Vivienne took a slow sip from her glass before answering.

"Hate is a simple word to throw around," she said, lowering it back to the table with controlled care. "But yes, I hate that family. Not just him. All of them." Her fingers stayed around the stem a moment longer. "There are things about the Duplains you don’t know. Things you probably never will. That part doesn’t matter right now." She exhaled through her nose and glanced at him again. "Thank you for telling me the truth. I couldn’t pull information from what happened inside that Breach. And I should have been there. If I had entered, I might have stopped some of it."

Neo’s mouth hardened.

"You say that like one person could stop everything. You’re not all-powerful."

Vivienne turned the full weight of her attention toward him, and the citylight behind her caught along the silver pendant at her throat.

"Maybe you’re right," she said. "But I’m more capable than most. More than many of the people who went in there." Her voice lowered after that, more to herself than to him. "Something happened at the last minute. It kept me out. At first I dismissed it. Now..." Her fingers tapped once against the glass. "Now I’m wondering if it wasn’t coincidence at all. If Leo arranged something to keep me occupied."

Neo felt the vein at his temple twitch.

There it was again.

That way she had of speaking as if she naturally stood above the board while everyone else moved across it. He hated that tone. Didn’t matter whether it came from a rich bastard in a suit or a red-haired girl in a dress worth more than his apartment. Neo knew his own worth. He had survived a closed Breach, carried a Divine class, a Divine relic, and more power than any Vein Core his age should have been allowed to touch.

Maybe she was strong.

That didn’t put her over him.

Vivienne kept speaking, unaware or unbothered by the irritation she had just stirred.

"Now he’s the center of attention everywhere," she said, lifting one shoulder. "The hidden son of the Duplains. Reporters, factions, buyers of information, everyone wants a piece of that." Her mouth tightened slightly. "But that isn’t the part that interests me most."

Neo had been half inside his own annoyance and half inside the conversation. Even so, the following response came unconsciously from him.

"His class is."

Vivienne’s head snapped up.

Her eyes widened properly for the first time that night. "Yes," she said. "That’s the most surprising part. You know something?"

Neo corrected himself instantly.

"Not exactly." He reached for the glass in front of him and took a small drink to buy a breath. "He was strong inside the Breach. Strong enough that it was obvious his class wasn’t normal. I don’t know what it does, but it didn’t feel ordinary."

Vivienne stayed on him.

She did not blink. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

The warmth from earlier had thinned from her face. What remained was more alert. Neo had the uncomfortable impression that she was taking pieces of him apart and weighing them one by one.

"You’re careful with your words," she said.

"You ask dangerous questions."

"Only the useful ones."

Neo drank again, slower this time, more to keep his expression occupied than because he needed the water.

Vivienne leaned back in her chair, though the focus in her face did not ease. "Leo’s class is Mythic," she said. "That much I know. The exact nature of it is harder to pin down. His family buried him for a reason."

Neo gave a short nod. "Makes sense."

"For the Duplains, yes."

She turned the glass once between her fingers, silent for half a beat, thoughts moving behind her face. And then, without thinking enough to stop herself, she said it.

"As if being Mythic weren’t enough. If it were Divine like mine, they probably would’ve locked him underground."

Neo choked.

The water went down wrong immediately. He coughed once, then again harder, fist rising to his mouth as the burn hit the back of his throat. The glass knocked lightly against the table when he set it down too fast.

Vivienne froze.

For one clean second she looked genuinely caught off guard by what had left her mouth.

Neo kept coughing, turned slightly away, and dragged in air through the irritation.

’You idiot.’

He had known. Soul Reader had shown him the truth the moment their hands touched outside the Breach. Divine. Vivienne Mourne had been carrying one of the rarest things in the world behind that smile and expensive dress.

He had known it. He had prepared for it. And yet hearing her say it aloud, so casually, so unconsciously, had still punched through his control hard enough to make him choke like a fool.

Vivienne placed the glass down and narrowed her eyes at him.

"That was an interesting reaction."

Neo coughed twice more, harder the second time, until the burn in his throat eased enough for him to breathe properly again. He wiped the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand and reached for the glass as if the whole thing had been nothing more than bad timing.

"It went down wrong."

"Mm."

"You start talking nonsense out of nowhere. It surprised me." He took another, smaller sip, much more carefully now, and lowered the glass. "And what even is Divine supposed to be?"

Vivienne didn’t answer.

She stayed very still, one hand resting beside her plate, the other around the stem of the glass. The playfulness from before had thinned almost completely. What remained in her face was quieter and sharper, like a knife laid flat on a table.

Neo held her stare and did his best to keep the confusion believable.

"Mythic already sounds ridiculous enough," he said with a small frown. "Now there’s something above that too? What, does the system just keep making up bigger words whenever it feels dramatic?"

Vivienne’s expression didn’t move.

"You reacted rather strongly for someone hearing that so casually."

Neo clicked his tongue. "Because you said it like it was normal."

"It isn’t."

"Exactly." He spread one hand a little. "You drop a word like that in the middle of dinner and expect me not to choke on my drink?"

Her fingers tightened once around the glass, very slight, almost nothing. Neo caught it anyway.

That had slipped out by accident.

He knew it.

More importantly, she knew it too.

Neo leaned back a little farther in the chair, trying to look more irritated than careful. "What is it supposed to mean? A special class? Some religious nonsense? One of those titles groups like The Measured Heavens invent to make themselves sound important?"

Vivienne studied him in silence.

The city behind her had turned darker while they talked, the glass now holding more of her reflection than the skyline below. Red dress. Silver pendant. Pale light. Stillness.

She had stopped eating. So had he.

Neo kept his face blank and forced himself not to overdo it. Too much confusion would look worse than none. Too little and she’d smell it anyway.

’Come on. Buy it.’

Vivienne tilted her head slightly.

"You really don’t know what Divine means?" she asked.

Neo let a beat pass, just enough to look annoyed at being pressed.

"No. Should I?" He frowned faintly. "You people throw around names for ranks, families, factions, titles, classes, all sorts of garbage like the rest of the world is supposed to keep up with it. I know Mythic is highest. That much is obvious. The rest?" He gave the smallest shrug. "No idea."

Vivienne kept watching him.

Neo could almost feel her measuring every word against the reaction from before, weighing whether the choking had come from ignorance, shock, or something more dangerous. It was irritating enough to make his patience thin for real.

"If this is another one of your tests," he said, voice flattening, "you could at least be less obvious."

That got the faintest movement from her mouth. Not a smile. Almost the memory of one.

"You dislike being measured."

"I dislike people assuming I won’t notice."

"Fair."

The word came soft, but her attention didn’t ease.

Neo picked up the fork, mostly so his hands had something normal to do, and cut into the food he had stopped touching. He didn’t eat yet. The silence between them had changed shape again, tighter now, with something alive under it.

Vivienne set her glass down.

Her gaze stayed on him.

Then, at last, she spoke.

"You know something?"