"I'm saying I believe you do. I've studied every record I could find since you came here. The way you interact with ward magic, it matches descriptions of the old Architects almost exactly. Your ability isn't learned. It's inherited."
The words didn't make sense. Couldn't make sense.
"That's impossible."
"Is it?" He took a step toward her, and she took one back. Hurt flashed across his face, quickly suppressed. "You said it yourself. The magic feels natural. Instinctive. Because it's in your blood. Your ancestors built these barriers, and that ability passed down through generations. Most of the time dormant. But in you..."
"I pick locks. I steal things. I don't build magical barriers between realms."
"Because you never knew what you were." His shadows reached toward her, then recoiled when she flinched. "Your abilities were suppressed until you touched those ward-tools and awakened what was already inside you."
She moved to the window. Putting distance between them.
Her mind was racing, trying to slot this new information into everything else she knew. But part of her was also cataloguing what he'd said.I started looking into it. I believe you do. I've studied every record.He wasn't confessing to a secret he'd carried from the beginning. He was telling her something he'd been piecing together.
That distinction mattered. She wasn't sure yet how much.
"How long?" she asked. "How long have you suspected?"
"Since the first time you worked the wards and they responded like they recognized you." His voice was hollow. "I've been researching since then. Digging through records that haven't been opened in millennia. Trying to be certain before I told you something that would change everything."
"And are you? Certain?"
"As certain as I can be without asking you to submit to tests I wasn't willing to put you through."
She pressed her forehead against the cool glass. Felt her breath fog against it.
He'd been investigating. Not hiding a confirmed truth, but chasing a theory he wasn't ready to burden her with until he understood it himself. She could see the logic in that. Could almost forgive it.
Almost.
"There's more," she said. It wasn't a question. She could hear it in the weight of his silence.
When she turned, the look on his face confirmed it. He'd gone pale. His hands were clenched at his sides, and his shadows had gone completely still around his feet.
"I need to tell you something about your family," he said. "And I want you to understand that I'm not certain. I may be wrong. But you deserve to hear what I've found."
Her shoulders went rigid. Her pulse thudded in her ears.
"What about my family?"
He turned to the nightstand and pulled out a stack of documents. Old parchment, newer notes in his angular handwriting. He set them on the edge of the bed between them but didn't push them toward her.
"After I began to suspect what you were, I started investigating why someone with this bloodline would end up as a street thief instead of trained in their abilities." He spoke carefully. "I looked into your family. Your father's business, his reputation, the circumstances of his arrest."
She couldn't breathe.
"The charges against your parents never made sense. I had my people examine the records from the mortal realm. Trade logs, court documents, witness accounts. The evidence that convicted them was fabricated. Professionally. By someone with resources and reach far beyond a rival merchant."
"I already knew they were innocent." The words came out scraped raw. "I've always known."
"I know." His voice dropped. "But I don't think their murder was random. Or motivated by simple greed."
The room tilted.
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying that someone discovered what your bloodline carried. The Architect gift. And they wanted it eliminated, or they wanted your family's collection of old relics that might have been connected to the original ward-cores." He gestured at the documents. "I can't prove it yet. The trail goes cold in several places. But the pattern fits. The timing of the accusations, the speed of the conviction, the thoroughness of the asset seizure. Someone powerful orchestrated this."
