Met Lyra Caelwyn and Silas Briggs on Areska's direction. Recognized Lyra's Moon Druid connection at once and asked about teachers and charts. When he noticed the scar on her chest, he became intensely engaged. Listened to her account of the falling star from childhood, the scar it left, and the transformation in Blackmire's cellar without dismissing any of it.

Mentioned only one remotely similar story: a southern owlin village where a fallen star reportedly "enlightened" one of their own — half-folktale, half-whisper.

When Lyra pointed out the Lantern Shepherd constellation burning in broad daylight in the wrong place in the sky — which he himself could not see — his theory crystallized: "I do not believe the stars were stars. Not truly. I believed they were tears in the Barrier."

He explained that Eska was once sealed by a divine pact; that the seal frayed under war, dragons, and the choices of gods. If his theory holds, the stars are rents in the ancient boundary — visible wounds in the world's edge. Lyra may carry a fragment of one such tear within her. He admitted the theory would get him "laughed out of lecture halls."

Provided concrete help: a written account of the southern owlin case as the nearest known parallel. Called it his biggest breakthrough of his career. Lyra left with language for her condition and the knowledge that her connection has precedent and meaning — even if that language raises as many fears as it soothes.