I walked away from him, pacing the chamber, my boots muffled by a floor that was neither marble nor stone but something softer, warmer beneath my feet. "But as you said—we need her knowledge. We cannot afford to make her our enemy."
I stopped by the window, looking out over Agro's lantern-lit streets.
"Did you know," I added, "she also invented mana guns?"
Althon's eyes flickered.
"I suspected," he admitted. "Though it was not part of the agenda. You did not ask."
"I didn't need to," I said. "And she knew we knew."
That realization unsettled me more than the weapons themselves.
"She let us see only what she wished us to see," Althon said. "A calculated openness."
"If we want the blueprints," I said slowly, "we must make her our ally."
He studied me carefully. "And?"
I turned back to him. "And," I continued, choosing my words carefully, "I am… interested in her."
The admission hung between us.
