Marcus's scarred face shifted into something that might have been approval.
"Smart. I was hoping you'd be smart."
The flame wall behind Zeph extinguished instantly, plunging the tunnel back into dim emergency lighting. The temperature dropped from "forge" to "uncomfortable" in seconds.
"Put the axe down," Marcus said. "If I wanted you dead, I wouldn't have wasted an hour following you through these tunnels."
Zeph's fingers tightened on the weapon's handle.
'He's right. He had a dozen opportunities to kill me. He let me kill the bug brothers without interfering. He watched me use Temporal Fracture and didn't stop me. Despite definitely having the means to do so.'
'Which means he wants something. And that's leverage—the only leverage I have.'
Slowly, deliberately, Zeph lowered the axe. Not dropping it. Not putting it away. Just moving it from an aggressive guard to a neutral position at his side.
"You have sixty seconds," he said. "Then I'm gone."
