All Chapters of Aether's Obsession: Chapter 71 - Chapter 73

Third-person POVThey were still arguing in the corridor."I am telling you," Elias said, his voice pitched low but sharp, "that whoever was in those bushes saw everything and you just stood there like you were proud of it—""I was proud of it," Draven said, completely unbothered, matching Elias's stride with the easy gait of someone who had won something and hadn't finished enjoying it yet."That is not — you cannot just — in a garden, Draven, a shared garden, not a private—""You didn't seem concerned about the location twenty minutes ago."Elias's face, already pink from the twin suns and residual everything, darkened another full shade. "That is entirely beside the point. The point is that someone was watching, and your response was to look directly at the hedge like you were inviting an audience—""I was establishing that what is mine," Draven said, the words landing with quiet, unhurried certainty, "is mine."Elias stopped walking.Draven stopped too, turning to look at him with

Third person POVThe holographic data hung between them like a verdict that had already been decided.Genetic sequencing. Aether signature overlays. The one hundred percent match rendered in cool blue light, every variable accounted for, every cross-reference confirmed. Mara had laid it out with the precision of someone who understood that the person receiving this information had centuries of practice at keeping his face composed, and who had decided to make the evidence so complete that composure would have nothing to argue with.Vaelor stood motionless before it.His Nocthrim horns were still. His ancient eyes moved across the data with the slow, thorough attention of a mind that had spent centuries making decisions that couldn't be unmade, learning to take the full weight of information before it acted. The lab's blue glow fell across his face and showed nothing.Mara waited. She was good at waiting."The desert Aether channel," Vaelor finally said. Not a question. Following a thr