Torvyn glared at him. Kaedren and Lyrin suddenly found their plates extremely interesting.
I could have cut the tension with a butterknife.
Torvyn leaned toward Vaelix, locking eyes. "This is a serious breach of protocol."
" I mean no disrespect, Captain. But her research goes beyond the artifact. When I ran one of her experiments in the astrolab, she spotted a flaw instantly. When she corrected it… something happened."
Torvyn's voice sharpened. "What happened?"
"It began." Vaelix's grey eyes found mine across the table. "I felt the resonance. Saw the pathways forming."
Torvyn went absolutely still. "How do you know?"
"I saw her mind. I felt the pull."
A chill ran down my spine. "You saw my what?"
But Torvyn ignored me, his full attention on Vaelix. "Did you…?"
"Almost. But no. I broke contact before the threshold."
Kaedren stood abruptly, his chair scraping back. He stood behind me, his hand resting on my chair—close enough that I felt his heat.
"She is not to be left unguarded."
It wasn't a threat. It was a promise—warm, protective, fierce.
Something sparked in my chest, an ember catching flame. Warmth rippled outward, and suddenly I could feel them—not physically, but something deeper.
I looked up at Kaedren and smiled despite myself. He smiled back, and the ember blazed hotter.
The room shifted.
Lyrin gasped softly. Vaelix's hands tightened on the table's edge. Even Torvyn's expression changed, pupils dilating as if he'd just stepped from bright light into darkness.
The galaxies on my dress began to spin faster.
I exhaled sharply, and the strange warmth receded—not gone, just... banked like coals waiting to be stirred.
"I don't know what's happening right now, but it feels like an interrogation dressed up as a fancy dinner. Let's remember why I'm here. You kidnapped me. You won't tell me what you want. You are pirates. Let's not pretend this is some noble endeavor."
The table froze.
Torvyn set his knife and fork down with deliberate precision. The chandeliers flickered—or maybe it was my imagination.
Kaedren stepped back, but his hand lingered near my shoulder for one more second.
Vaelix and Lyrin bowed their heads as if in prayer.
A different energy filled the room—ancient, heavy, electric. The air itself seemed to thicken. I felt pressure building in my ears, like descending too fast into the atmosphere in a shuttle.
Torvyn rose and walked toward me, and with each step, he seemed to grow larger. Not physically—but presence-wise. Like reality bent slightly around him, acknowledging something I couldn't quite see.
"We are not pirates, Doctor Vale. We are the Tethered. The Knights of Zorathi. Protectors of the Reach."
He stopped beside my chair and looked down at me. I met his gaze—and saw.
Not with my eyes. With something else.
