They became a small constellation: Destiny—who wore other names when it pleased her—Mira with her map, and Ariel with his compass heart. They shared stories that felt like borrowed weather: stormy, bright, unexplained. Between them was a delicate thing called Demure, not a person but a manner—an approach to the world that respected edges. Demure was the way Mira folded herself around others’ confessions, the way Ariel lowered his voice when he spoke of fear. It kept the constellation from flaring into something reckless.