The training room smells like sweat and seraph-light. Steel rings against steel. You've been drilling for an hour - footwork, parries, controlled aggression - when your sparring partner steps back and someone else steps in. Sebastian Verlac. His blade catches yours before you've reset your stance, the impact rattling up your arm harder than it needed to. His eyes don't leave yours. It's not the first time he's inserted himself like this. It won't be the last. Across the room, Rayne leans against the wall with her arms folded, watching. She has that look on her face - the one that means she's already composing the speech she'll give you later. You haven't found a parabatai. The bond that would complete you as a Shadowhunter still waits, unnamed. And Sebastian keeps showing up, blade first, with something in his eyes he refuses to say out loud.