"The bloodline is specific," Gideon whispered, his tears momentarily forgotten in the face of this fundamental misunderstanding. "Direct descent only, parent to child in an unbroken chain stretching back to Pandora herself. We've searched for alternatives for generations, scoured every record, tracked down every rumor of bastard children or hidden marriages. There are none. She is the last. The only one."
"Then we make do without?—"
"Without a Keeper, the Gate falls immediately." Natalia's voice carried the finality of absolute certainty, of someone stating a fundamental law of nature. "Within hours, perhaps minutes. The princes would be free, fully empowered and absolutely enraged, before we could even evacuate the Citadel. Before we could warn the villages below. Before we could do anything but die."
"Then we use her differently," Laura suggested, leaning forward with sudden interest, a new strategy forming behind those calculating eyes. "First we breed her, ensure the continuation of the line, then we make her bait in a trap. The Order of Khaos grows bolder with each passing week because they sense weakness, smell blood in the water. Let them come for her. Spread rumors that she's alone, vulnerable, questioning her faith. When they attack in force, throwing everything they have at capturing the last Keeper, we eliminate them entirely. Two problems solved at once—the cult destroyed and the corrupted Keeper martyred in service to the greater good."
"You'd sacrifice the last Keeper to destroy a few dozen fanatics?" Gideon's voice rose to nearly a shout, his composure shattering completely. "Have you lost all sense of proportion? All understanding of what's at stake? Without her, without any Keeper at all?—"
"Have you?" Laura shot back, her own voice sharpening to match his. "She's already lost to us, old man. Open your eyes and see what's standing before you. Look at the reports from those who've seen her lately. Golden veins spreading daily across her skin like creeping vines. Eyes that hold their colors now, purple and silver and gold, even when she's not actively channeling power. She speaks to them, learns from them, draws knowledge from them that no Keeper should possess. How long before she chooses them over us? How long before her loyalty shifts completely?"
Through the gap, I saw Natalia raise one hand, a simple gesture that commanded instant obedience. The arguing stopped as if she'd severed vocal cords with that casual movement.
"The question," she said slowly, each word measured and weighed with the precision of an executioner checking her blade, "is not whether Aria remains loyal. That ship has sailed beyond any harbor we control. The question is whether she remains useful to our purposes."
My blood turned to ice in my veins. The casual way she dismissed my entire lifetime of service, reduced decades of sacrifice and duty to a simple cost-benefit analysis, struck me like a physical blow.
"She stabilizes the Gate," Natalia continued in that same measured tone, laying out the facts as dispassionately as a merchant tallying accounts. "Poorly, perhaps, less effectively than her mother or grandmother before her, but better than nothing. Better than watching it crumble to dust. She eliminated the Order of Khaos's assault force, protecting the Citadel when our own warriors faltered. She maintains enough control, enough discipline, to perform the daily rituals without the Gate shattering beneath her hands." Those grey eyes swept the table, pinning each Council member in turn. "For now, she serves her purpose. For now, she remains more asset than liability."
"And when she stops?" Ethan demanded, unable to let it go. "When the balance tips? When she becomes more threat than tool?"
"Then we implement alternatives."
"What alternatives? You just said there were no other bloodline members?—"
"There are ways to maintain the Gate without a living Keeper." Natalia's voice dropped, and I had to strain to hear despite my enhanced senses, pressing my ear againstthe cold stone until it ached. "Permanent solutions that require... significant sacrifice. Solutions we've held in reserve for generations, hoping never to use them."
Even without seeing clearly through the narrow gap, I felt the room's atmosphere shift like a sudden drop in temperature. Whatever she meant, whatever she was referring to, even the Council, these hardened believers in duty above all else, feared it.
"You're talking about the Last Seal," Gideon breathed, his voice hollow with horror and recognition. "The one that would?—"
"That would bind the Gate permanently, yes. Forever and irrevocably, proof against any corruption or decay." Natalia's voice remained perfectly level, discussing atrocity as calmly as one might discuss the weather. "At the cost of every drop of divine blood in existence. Including what runs through Aria's veins. Including her life, her essence, her very soul poured into the working."
They meant to drain me. To use my blood, my life, everything I was and everything I might have become, to create a final lock on the princes' prison. Not just kill me in battle or execute me for treason, but unmake me entirely. Turn me into nothing but a component in their eternal cage, a sacrifice so complete that not even memory of who I'd been would remain.
"That's monstrous," Gideon said, though his voice lacked conviction, the words more reflex than genuine objection.
"That's necessary," Natalia corrected with absolute certainty. "If she continues to deteriorate. If she shows definitive signs of choosing them over us. If she becomes more threat than asset, more danger than defense. The needs of the many, the entire mortal world, outweigh the needs of one corrupted girl."
"How long do we give her?" Laura asked, pragmatic as always, already moving past moral qualms to practical considerations.
Natalia stood, her chair scraping against stone with harsh finality. Through the gap, I saw her move with measured steps to the chamber's massive hourglass, an ancient timepiece that measured weeks rather than hours, each grain of purple sand representing precious time slipping away. She turned it with deliberate care, and purple sand began its inexorable fall like blood dripping from a wound.
"A fortnight. Fourteen days." Her voice carried the weight of pronouncement, of sentence being passed. "If she cannot stabilize the Gate within that time, if she shows further signs of corruption or divided loyalty, if she makes any move toward freeing them..." She turned back to the Council, and her expression was colder than I'd ever seen it, colder than stone in winter. "Then alternative measures will be taken. The Last Seal will be prepared. And Aria Pandoros will fulfill her final duty to the Order she was born to serve."
"And if she discovers our intentions?" Ethan asked, a practical concern beneath the theoretical discussion. "If she learns what we plan?"
"Then we accelerate the timeline." Natalia's smile was sharp as winter, sharp as the blade that would open my veins. "She's emotional now, compromised by her connection to them. If she knows we plan to sacrifice her, she'll panic. Make mistakes born of desperation. Give us the excuse we need to act immediately, before she can mount any defense or attempt any escape."
"You want her to find out," Laura said slowly, understanding dawning in her voice like poisoned sunrise. "You're counting on it. This whole discussion?—"
"I'm prepared for it," Natalia corrected with the satisfaction of a chess master moving pieces into position. "The girl is clever,more than her mother was, sharper than any Keeper in three generations. She's likely listening even now, from some hidden corner, thinking herself undetected. Thinking she's gained advantage through stealth."
My heart stopped. Simply stopped beating for what felt like an eternity.
But Natalia continued without looking toward the maintenance shaft, without giving any indication of my specific location. "Let her hear. Let her know her time is limited. Fear will make her desperate, and desperate people reveal their true allegiances. She'll run to them, seek their comfort, their power. And in doing so, she'll prove everything we've said about her corruption. She'll justify every measure we take."
They knew. Maybe not my exact location, not which shaft or passage or crack I'd squeezed through, but they knew I'd be listening. This entire meeting was a performance, a carefully staged production designed to push me toward some choice they'd already anticipated and planned for.
