---
Auri stood by the wall, calm and sharp. Her wings were folded neatly. Her posture was perfect. She looked like she belonged in a royal guard line rather than a merchant's bedroom. Her gaze never left Sekhmet. She did not blink often.
The six rare bats remained still, their eyes dim like coals, their bodies ready but restrained. They were blood-born creatures. They could sit quietly for hours as long as the master's will held them.
The system remained silent after its last notification, as if it too decided this hour belonged to absorption, not conversation.
Sekhmet closed his eyes fully.
He followed the flow of blood in his body.
Not the physical pumping alone, but the sensation underneath it — something finer, something that felt like threads of warm light weaving through his veins. The divine drop he had tasted was already dissolving. It was spreading through him, touching his chaos energy, touching his chaos body, touching his blood awakening.
