Gabriel's lips curved, sharp but fond. "I tolerate her. Barely."

Rowena squirmed at the sound of his voice, turning her head toward him, her small fists waving as though demanding attention. Gabriel sighed, setting aside the fig he hadn't finished and extending his arms with an exasperated little huff. "Give her here, then, before she decides to wage war from your shoulder."

Alexandra's brows arched in surprise, though her smirk was quick. "You didn't even make me argue."

"Because she already is," Gabriel replied dryly, and took his niece without hesitation.

Rowena settled into his arms with a soft coo, her dark lashes blinking open, curious eyes catching the lamplight as she fixed on him. One tiny hand shot forward immediately, closing clumsily on the edge of his shirt collar.

Gabriel looked down at her, and the sharp edge of his mouth softened in spite of himself. "Rowena Lancaster," he murmured, his thumb brushing against the curve of her cheek. "General already, and I see you've inherited your mother's grip."

Alexandra laughed under her breath, folding her arms as she watched. "Don't pretend you're not already charmed."

Gabriel didn't rise to the bait. He leaned back in his chair, one hand steady at Rowena's back, the other lightly capturing her tiny fist before she could yank harder at his shirt. "At least she's decisive," he said mildly. "That's more than I can say for half the council."

Edward's brow twitched, his version of amusement. Rafael allowed himself an open smile, watching as Gabriel adjusted Rowena more comfortably against him, his usual sharp posture softened around the small weight in his arms.

For all his sardonic words, Gabriel's brown eyes lingered on Rowena's face with something unguarded, almost wistful. The fragments scattered across his desk went ignored for the first time all day.

Alexandra's gaze, however, drifted past him. She frowned faintly at the scorched crystal sheets, their blackened runes catching the light. "Those look familiar," she said after a moment, stepping closer. "Father had something like this in his study. Etched along the back wall, near the old ward cabinet."

Gabriel's head tipped, though he didn't lift his eyes from Rowena. "Did he?" His tone was mild, almost lazy, but his hand tightened subtly at the infant's back.

Alexandra glanced at him, brow arched. "Don't tell me you asked him for help."

"I haven't," Gabriel said simply, rocking Rowena a little when she squirmed against his collar. "It's not really his area of expertise."

Alexandra hummed. "Maybe it is not the same thing, but you can ask him."

Gabriel didn't answer right away. Rowena pressed her face into the line of his collar, her soft breath warming his neck, and he let the silence stretch. His fingers traced along her tiny shoulder, steadying her when she shifted.

Lucius.

The thought wasn't a danger anymore. Not like it used to be.

He and Elowen had changed, or perhaps it was simply that they'd grown tired of trying to shape the world with their silence. Lucius had stepped down, passing the headship of von Jaunez to Theo, and now spent his days trailing after Arik or humoring Theo's little ones with patient smiles Gabriel would never have believed him capable of. Sometimes he was even at Alexandra's, a quiet shadow with Rowena in his arms, the sharpness that once ruled his every word dulled into something closer to warmth.

They had a casual relationship now. Civil. Not warm, but without the constant tension that once made every shared room a battlefield.

Gabriel let out a quiet breath through his nose, glancing toward the blackened fragments on the desk. Lucius had always had a mind for order, for records and cabinets and neat systems of thought. He had been no master of wardcraft, no scholar of runes, but he had lived long enough at court to see things, to remember where others had forgotten.

Maybe he could recognize something.

Maybe.

Gabriel pressed a faint kiss to the crown of Rowena's head, his smirk curving even as his gaze lingered on the shards. "If he knows anything," he said at last, voice dry but quieter than before, "he'll tell me without me asking. Lucius always preferred the sound of his own explanations."

Alexandra arched a brow, lips twitching. "So you'll let him."

Gabriel gave her a look over Rowena's shoulder, sharp but not cutting. "I said he might tell me. Not that I'll invite him into my study like some kind of oracle."

Edward inclined his head, as though confirming Gabriel's words for himself. Rafael said nothing, but his eyes flicked once to the fragments, then back to Gabriel with quiet curiosity.

Rowena shifted again, gurgling softly as her small hand batted at Gabriel's jaw. He caught her wrist gently, pressing his lips against her knuckles before lowering it back to her blanket.

Alexandra's smirk deepened as she leaned a hip against the desk. "You sound exactly like him when you say things like that."

Gabriel's brown eyes slid to hers, sharp but amused. "If you're trying to insult me, you'll have to try harder."

"I'm not insulting you," she said smoothly. "I'm reminding you that he hasn't been the same man in years. He plays with children now. He listens. If anyone might recognize what those shards mean and keep quiet about it, it's him."

Gabriel's smirk didn't fade, but the silence he let hang between them was telling. He looked back down at Rowena, who was staring up at him as though he were the only person in the room.

"I'll think about it," he said at last, his voice low, threaded with the kind of finality that warned Alexandra not to press further.

She didn't. She only pushed off the desk, smoothing her jacket with one hand. "That's all I wanted to hear."

Edward glanced at Gabriel, measuring the words more carefully than Alexandra had. Rafael, meanwhile, watched Gabriel tuck Rowena a little closer, as though the infant were a shield against arguments he didn't care to have.

For a moment, the study was quiet, save for Rowena's small, curious coos and the faint hum of the wardlines burning steady in the walls.