Chapter 169

Simon POV The chamber was dim, the fire still burning low from the night before. I had woken to the sound of Aisha pacing, her soft steps across the rug restless, as though sleep had only teased her instead of giving her peace. She wasn’t speaking to me directly at first, she was speaking into the silence, her thoughts spilling like water too full for its vessel. “They will never feel truly safe,” she murmured, fingers twisting the edge of her shawl. “Not if they think they’re only being tolerated, not if they sense distance. I don’t want them to feel like they are here as outsiders.” Her words carried weight, and I lay still for a moment, just listening, watching the flicker of firelight trace her face. She was no longer the woman who hid behind old scars or the pain of rejection. She was my Luna, and yet, more than that she was someone who could see wounds in others long before they admitted them. “They have lived scattered, afraid, abandoned,” she went on, her tone heavy. “What if w