Sera's POV
Rurik doesn't give up much willingly once we bring him back to the Hollow, but between what Caelum's contacts have already gathered and what slips out of him under Thessaly's patient, unhurried questioning, we assemble more in two days than I expected we'd have in two weeks.
Most of it confirms what we already suspected—Mira's years-long plan, the forged records, the hidden accord she means to invoke at the hearing. But it's a single line, offered almost carelessly during a longer explanation of the original curse's mechanics, that stops Dax cold beside me at the strategy table.
"The suppression was never just a decree," Rurik says, wincing as Odessa tightens the bandage on his shoulder. "Words on a page don't hold a bloodline dormant for three generations on their own. There
