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“Why?”

“Unknown.”

“Were those warriors connected?”

He opened the records. “Same expedition region.”

“Bloodline?”

“No.”

“Unit?”

“No.”

I frowned. “Then what?”

Veyr’s eyes moved across the data. “Both biological specimens were transferred through the same storage facility.”

There.

I felt that familiar spark in my head.

Pattern.

“Show me.”

He did.

The storage code matched one of Sera’n’s old accession entries.

Not exactly.

Same parent facility.

Different substation.

I leaned forward. “That's it.”

“What?”

“Sera’n was looking at sample origin. The prince was looking at sample origin.”

Veyr nodded slowly. “They may have followed the same discrepancy from different directions.”

For several minutes we worked without speaking much.

Not the cold silence from earlier.

Different.

Functional.

He opened systems I couldn’t interpret.

I translated laboratory structures he didn’t understand.

When he found a military transfer, I checked whether a sample moved at the same time. When I found a compatibility alteration, he checked the warrior’s status.