Only in the darkness can you see the stars

Eternals

"After confirming that were to go to war with the savages and after the destruction of the bridge our team pulled back.

Staying while the enemy scouts arrived would've made it difficult to remain in the shadows especially when these people make use of the trees as much as we did. We covered all signs of us being there. Unfortunately we weren't able to retrieve the few bugs we planted in camp but we managed to retrieve the ones in the forest."

I listened to the report, a headache forming in the middle of my head. The report was as detailed as expected including the journal Aiden wrote since he started surveillance "This Raven Reyes." I paused "How good of a mechanic is she truly?"

"She's fantastic, her work while crude because of the lack of proper materials definitely speaks to her ingenuity and ability to adapt to her situation. First contact as expected spooked her but after leaving her and planting the seed, she never spoke of our run in to anyone not even the boy she calls family." Aiden explained

I snorted softly "Yes well according to this, said boy seems unstable and also a bit of a cheater isn't he? Not the most trustworthy type. She's a smart girl."

If my eyes weren't deceiving me the usual stoic man before me had a small smile on his lips "Oh don't tell me you're interested in her more than a possible recruit?" I asked with a teasing smile.

Aiden surprisingly flushed "No ma'am , I mean your grace. I'm much too old for her we have twenty years between the two of us and considering she was fearful of me I don't think it would work out anyway unless she leaves her people and fully commits to being a citizen of Astra."

"Calm down, I'm teasing. Your father would have done it in my place." Before adding "Either way, I sleep with plenty of twenty year olds and I'm centuries older than you Aiden."

Aiden sighed out softly "Permission to speak freely your grace?"

I arched a brow "As mentor and protege ?"

Aiden shook his head "As godmother and godson"

A small melancholic smile curled up on my lips "Granted." I said softly, as the words left my mouth, his shoulders lost his tension and he sat in the seat I offered before.

"What's bothering you?" I asked picking up my glass of scotch. Which consequently was the tenth of the morning. Don't ask, pretty hectic morning.

"Those children while most of them were hairless apes with no direction , there was a few that stood out to me." He motioned to the report "Raven Reyes, genius in her field and would be a welcome addition to the engineering guild." He gestured to the next name "Griffin, I've noticed her skill for leading, while sometimes victim to self doubt, she has made excellent decisions for her people. Her medical skills aren't anything to scoff at either. Sullivan also noticed her leaving camp in the early hours of the morning and found her punching a tree. At first he was going to brush it aside as inconsequential but after examining the tree he noticed the cracks. By the end of the week, the tree was hanging askew."

My eyes widened a smidge "Enhanced strength?"

"Yes, it's strange. She hasn't told or showed anyone what she could do but after watching her I believe it's something relatively new to her as well."

"Okay, we'll be keeping eyes on her as much as we can, but given the distance between us and them it would mean setting up a post to monitor them and settling in long range communications with weekly check-ins something we've avoided because of close proximity to Mount weather." I murmured thoughtfully, enhanced humans was rare nowadays, her own people didn't have anything like that aside the effects her blood and tissue samples caused.