"You have no idea."

Liam’s eyes narrowed at once.

Noah smiled into his glass with the terrible serenity of a man who had thrown a knife and intended to deny ownership of the dead body.

Arik looked at him.

Noah looked back.

Then Douglas Stanford stepped into the room, accepted the chaos with one glance, and somehow made the air feel more organized by existing in it.

The rest of breakfast became, as Liam later decided, a formal ambush disguised as logistics.

Douglas introduced himself with a calm politeness that implied he could apologize before breaking someone’s wrist. Liam questioned his authority. Douglas answered with clean, dreadful precision. Mezos added clarifications that sounded like legal restraints and threats depending on the angle of one’s ears. Noah contributed nothing useful except commentary. Kamal refilled cups as though caffeine could prevent international complications.

Arik said very little.

He only watched Liam.

He watched the way Liam listened despite his irritation, the way his crimson eyes sharpened whenever Lab V appeared on the map, and the way his fingers tapped once against the table when Douglas outlined the temporary routes through the service corridors. He watched him refuse every word that sounded like ownership, and reluctantly accept every word that sounded like function.

By the time Douglas escorted him out, Liam had agreed to nothing aloud and somehow accepted the entire arrangement through three insults, two corrections to the route map, and one cold statement that if Stanford obstructed access to the lower turbine platform, he would be left behind.

Douglas had only inclined his head.

"Understood, Lord Liam."

Noah left soon after, complaining about reports with the offended dignity of a man who had personally delayed them. Mezos followed Arik’s schedule into the adjoining secure room, where calls and briefings waited with their teeth already showing.

For a moment, the dining room was quiet.

Only Kamal remained.

He stood near the sideboard, gathering the wreckage of breakfast with the composed efficiency of someone who had managed princes, commanders, and disasters long enough to understand that most empires were held together by people who knew where the clean cups were.

Arik remained seated.

The chair beside him was empty.

Liam’s cup was still there, half-finished, a faint trace of coffee darkening the porcelain rim.

Arik looked at it longer than necessary.

Kamal noticed but said nothing.

"How have you accommodated yourself?" Arik asked at last, leaning back into his chair.

Kamal’s hands paused only briefly.

"To breakfast?"

"To your position."

Kamal looked at him.

"The new position," Kamal said mildly.

Arik’s mouth curved. "Your old one, if you want to be sentimental."

Kamal hummed, poured a cup of tea for himself, and took the seat in front of Arik.

The movement was smooth and entirely natural, which perhaps said more than either of them acknowledged aloud.

Most people would never have sat uninvited across from the Crown Prince of Agaron.

Kamal had once argued with a sovereign over meal schedules while said sovereign stood covered in blood after a military campaign and demanded cognac before the physicians were allowed near him.

Perspective changed etiquette.

The morning light spilled across the glass walls around them, pale gold against the ether-lit skyline of Alexandria. Below, the city continued moving with the oblivious arrogance of populations unaware they were being evaluated by ancient predators before noon.

Kamal wrapped one hand around the tea cup.

"I have accommodated well enough," he said.

"That means there were problems."

"That means there are always problems." Kamal took a measured sip. "Sella has been helpful."

"Sella usually is." 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"She understands the household network better than most ministers understand their own departments. Your people are capable, disciplined, and significantly less exhausting than expected."

Arik lifted a brow.

Kamal amended, "Most of them."

"Careful."

"I am always careful, Your Highness."

"That has never once been true."

Kamal’s eyes flicked toward him over the rim of the cup, and for a brief moment something older settled quietly between them.

The strange familiarity of people who had once survived the same empire under a different sky.

Then Kamal looked away first.

"Things have changed," he said.

Arik leaned back slightly in his chair. "Have they?"

"Yes." Kamal’s tone remained calm. "The systems are cleaner. The household answers faster. Security no longer requires three threats and an administrative collapse before functioning correctly. Mezos is efficient. Douglas is reliable. Sella is terrifying in a highly productive manner. Lord Noah is more competent than he appears, though seemingly committed to ensuring nobody discovers this."

"That is his greatest flaw."

"It is one of several."

Arik laughed softly.

The sound escaped easier than expected, low and brief, touched by exhaustion rather than amusement.

Kamal watched him quietly.

"And you," he added after a moment, "are more inclined toward restraint than he was."

The laugh faded.

Arik looked at him.

Kamal did not say the name.

He did not have to.

Goliath sat between them anyway like an old ghost dressed in gold and war banners, broad-shouldered and terrifying, smelling faintly of warm stone, expensive liquor, and winter steel.

Arik’s smile returned, sharper this time.

"That is not true at all."

Kamal’s brow lifted faintly.

"No?"

"No." Arik’s gaze drifted briefly toward the empty chair beside him. "I did not want to let Liam leave this room."

The bond still lingered beneath his ribs even with distance between them now. Bright. Alive. Irritated and focused and moving steadily deeper into the diplomatic corridors toward Lab V.

Arik could feel him.

That was still enough to make something ancient in him settle.

Barely.

"I wanted to lock every corridor in the residence," Arik continued calmly. "I wanted to assign half the Shadows to him, drag Felix out of whatever grave-shaped office he hides in, and burn Wrohan to the foundations before someone here decided to look at Liam incorrectly."

Kamal took another sip of tea with the composure of a man who considered this emotionally stable progress.

"And yet," he said, "the city remains standing."

"Unfortunately."

"And Lord Liam departed without being physically restrained."

"Also unfortunately."

Kamal smiled; even older, he was still a handsome man.

"He would have hated it," he said.

"I know."

That was the problem.

Arik knew exactly what Liam would tolerate and exactly where the line would become a cage.

Liam would accept protection if it were practical.

He would accept efficiency.

He would accept routes, guards, weapons, contingency plans, hidden exits, and probably military-grade surveillance if presented correctly.

But the moment it became ownership... No.

Arik closed his eyes briefly.

"I waited centuries to meet him," he said quietly.

"When I finally found him, he was exhausted, overworked, underprotected, illegally powering half the city, and trying to escape me through engineering projects and caffeine." A faint smile touched his mouth. "And somehow that made it worse."

Kamal rested his cup down carefully.

"He does not know yet."

"No."

"And when he does?"

Arik looked toward the city beyond the glass.

"I don’t know."