Oh good. Villibor wasn't going to cause any problems about it, but he is very ready to be done being in proximity to his sister and the Count getting distracted by each other. 

Now that she's no longer distracted by observing the cultists, Luzai might have the attention to take in a few of the paintings on the wall. Some of them - such as the one whose label purports it to be of Prelate Hulrun slaying a shadow demon he exorcised or the portrait of queen Galfrey - were clearly destroyed by someone with a bone to pick, but others seem to have been at least momentarily spared the same fate.

Luzai stops and stares. 

"Did something catch your eye?"

The count's voice is casual, but Luzai has spent enough time with him by now to notice it seems partly affected.

She resumes walking. 

"Our mother's name was Ruvina," she says, as though in non-sequitur. "--Positive energy is illegal in Geb. Her death was stupid and preventable, and that's why I hate my father." 

"I've certainly hated family for less."

Somehow she suspects that whatever reason Daeran has to hate whatever family member(s) he's vaguing are more legitimate than he's letting on, but they have not known each other long enough to pry into that. 

So she nods and laces her fingers together with his. Sometimes it's just good to be touching another person, even a little. 

He's certainly not objecting.

Once they're well clear of the tower and have stripped out of their stolen cultist outfits, Luzai asks Seelah, "Do you think we should look for the Storyteller while we're out anyway, or get back to the Defender's Heart as soon as possible to warn Irabeth of the attack?"

Seelah thinks for a bit, looking conflicted.

"The storyteller," she finally concludes. "When it comes to preparation, every moment is critical, but every moment is critical with a rescue too, and Irabeth already knows the attack is coming. Telling her will let her know to focus on the things she can complete in time and to have people keep spell slots left over, but the big thing is that she needs to know before people start preparing spells that morning, and I think we have enough time to get to the Blackwing library and back before nightfall."

Serious nod. "Alright." 

The best route brings them through the main square again. Luzai really hopes that Hulrun is elsewhere this time. 

When they pass near the place where Terendelev died, Luzai stops and blinks. "What's that?" 

"What's which?" 

Luzai points. "That. The blue shimmering." 

"--I don't see it." 

Camellia furrows her brow. 

"There aren't any spirits there."

"There's something there..." 

She approaches the spot. 

Whatever it is seems somehow less real than everything around it; it's less blue than it is the suggestion of blue, not so much a sphere as lacking the fidelity to be anything else. Its existence is barely more than a memory, and the memory is dying. Even so, it does not abandon its task. If it cannot right the violation, at least it serve as a beacon for another to do so and correct that which should not be. 

The violation?

(Is there any way she can—gather it into herself, sustain it in a way similar to how she’s sustaining her own shards of broken soul—)

There is a shard of abyss lying on the ground below. By the standards of mortals it is well hidden, but the magic shielding its location from the eyes of others is not sufficient to turn aside the gaze of an Aeon, and even more so than the demons its presence on the material plane is something which should not be.

(She could try, but at least at the moment its existence is less compatible with hers than Seshka's was. She could prevent it from further decay, but not merge it into herself).

...She will prevent it from further decay, for the moment. Maybe she can figure out something to do with it later. 

(Shard of abyss? She looks, with her own eyes.)

Lying on the ground below where the sphere once floated is a dagger, carved out of some purple crystal she doesn't recognize. One end is bound up in a hilt, while the other is carved into a sharp blade that tapers into a point; some effort seems to have been spared to preserve most of the crystal's mass in this new configuration. Silver runes in a familiar handwriting are inscribed upon the crossguard.

A nahyndrian crystal is the solidified divine essence of a demon lord

Well. It doesn’t take wizard-grade cunning to put that together. Probably has something to do with shooting Deskari with a special bolt.

For now she leaves it. What else can the Aeon’s eyes see? Can they see anything about the Luzai-and-Seshka composite? If they can see anything about the underlying compatibility, can they see how compatible-or-not anyone or anything else would be with the fragment of Aeon?

Once within her the eyes of the Aeon are far more limited, unable to see further than her immediate surroundings through the the interference of her soul, but that does nothing about her ability to view herself through its eyes. From the perspective on an Aeon, Luzai Seshka is a nigh seamlessly blended mix of person and aberration, each segment staining the other in its colors. There's some trace of the same hated crystal, but in enough lower quantity that it is not what prevents a connection. The issue is that the Aeon is a tireless agent of cosmic order, and while Luzai has certainly acted to remove demons from the material plane she does not yet share that mindset.

Yyyyeah Luzai is pretty sure the Aeon wouldn’t be any happier about Lariel’s presence on the Material than about the demons’ and she is so not about that.

She’s pretty sure she’s not going to be a stable substrate for the remnant of Aeon indefinitely and had better find somewhere else to put it sooner rather than later.

She scoops up the knife. “Well, that was…interesting,” she observes.

“What was interesting?”