---
Time passed, he estimated it had been an hour yet no one came. Suddenly the door cloth parted. In walked an elderly rabbit man with silver fur and weathered citrine eyes. Unlike soldiers he wore only a simple sky-blue mantle clasped by cedar beads. Every bunny present bowed to ninety degrees.
The elder's gaze took Kai's measure, as if a craftsman studying jewel fractures and though old, aura flickered borderline five-star rank. Respectable.
"I am Un'Ren, Luna's uncle," he said in clear, common tongue. "I raised her after her parents fell to plague." The voice was kind, but lined with the leader's steel. "Tell me, stranger, how you know my niece."
Kai inclined head. "She saved my life in desert woods. I owe her… much." Memories ghosted, starlight on Luna's fur, shared fruit, their heated physical encounter.
Un'Ren's eyes narrowed. "Show proof."
