And Bastien would have to trust that truth was stronger than manipulation. That freely given choice could withstand even the most compelling lies.
Charlotte had believed it. Had built her entire network on that belief.
Tomorrow they would find out if she’d been right.
Chapter
Twenty-Six
Thursday dawned gray and humid, the kind of October morning that promised rain without delivering it. Bastien spent the day preparing. Not with frantic energy but with the deliberate care of someone who understood that rushing led to mistakes, and mistakes tomorrow night could be catastrophic.
He laid out Charlotte’s journal on his dining table and read through it completely. Every page, every note, every careful annotation. She’d documented not just the how of her network but the why. The philosophical foundation that made the whole system function.
Connection without compulsion.
She’d written it on the third page.
That’s the entire project. If the network forces anything—feeling, choice, proximity—then it’s no better than the old binding rituals. Worse, actually, because at least those were honest about what they did. This has to be different. Has to preserve the bond while honoring that both people still have agency. Still have the right to walk away.
Bastien traced the words with one finger. Charlotte had understood something fundamental that Gideon either couldn’tsee or refused to acknowledge—that love and freedom weren’t contradictory. That you could be bound to someone across lifetimes and still make meaningful choices about how to honor that connection.
The phone rang at noon. Delphine.
“I’m at the Archive,” she said. “Lila’s asking why I’m so distracted. I told her I’m worried about a friend. Which is true, technically.”
“Are you?” Bastien asked. “Worried?”
“Terrified,” she admitted. “Not of the magic. I’ve accepted that part is real. But of what Gideon’s going to show me. What I’m going to see when he broadcasts his evidence.”
Bastien understood. The worst thing about manipulation was that it worked by finding the doubt already present and amplifying it. Gideon would show their interactions edited for maximum suspicion. Would highlight every moment where Bastien had made a choice that served both of them. Would frame protection as control and patience as calculation.
“I can’t tell you what to think when you see it,” he said carefully. “That would defeat the whole purpose. But I can tell you this. Charlotte built the counter-broadcast to work with truth. Not my truth or Gideon’s truth, but actual truth. What you know to be real from your own experience.”
“And if I don’t know what’s real anymore?”
“Then you’ll figure it out while speaking into the mirror. That’s the point of the tool. It forces clarity. Demands honesty even from yourself. You’ll know what is real in your heart.”
She was quiet for a long moment. Then: “I’ll meet you at five. That gives us time to get to the convergence point before Gideon starts broadcasting at six-thirty.”
“Delphine—”
“I know,” she said. “I could walk away. You’ve given me that option repeatedly. But here’s the thing. I don’t want towalk away from something just because it’s hard. I want to understand what’s real and what isn’t. And then I want to choose based on that understanding. That’s honest choice, right? Not avoidance disguised as autonomy.”
She was right, of course. True freedom included the freedom to choose difficulty. To face uncomfortable truths and decide whether they changed anything.
“Five o’clock,” he confirmed. “Bring water and something to eat. I don’t know how long we’ll be down there.”
The afternoon stretched long. Bastien reviewed the architectural drawings, memorizing the activation sequences. The counter-broadcast required precise timing. Delphine would speak into the mirror at the moment Gideon’s sermon reached its peak. Bastien would anchor the frequency through his celestial resonance, channeling it through the network’s original infrastructure. And the truth-reflecting property of the broken circle mirror would force both broadcasts to coexist—Gideon’s manipulation and Delphine’s freely spoken response occupying the same space, letting people choose which reality felt more true.
At four-thirty, Maman called.
“You preparing for something big,” she said without preamble. “Can feel it in the air. Every mirror in the Quarter humming like a tuning fork.”
“Gideon’s planning a broadcast,” Bastien confirmed. “Six-thirty tonight. He’ll use the network to show his evidence to the entire city.”
“And you?”
“Counter-broadcast. Using Charlotte’s tools.”
