"Fuck."
"Yes," Severin said. "That was approximately my reaction as well."
"It makes sense," Arik said.
Mezos looked at him. "What does?"
"Wrohan."
The gold beneath Arik’s bandages brightened again, but this time it was not instability alone. His thoughts had begun moving rapidly, fitting old damage into a pattern none of them had understood before.
"Felix has been starving Wrohan of ether for years," he said. "Draining reserves, destabilizing the regional networks, forcing their systems to operate below minimum capacity."
Severin’s expression sharpened.
"And he targeted Agaron’s imperial core," Arik continued. "Not merely to weaken us. He needed sovereign-grade ether."
Mezos lowered his blade slightly, attention shifting from Severin to Arik.
"We assumed he was replenishing himself," Arik said. "His own pheromones had poisoned him. His body was deteriorating, and every channel he had altered was becoming unstable. I thought he was consuming ether because he needed it to remain alive."
"He may have," Severin said. "But survival was never Felix’s only ambition."
"No."
Arik looked toward the window, though Deira lay beyond curtains and night.
"He was trying again."
The room went still.
"He could not reproduce Goliath’s signature with blood alone," Arik said. "The stolen ether degraded. The outer systems hesitated, but the imperial core rejected him."
"So he searched for another source," Mezos said.
"A living imperial core," Arik replied. "Something powerful enough to stabilize what he had stolen and sustain the imitation."
"Agaron," Severin said.
Arik nodded.
"And Wrohan was the supply he used while preparing to reach it."
At the back of Arik’s mind, Goliath’s anger rose cold and absolute.
Felix had not abandoned Nuria.
He had spent decades building another attempt.
Arik looked at Severin.
"He did not want Agaron’s core because it was stronger than Wrohan’s."
"No," Severin said.
"He wanted it because it belonged to an empire."
"And because you were connected to it," Mezos added.
Arik went silent.
The implication settled with brutal clarity.
Felix had not merely targeted Agaron’s power.
He had targeted Arik’s.
A living bearer of Goliath’s soul, bound to an imperial core powerful enough to reinforce the sovereign ether Felix had failed to imitate.
Severin’s watery jade eyes narrowed.
"He knew what you were."
"Not entirely," Arik said. "But he knew enough."
"Enough to understand that if he could take your ether," Mezos said, "He would no longer need to imitate Goliath from fragments."
"He could build the signature from its living source."
The gold around Arik’s hands flared violently.
Liam shifted in the bed.
Arik’s ether softened at once, folding back from the room before it could disturb him.
Severin watched the reaction.
Then he said quietly, "Felix was not trying to return to Nuria as Goliath."
Arik’s gaze hardened.
"He was trying to return as me."
The words settled heavily into the room.
For several seconds, only the muted hum of the palace wards answered.
Then Severin stepped away from Mezos’s blade.
"Prove it."
Arik’s expression cooled. "Prove what?"
"That the sovereign ether is truly yours."
"You just spent several minutes explaining that you do not mistake me for Goliath."
"I do not." Severin flicked his gaze toward the gold beneath Arik’s bandages. "But Nuria’s deepest systems do not answer to names, faces, or reincarnation theories. They answer to the sovereign bond."
Mezos did not lower his weapon, eyes narrowing with irritation. "You want him to interact with an imperial system while his channels are unstable."
"I want him to open a door."
"Which door?"
"The throne room."
The gold around Arik’s hands brightened.
Severin continued before he could answer.
"Or the imperial office, if you prefer something less ceremonial. Both have remained sealed since Goliath disappeared. The regency can access the outer chambers, but the central locks require his direct ether."
"You attempted this with Felix," Arik said.
"Yes."
"And?"
"He opened the first ward."
Severin’s mouth hardened.
"The second rejected him hard enough to fracture every grafted channel in his right arm."
Arik looked unimpressed. "That sounds useful."
"It was satisfying."
"Then why did you stab him?"
"He continued moving."
Mezos’s blade lowered by a fraction, irritation giving way to respect. "Reasonable."
Severin’s eyes remained on Arik. "If you open either room, the council will have proof that cannot be dismissed as a corrupted announcement or a confused palace system."
"I have no interest in proving I am Goliath."
"You would be proving that the bond survived through you."
"That distinction will be lost the moment the doors open."
"Probably."
Arik’s jaw tightened.
From the bed came Liam’s voice.
"If anyone leaves me alone in this room, I will retaliate."
No one moved.
Liam lay exactly where Arik had left him, curled beneath the blanket with his eyes closed. One hand still held Arik’s discarded shirt against his chest.
Severin looked toward him.
Liam did not open his eyes.
"I am serious."
"You are asleep," Arik said.
"You were loud."
Severin studied him with increasing suspicion. "What form would this retaliation take?"
"I have not decided."
Arik’s mouth shifted faintly.
Severin noticed.
His watery jade gaze moved from Liam to Arik and back again.
"This is the man you chose."
"Yes."
"The man threatening retaliation because you may cross a corridor."
Liam lifted one finger from beneath the blanket. "I am also a Canmore."
Severin stared at both of them in pure disbelief.
"You bonded yourself to Felix Canmore’s family?"
"I bonded myself to Liam," Arik said.
"That does not improve my assessment of your sanity."
Liam opened one crimson eye.
Arik felt his ether react before he could suppress it.
Gold spread over the floor in a thin warning line.
Severin looked down at it.
Then back at Arik.
"You are prepared to threaten the commander of Goliath’s special troops because your mate dislikes being left alone."
"Yes."
"I am beginning to question whether carrying Goliath’s soul damaged your judgment."
"That is not new."
"No," Severin said. "But Goliath’s particular madness usually involved military necessity, imperial survival, or an unwillingness to delegate."
"Felix hates me," Liam said.
Severin went still.
The judgment disappeared from his face so quickly it looked cut away.
"What?"
"Felix Canmore hates me," Liam repeated. "Personally."
Arik turned toward the bed. "Liam."
"You were going to explain badly."
"I was not going to explain at all."
"That is worse."
Liam pushed himself upright with visible reluctance. His hair fell loose around his face, exposing the mark over his scent gland.
Severin’s gaze touched it and moved away again.
"My grandfather poisoned me too," Liam said.
Shadow ether gathered at Severin’s feet.
"With what?" he asked.
"His pheromones," Liam said. "Modified to corrode ether channels, weaken resistance, and make control easier."
Severin’s face became very still.
"The same poison he used on Goliath?"
"Derived from it," Arik said. "Less immediately destructive. More useful if Felix wanted Liam alive and compliant."
Liam looked at him. "That was almost an acceptable explanation."
"I am improving."
Severin ignored them.
"Why poison his own grandson?"
"Because I manage Lab V," Liam said. "Because I designed technology he wanted. Because controlling me would have given him access to Agaron’s ether systems."
"And because he believed your blood gave him ownership of you," Severin explained, not asking for clarification right away because he was trained to wait.
Liam’s expression flattened. "That too."
Mezos finally dismissed the blue blade at Severin’s nape, though he remained behind him.
"Felix raised him as an asset," Arik said. "He poisoned him, targeted his laboratory, and attempted to separate us through the Gate. Liam is not an extension of him."
"I did not say he was."
"You were thinking loudly."
Severin’s gaze returned to Liam.
"Felix poisoned his own grandson."
"He poisoned Goliath," Liam said. "I am not sure why you expected being related to me to awaken principles he never possessed."
That silenced the room.
Severin looked away first.
His expression had lost every trace of amusement.
"When?"
"Recently enough that the damage is still healing," Arik said.
"And you brought him through the Gate while he was recovering."
"The Gate took him first."
Severin turned on Arik. "That is worse."
"I am aware."
"You crossed after him with an incomplete core."