At the same spot beside the open window of the vintage coffee shop, Purple and Julien settled into their seats. Purple worked through her white chocolate with a book in hand while Julien nursed his coffee, quietly waiting to find out why she had summoned him.

"My, my... you can’t seem to look away. Have my charms finally won you over?"

Julien’s expression flickered with something like disgust before settling into something far more serious.

"Scar filled me in. Ever since Area 17, you’ve been nothing but helpful. That kind of generosity usually comes with a price. So... what is it?"

Purple acted confused.

Julien sneered.

"Let’s not pretend otherwise. No one willingly stands against the Romans, the Supreme Council, and Dain without expecting something in return. Especially not when Dain commands someone who can see the future. So stop withholding the truth and tell me."

Purple’s expression darkened. But Julien didn’t need her to speak. He had been sitting with this for a while now.

Scar didn’t know Purple’s true nature, his obliviousness was almost forgivable because of that, but Julien knew. He knew exactly why Purple was going through such lengths for Scar.

"So that’s it... his Inheritance. You want to align yourself with him because people fear that power. With him beside your family, your influence would grow... along with the fear surrounding it."

Purple still didn’t spare Julien a glance. Her eyes moved steadily across the page, her chocolate savored in between. Her expression was unreadable, as though his words hadn’t reached her at all.

And then, as if she had finally surfaced from wherever her mind had taken her, her attention shifted to Julien.

"The reason I summoned you... is the matter involving the Heart and Voss families."

She gently closed her book.

"Next week, the two targets will arrive for a meeting aimed at me. Both are successors of their families’ Inheritances. Lovis and Cain, however, are to be taken alive. The operations must occur simultaneously. Any delay will compromise the mission."

She leaned into her seat.

"Eliminating them would merely cause their Inheritances to pass on to another bearer. Because the Inheritances are bound to their families, they would eventually return to the bloodline, sooner or later."

Julien regarded her with a lazy look. He had known she wouldn’t open up about her intentions toward Scar, but being ignored like that still stung all the same.

He took a slow breath and leaned forward, elbows settling against his thighs.

"Is that all?"

Purple nodded positively.

Julien sat with his thoughts for a moment. Cain, head of the Heart family, was formidable, and restraining him while dealing with the other three at the same time would be enormously difficult. He was the most dangerous of the four. But he wasn’t done.

If he had it right, most Executor-class Inheritances were tied to where they first came from. Purple’s Thread of Souls was a clear example, bound to a single family, no further. And unless an Inheritance was erased completely, it was only a matter of time before it was born again within that same bloodline.

"Then your plan must be to use the Blade of Purity to eliminate the Inheritances entirely."

Purple weighed her thoughts for a second.

"Some time like that."

"Okay, then I will finish everything you ask of me."

Julien frowned.

"Regardless of your objections, I’ll be participating in this operation. Whatever your reasons for keeping me out of it, I refuse to let Scar get caught or killed."

Purple was taken aback by Julien’s words.

"You’re overlooking something. Cain and Lovis’s kin arrive only two days before the auction. Even if you win that fight, you’ll be far too exhausted to join the heist."

Julien’s expression never shifted, just as dark as before, and Purple knew immediately that he wasn’t kidding.

"Because of Scar, I have a home, fine food, and a life my parents never provided. I may have no blood family, but he gave me one. The Rovers are my family now, even if I’m not one of them by name."

His voice dropped just slightly, and somehow that made it all the more chilling.

"I’ll deal with the Heart and Voss families myself. Make sure Lovis and Cain finish them with your blade. If my survival matters to you, then ensure we succeed."

A soft smile tugged on Purple’s lips.

"If Scar’s allegiance matters so much, what makes you think I’d allow him to be harmed or captured?"

Julien stared deep into her purple eyes.

"This is why you won’t unleash your full might. Scar lives, and you gain an ally; he dies, and you have nothing to lose. He trusts you, and if your need for him is that great, then make use of the threads at your disposal."

Purple’s smile vanished the moment Julien spoke.

"What did you say?"

With a soft smile, Julien shrugged.

"You heard me clearly. Be there during the mission, and use your threads to rewrite his fate."

Purple chuckled.

"I never expected you to be so interested in what happens when I unbraid my locs. You even checked into what my threads are capable of."

Julien hadn’t run any background checks. That wasn’t what had led him here. He simply couldn’t stop thinking about Purple’s hair — what it was, exactly. And the more he thought about it, the more something crystallized.

Purple always said her threads had weakened, and yet she never trained them. Not once. Which meant the weakness wasn’t natural. She had restrained her own ability somehow, and whatever she had used to do it, it had everything to do with her hair.

Looking into the past, the Thread of Souls had never been a combat Inheritance. It was something thinner than that, more delicate.

But if it was capable of producing an artifact as powerful as what he was searching for, then it wasn’t just tied to life and death. It had something to do with fate itself.

He refused to let Purple give anything less than her best. Not when Scar’s fate hung in the balance on this mission.

"I hear you. You’re my fiancé, and I don’t want anything to happen to you. You’re not wrong, the Inheritance can do more than just limit or destroy, but it can’t change fate the way you seem to think."

She smiled lustily.

"I have to unbraid my locs first. But doing so while the Voss and Heart families remain unfinished would go against our agreement."

Julien wore a big grin.

"I am the incarnation of heaven’s sorrow. Mortals stand no chance against the weight of my despair."

He knew the head of the Voss family carried the Soul of Converse, an Inheritance that allowed him to hold conversations with the dead. If any ghost was eavesdropping on them right now, which he sincerely hoped, then he had every reason to believe he could win.