Episode Twenty-Two: "The Court of the Bright Morning"

The Court of the Bright Morning — described in full, extraordinary beauty: crystal spires grown from living stone, flowering everywhere, open to the Luminos sky, filled with creatures from across the realm. Clarity is there — silver and clean and official in his gate-regulator capacity, greeting them at the entrance. He is different from the Smudge. Completely, entirely different. He is exactly himself. He bows to the girls. Nibbler looks at everything with large eyes and maintains his composure for about three minutes before losing it slightly at the sight of a creature that is entirely made of light and wants to sniff him. Queen Aura speaks to the girls privately — she tells them what she told no one else: that she watched Dion prepare the garden from the Luminos side, that she was the one who ensured Prism's path led to New Zealand when the crack opened, that the whole adventure was not just planned by Dion but quietly supported by the Queen herself. She knew. She always knew. The girls are formally received by the Court as Apprentice Wardens. The ceremony is brief but extraordinary — the pendant-crystals warm and glow when Aura touches them. Nibbler is formally received as *"the Warden's Cat,"* which is apparently a recognised role in Luminos, and which he accepts with immense dignity.