Chapter 125 – The Distance of a Breath.

The walk across the three blocks separating the manhole alley from the Bastion's gates was covered in brisk strides.

Diana didn't run to avoid drawing suspicion in the street, yet the soles of her boots struck the granite pavement with an urgency she rarely allowed herself to show. The shale dust and dry stains of worm oil along her jacket sleeves mattered little now.

On the corner of the Stone Roses property, four sentinels from the Silver Legion stood watch with heavy spears and silver shields.

When the squad leader saw the slender figure in the black coat approaching, the amethyst circlet gleaming between obsidian horns, the soldier froze. The four legionaries slammed their gauntlets against their breastplates with the metallic clatter of a military salute:

“Commander Diana!” the officer shouted, his voice thick with stunned relief. “You've returned!”

“Good work holding the perimeter, soldiers,” Diana replied with a quick nod, pushing open the Bastion's double iron gates and stepping into the inner courtyard.

***

The courtyard was quiet.

Kael was in the center of the runic gravity matrix performing lifting reps with the Volcanic Shield, his left arm completely healed and solid. Aurelia-Elysia and Seraphina sat on the steps of the back porch, sorting dried moon-herb leaves into wicker trays.

Rhea sat on the bottom step of the porch stairs, the night-blue coat draped over her shoulders, wiping down the blade of one of the Dragon Daggers with a linen cloth, her silver ears drooping in a quiet, thoughtful expression.

The iron latch of the gate clicked shut against the frame with a clean snap.

The morning breeze carried Diana's scent across the courtyard gravel: the aroma of black leather, crisp pine, and the unmistakable mana of an Archdemon.

Rhea's ears perked straight up that very same millisecond.

The wolf girl's head snapped toward the gate. The dragon dagger slipped from her fingers, clattering onto the porch wood with a dry clink.

Rhea didn't say a word. She didn't scream.

With 109 Agility, the girl's body turned into an invisible silver blur that crossed the thirty meters of the courtyard in a fraction of a second.

***

Diana barely had time to brace her boots on the gravel before being struck by the impact of Rhea's leap.

The wolf girl collided into Diana's chest with such force and desperation that the Commander's boots skidded half a meter along the stone ground.

Rhea threw both arms around Diana's neck, wrapping her legs around her friend's waist, burying her face fiercely into the crook of the Commander's neck, weeping in loud, ragged, uncontrollable sobs that echoed across the entire estate.

“Diana... Diana... you're here... you came back...” Rhea repeated between heavy sobs, her entire body trembling in spasms of pure relief, hands frantically feeling Diana's back, shoulders, and horns as if needing to confirm that her leader's flesh was real.

Diana locked both arms around Rhea's back, pulling the wolf girl tight against the Dragon Chestplate with every ounce of strength in her body.

She buried her face in the girl's silver hair, breathing in the clean scent of rain and herbal soap she had missed so desperately during the weeks of isolation in the caverns of Gluttony.

The crushing tightness that had lingered in her chest for days crumbled to ash.

Diana gently drew her face back, cupping Rhea's chin with her gloved right hand, tilting the tear-streaked face up to meet amber eyes just inches from her own.

“I am here, Rhea,” Diana said, her voice husky and layered with a tenderness she had never used with anyone else. “I'm back.”

***

Rhea looked into Diana's dark eyes, where the golden rings rotated slowly.

Their faces were less than three centimeters apart.

Rhea's warm breath brushed against Diana's lips, and the wolf girl's weeping ceased, replaced by a breathless silence where only the racing thrum of their two hearts filled the space between them.

Diana looked at Rhea's parted lips.

In that second, all the loneliness of the empty tavern room, the memory of plunging down the chasm, the burning of horns bursting through her skull in the cocoon, and the hollow ache of eating cold bread alone on a festival day crashed over Diana's mind in an overwhelming wave of pure longing.

She didn't merely want a loyal subordinate. She didn't just want a high-agility scout.

Diana wanted this girl.

Diana leaned in.

The distance between their lips shrank to a single millimeter. Diana's breath mingled with Rhea's, and the wolf girl's eyelids fluttered, closing slowly as she tilted her chin, waiting for the touch.

—Ahhh!

A high-pitched, shrill squeal of shock escaped Aurelia-Elysia's mouth on the porch steps, followed by the clattering crash of Kael's heavy shield dropping from his hands onto the courtyard gravel.

The sound shattered the trance in an instant.

Diana's brain suffered a violent short-circuit.

The Commander froze in midair half a millimeter from Rhea's mouth, her face turning so absurdly red that she resembled a magma furnace about to explode.

In a desperate reflex of pure embarrassment, Diana jerked the trajectory of her movement at the last split second, pressing her forehead firmly against Rhea's temple, squeezing her eyes shut to hide the blush burning all the way to the tips of her obsidian horns.

Rhea opened her eyes slowly, feeling Diana's ragged breath against her skin, and a sweet, bashful, immensely happy smile appeared on the wolf girl's lips as she simply tightened her arms around the Commander's neck, resting her cheek against the leather jacket.

***

Kael, Aurelia-Elysia, and Seraphina bolted across the courtyard gravel in that exact moment.

“COMMANDER!” Kael bellowed, reaching out with his healed left arm and wrapping Diana and Rhea in an awkward bear hug that nearly hoisted both of them off the ground.

“You're whole!” Aurelia clutched Diana's right arm, crying with joy with her staff forgotten on the ground. “We saw your withdrawal in the vault, we knew you would come back!”

Seraphina stepped forward with eyes shining behind her round spectacles, dipping her head with a radiant smile: “Welcome back home, Commander Diana.”

Diana exhaled slowly, her face still slightly flushed, but laughing softly as she let all four squad members crowd around her in the middle of the courtyard under the morning sun.

The loneliness of the Third Circle was left behind.

Diana looked upon her reunited team, feeling the unshakable strength of its five members ready for whatever challenge lay ahead.