"What do you mean?"
Lucian frowned as he glanced back toward the bed, where Seraphina had already fallen asleep. Her lashes were still damp, her breathing shallow but steady. The exhaustion from rebirth, grief, and tears had finally dragged her under.
"My lord…" Darian lowered his voice instinctively. "From the archives I found about her mother… the last known true blood phoenix before we learned of Lady Seraphina's existence, there is something important you need to understand."
Lucian turned back fully.
"For ordinary phoenixes," Darian continued carefully, "rebirth returns them to the beginning. A baby form. A new cycle. Their power resets… and so do parts of their memory."
Lucian stiffened.
"But true-blood phoenixes are not the same." Darian swallowed, eyes shining with unease and wonder, "They do not return to infancy. Their rebirth does not erase. It restores."
Lucian's chest tightened.
