Caelum sat behind the desk. The oak surface was scarred and polished and older than both of them combined. He put his hands flat on it and looked at them. They were steady now. The shaking had stopped somewhere between the barracks and the stairwell, and was replaced by something colder and more focused.
“I spoke with Lira today,” he said. “Soren too. They told me what my father did.”
“I know what your father did,” Isolde said.
Caelum looked at her.
“I found the redacted entries in the archive index three days ago,” she said. “I did not know the specifics, but the dates corresponded with the year Naia Thane died and the notations indicated alpha-authorized action on personal records. I did not need the specifics to understand what had happened.”
“You knew and you did not tell me?” Cae
