Stood near the rail of the lift-ship, watching the rising walls with hungry caution. Stayed quiet through the Stillforge boarding — a guard ran a rapier blade through her hair to examine her, and she held still. On the dock, she introduced herself to Silas Briggs and extended her hand. The moment he shook it, he collapsed. Whether her touch or presence triggered the vision is not yet understood.

Cirrus was introduced to the party — star-bright and loyal, teeth bared when Lyra said "Stillforge." That night alone, she found the Lost Pup constellation in the sky — a story of a pup separated from its pack who chose a new family and was chosen in return. For the first time, she felt "the shape of something forming. Not just a party forced together by circumstance. A pack." Cirrus glowed brighter and curled beside her.

During the group's personal sharing, the air changed when it reached her. She wears "the stars like a secret" — her connection is unusual, not formally tied to any known druid circle. The table treated it with the respect it deserved.

Heard the stone strike Honeybrook's window before anyone else — her senses snapping awake in the dark. Helped sweep glass, helped disguise Brixton.

Entered Blackmire Tannery with Brixton and Silas as part of the front-room reconnaissance. Pretended to be prone to seasickness to distract Lessa. Noticed the real find — a draft at her feet, blood on brick, a space below. Caught Brixton's eye and gave him the warning she could without breaking cover. When he cast Darkness, she stayed with Lessa, folding confusion into the performance. Cirrus then became critical — barking from the black, tugging at robes, guiding Bodrin, Vael, and Prill through blindness and toward the cellar stairs.

Stepped fully into violence for the first time. Fear hit her first — then the stars answered. Light poured from the scar at her chest. She became less like a person and more like "a constellation learning how to walk." The Starry Archer form took shape over her. She fired a radiant shot clean through the bruiser standing over Brixton. For a moment the whole cellar saw something older and stranger than a frightened young woman moving through her.

Was still wearing the stars after combat — her archery form hadn't dropped cleanly. When Brixton touched her to reclaim his coat, his bracelet reacted violently to her astral state. Lyra panicked — she felt how little control she had over what had just happened. Brixton talked her through it: "Breathe. Slow down. Come back." When the starry shape receded, she knew she needed the observatory.

Saw the Lantern Shepherd constellation burning in the middle of the day, in entirely the wrong place in the sky. No one else could see it clearly. At the Starspire Observatory, she told Greenseer Rylenn everything — the falling star from childhood, the scar, the transformation in the cellar, the struggle to return to herself. Rylenn's central theory: the stars are not stars at all, but tears in The Barrier surrounding Eska. He believes Lyra carries a fragment of one such tear within her — explaining the scar, the transformation, the strange constellation sight. He gave her a written account of the nearest known parallel: an owlin in a far southern village enlightened by a fallen star. Not an answer — a lead.

Lyra's magic is not like anything Vael recognizes from cleric training or the guard. At Honeybrookes she talked around it — star-based, not a formal circle, knowledge passed down in fragments. Silas and Bodrin confirmed it wasn't standard. Vael treated it with the respect it deserved and moved on.

Cirrus has earned Vael's respect. The animal guided the whole party through Brixton's Darkness in the cellar when no one could see anything. A star-bright dog that finds its way through magical dark is not a pet — it's something else entirely.

In the Blackmire cellar, Vael saw the moment it stopped being a curiosity. She was frightened — genuinely — and then the fear became something else. Light poured from the scar on her chest and spread outward until she looked less like a person and more like a constellation that had learned to walk. She fired a radiant shot through the bruiser that was about to kill Brixton. Everyone in that cellar saw it.

She went to the Starspire Observatory with Silas while Vael and Bodrin looked for Rynna. He doesn't know what was said there, but she came back with answers — or at least better questions. Something about the scar and the stars being connected to something much older than druid training.

Vael was on the dock when she extended her hand to Silas and introduced herself. He shook it. And then Silas went down. Vael doesn't know if that was connected to her, or just to him — but he noticed the sequence.