Valerie almost laughed at the absurdity of her own thoughts. It was impossible. The odds of Zaeryn being a lost Lumina were nonexistent.

She would believe that a snowflake had a chance of surviving in a volcano's heart, before that thought crossed her mind.

She dismissed the thought as quickly as it had formed, settling on a far more plausible, if slightly unsettling, explanation.

"Sage Stellan is a certified genius with access to cutting-edge bioengineering," Valerie mused aloud. "Perhaps Zaeryn was simply... unremarkable before. She could have enhanced him, optimized certain features to her liking."

The implication hung in the air. Sage designing her perfect boyfriend like a custom project?

The thought was cold and calculated, but it would explain so much. It wasn't like Zaeryn was some robot that could be customized or a humanoid, but still, with how advanced Stellan Innovations was in technology, it wasn't something they would rule out as impossible.

"Using royal genetic templates?" Nyx asked quietly, her expression troubled. The idea was unheard of, but it was more realistic than the alternative.

"Stellan Innovations has clearance to access the royal medical archives for research purposes," Rostova explained. "If someone wanted to... borrow from that database, it wouldn't be impossible. Technically illegal, but not beyond the reach of someone with Sage's resources and intellect."

Valerie's lightness returned, a strategic tool to dispel the tension. "If that's true," she joked, "then Sage did a poor job. She should have at least dyed his hair silver to complete the look. If his hair was blonde then I would say he is a male version of a lumina."

Rostova's shoulders relaxed slightly with a nod. "A fair point, Your Highness. The resemblance is likely borrowed, features selected from an optimal template for aesthetic purposes. Nothing more."

Silence settled over the royal transport until it reached its destination. As the doors hissed open before the Lumina royal palace, Valerie stepped out.

"I'm starving, and it's already time for dinner," she remarked cheerfully without breaking stride.

Rostova and Nyx went their separate ways, their duty ending at the threshold of the royal family's private wing.

Valerie moved through corridors carved from luminous crystal, the walls themselves seeming to breathe with a soft, internal light.

Bioluminescent flora trailed from arched ceilings, their glowing petals casting shifting patterns of gold and silver on the polished floors. The air was cool and smelled of night-blooming jasmine, a stark contrast to the sterile ozone of the Citadel.

She entered the Royal Solarium, the family's preferred space for informal meals. It was an ethereal atrium with a domed, transparent ceiling revealing the star-dusted twilight of the Capital Sector. As expected, the Queen and her daughter Athea were absent from the family dinner.

Aphrodite lounged in her chair, scrolling through her Omni-Pad with an expression of perfect, regal boredom. Across from her sat Viora and Lady Calyra, the latter swirling a glass of deep crimson wine with an amused smile.

"Valerie," Calyra called without looking up. "I was beginning to think you'd decided to stay in Sector Seven for good."

"Well, someone I met today certainly made me consider it," Valerie responded, sliding into the seat beside her aunt. A servant instantly placed a plate of exquisitely arranged food before her. She picked up her fork, her hunger palpable. "Goddess, I could eat a Vorthak."

Viora's head snapped up, her fork stilling. "I've seen a Vorthak carcass up close. If you had, you wouldn't make that joke." Her voice was a little joking, a little disgusted that Valerie would make that joke at dinner. "The smell of its charred insides and the way the corrupted Vitae leaks from the corpse… it's something you don't forget." She finished, and then continued eating.

Aphrodite looked up from her Omni-Pad, her perfect nose wrinkling in disgust. "Goddess, Viora, must you be so crude? You're ruining my appetite." She pushed a bowl of glistening fruit away.

Viora grinned faintly, giving her sister a look that showed she was proud of what she'd said.

Although her intention hadn't been to gross Aphrodite out, she was more than happy with the result. "You're welcome, sis."

Aphrodite sighed, unimpressed. "And this meal is utterly uninspired. Again."

"It's food, Aphro. It's meant to be eaten, not critiqued like a piece of art," Valerie retorted through a mouthful of something delicious.

She glanced at Calyra. "So, what did I miss? Any galactic crises or just the usual palace gossip?"

"Just your sister contemplating the strategic importance of shoe shopping," Calyra said dryly, not helping but playfully taking a jab at Aphrodite. Her sharp blue eyes, so like Athea's, twinkled with mischief. "But what about you? How was your mission to recruit the Stellan heir? Did you manage to dazzle her with your royal charm?"

"I think so," Valerie said. "Sage is brilliant."

"Brilliant, yes," Aphrodite chimed in, barely looking up from her Omni-Pad. "A total datanerd, I'm sure. I'm already bored."

"Actually," Valerie countered with a grin, "I thought Sage was a boring datanerd too, but Sage is surprisingly cool. And her fashion sense? Way ahead of mine. Even yours, Aphro. Effortlessly stylish."

Aphrodite's perfectly sculpted lips thinned into a frown. The insult landed exactly as intended. In her world, no one was more stylish. The idea that some lab-bound 'datanerd' could outshine her was not just wrong; it was offensive.

"That is the most ludicrous thing I have ever heard," she snapped, her voice losing its melodic drawl.

"I'm not comparing. It's just an observation." A slow, mischievous smile spread across her face. "Though I have to say, her boyfriend was far more interesting."

That got Aphrodite's attention again. She set her Omni-Pad down with a soft click. "Boyfriend? You met a male? Was he hideous?"

"Actually," Valerie said, savoring the moment, "he was... an anomaly." She pushed away the memory of his familiar blue eyes, sticking to the more plausible theory. "Remarkably handsome, for a male. Sage must have... enhanced him."

Viora's brow furrowed, her practical mind finding the flaw. "Enhanced him? That makes no sense. Sage is a genius, but rewriting a person's entire biological baseline? That's not just tweaking a gene sequence; that's playing goddess. It doesn't make sense."

"Well, what other explanation is there?" Valerie countered, leaning forward with a conspiratorial glint in her eye. "A male who isn't affected by everything that affects males? And his girlfriend just happens to be the one person in the Queendom who could possibly pull off such a feat? I'd say that's a pretty logical explanation, wouldn't you?"

"A custom pet project?" Aphrodite murmured, finally setting her Omni-Pad aside with a soft click. "How droll." But her green eyes, usually clouded with boredom, held a flicker of genuine curiosity as she watched her cousin.

"He's more than that," Valerie said, her cheerful tone sharpening with a hint of defensiveness. She leaned forward, as if sharing a delicious secret. "He was just accepted into the Vitae Academy at the Sector 7 Citadel."

The statement landed like a stone in a still pond. Viora's fork pausing mid-air, the warrior in her instantly assessing how impossible that was. "Wait," she said, her voice sharp. "A male was accepted into the Lyceum?"

"According to what I've heard? Yes."

Across from her, Calyra's amused expression froze. Her wine glass paused halfway to her lips, a single, perfectly sculpted eyebrow arching in genuine surprise. "A male in the Lyceum?" she repeated softly. "Now that is interesting."

But beneath the calm surface, Calyra's mind was a maelstrom. Sector 7. An anomaly. Immune to everything that plagued men, and now he was also accepted into the Lyceum.

The pieces slammed together with brutal clarity. There could only be one person.

Zaeryn. She leaned forward, her earlier boredom gone, replaced by a sharp, calculating focus that missed nothing. "Tell me more," she almost commanded, her voice a silken trap. "Tell me everything about this... anomaly."

"His name is Zaeryn," Valerie began, her voice animated and bright. "And he's not like other males. He's…." As she spoke about him, and what made him special, she sighed dreamily, a faint blush on her cheeks. "And those eyes… they're the most incredible shade of blue, like a winter sky."

Viora set her fork down, a dry smile touching her lips. "Goddess Marea, Valerie. You sound utterly smitten. Did this anomaly leave an impression, or did he reprogram your personality?"

"I won't lie, he left an impression."

Aphrodite rolled her eyes with theatrical disdain. "It's pathetic, Valerie. You're fawning over a lowly male."

'Goddess, Athea is going to have an aneurysm, 'Calyra thought, keeping her expression carefully neutral as she took a slow sip of wine. 'How did this happen? How did Valerie, of all people, cross paths with him?'

"So, he's handsome and has a personality?" Viora asked, a flicker of genuine intrigue in her practical gaze. She had little interest in men, but her cousin's uncharacteristic fascination was a puzzle she wanted to solve.

Valerie nodded enthusiastically, completely missing the sarcasm. "Exactly! He's a complete mystery. I wish I had more time with him." Her eyes lit up with a sudden idea. She reached for the Omni-Pad on her lap. "But, I was quick. I got a picture." She tapped the screen, preparing to project it onto the table.

The mood shifted. Even Aphrodite leaned forward slightly to take a look at the picture of the anomaly, her boredom momentarily forgotten in the face of this unprecedented curiosity. "Well? Let's see this supposed masterpiece, then," she said, her tone still dismissive but her eyes fixed on the device.

Viora and Calyra also leaned in. Just as Valerie's finger hovered over the screen to display the selfie of her and Zaeryn, the grand doors to the solarium hissed open.

Princess Athea walked

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