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Idid not follow her.

That was the first decision I made after Talia closed the door between us, and it should not have felt significant.

It did.

The location was clean for now as far as I could determine. No Veil-associated relay. No administrative network connection. No access made under any identity tied to me.

It would not remain safe indefinitely. Nothing did anymore.

But for the moment, the greatest threat in the room was not outside it.

I stood in the middle of the common room with every instinct telling me to check the adjoining alcove, confirm the window, verify the secondary exit, and make sure she remained within reach if the Veil moved against us again.

I did none of those things because she had asked for space.

And because, for once, I understood that protecting her did not mean entering a room she had chosen to close.

The realization settled badly. Not because it was difficult to understand, but because it should have been obvious sooner.

I looked at the terminal. Her photograph still filled part of the screen.

Registration image.

Mission designation.

Royal contact prohibited.

The line beneath it remained unchanged.

SUBJECT MUST NOT REACH ROYAL AUTHORITY.

I had accepted that condition before I ever saw her in person. At first, because it was an order. Later, because the mission was compromised and I did not yet know how far the corruption reached.

Then later still⁠—

I stopped.

There.

That was the part I had kept avoiding.

At some point, caution stopped being the only reason.

I sat at the table.

The room felt wrong without Talia in it. Too quiet.

I had spent years preferring silence.

Now it felt accusatory.

I reopened the mission packet, not because I needed to review it, but because I needed something procedural to look at while my mind went somewhere I had spent eight years preventing it from going.

Anik.

I had served under the Crown long before I became Ghost. Not directly every day.

Enough.