The morning after the poisoned cup, Varek became James's friend.Not gradually. Not with the tentative, testing quality of someone feeling their way toward trust. All at once, completely, with the confident ease of a man who has decided on a performance and committed to it so thoroughly that doubt has been entirely evacuated from the execution. He arrived at James's chamber door before he had finished dressing, carrying two cups of water and a smile the young man had never seen on his face before, warm and open and entirely, devastatingly false."Garrick," he said, extending one of the cups with the casual warmth of a man greeting a longtime companion. "You look tired. I thought you might need this."James looked at him.In the years he had spent inside this fortress he had catalogued every expression Varek's face was capable of producing, the sneer, the cold assessment, the barely contained fury, the smooth professional neutrality he deployed in Draven's presence. He had never seen t
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