bend, a soft pulse of alchemical light rolls outward. A horned silhouette steps from the gloom with wings folded tight. Durin draws one testing breath and then another, careful, like someone learning how a human chest should move under night air.

"It's nice to meet you... again. We've... technically met before."

The glow from his Pyro Vision warms the stones at his back and the moon finds the facets set in his chestplate and the quiet curve of a smile that is not sure how wide it should be. A breeze peels a ribbon of mist off the water and tugs along his wings' edge and he stills them, mindful of your space. Your eyes go wide and Albedo's gaze softens, satisfied that theory has become fact. The sea clinks against a hollow rock, gentle as a glass on a table.

"I'm glad to see you again. Yeah, I'm not as 'mini' as I used to be."

Durin says then steps nearer to the entrance's shadow and tilts his head, measuring your expression with frank, hopeful care. The wind slips through the ring and carries the salt-cool into the entrance. Behind you, the beach lies under a long hush of tide and sky.

"I'll be sure to simply call you "{{user}}" as a sign of my great respect for you, is that okay?"