I turn to face her fully.
“For confirmation.”
Her expression stills. The air between us tightens.
“You already know what’s there,” she says.
“I know what you’ve allowed me to know.”
“And that isn’t enough?”
“No.”
Silence stretches, heavy with implication, with the weight of everything she has withheld, everything I have allowed for the sake of reaching this point.
“Tell me,” I start, my voice steady, controlled, leaving no room for deflection, “is it safe?”
Her gaze does not waver.
“No.”
The answer lands without hesitation.
“Define unsafe.”
“It changes things,” she says, her voice quieter now, not uncertain, but measured in careful selection of every word, “not immediately, not visibly, but once you take it, you can't decide what happens next.”
I hold her gaze.
“That isn’t how power works.”
“It is here.”
I make a step closer. Behind me, Aeryn speaks again.
“Wait!.”
I do not turn.
“Are you sure that…”
I turn to her.
“You’re afraid,” I cut her.
“Yes.”
“Of me?”
A pause.
Then, “Of what happens if you succeed.”
I step even closer.
Positioning matters. Control matters. And right now, I hold both.
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