Semua Bab Reborn as the villain's obsession : Bab 101 - Bab 110

One hundred and seven years is a long time.Cassian knew this in the abstract way that immortals knew time — not as something felt in the body, the way mortals felt years accumulate in their joints and their faces and the way they moved through the world, but as something witnessed. The world changing around him. The people in it changing. The cities growing. The integration framework, which had been a radical proposition when they built it, becoming so embedded in the structure of things that the generation currently running it had no memory of its absence and found the idea of its absence as remote as any other historical circumstance they had not lived through.He had kept his promise. That was the thing he held most carefully through the hundred and seven years — not as a merit badge or a claim, but as a fact, the fact of having made a promise to someone he loved and having kept it.He had lived. Not existed. He had kept the distinction, the one Adrian had taught him, the differen

He looked at the cases. At the twelve volumes, dark-covered, Cassian's handwriting visible through the protective glass on each open page."These are—" he said, and stopped."His notes," Cassian said, from beside him. "Twenty-three years."Aiden stepped into the room slowly. He moved from case to case, reading what was visible, not saying anything. At the third case he stopped for a long time. Mira came to see which entry was visible.He laughed at something Kael said today and the sound of it stopped everything for a moment. I don't think he knows he does that.Aiden read the entry twice. Then he looked up at Cassian."Did he ever know?" he said. "That you wrote it. That you kept all of it.""He found the box," Cassian said. "We read them together. Three days before the end.""Good," Aiden said, with a conviction that was entirely his own and also, she heard entirely Adrian's. "Good. He should have known.""He did," Cassian said.They stood in the notebooks room for a long time. Mira

They stood in the garden with their hands joined."Tell me what I missed," Aiden said."A hundred and seven years," Cassian said."All of it," Aiden said. "I want all of it.""That will take some time," Cassian said.Aiden looked at him."We have time," he said.They stayed in the garden for a long time, not talking.Aiden didn't realize he was crying until Cassian lifted a hand and gently wiped away a tear from his cheek.The gesture froze him.Aiden closed his eyes.And suddenly there was sunlight.A hand reaching for his.He staggered slightly.Cassian's hand immediately tightened around his."I can't see everything," Aiden whispered."You don't have to," Cassian said.His voice was breaking.For the first time since they had met, Aiden heard it break."I remember how it felt," Aiden said.The words surprised both of them."I don't remember every day. I don't remember every conversation. But I remember..." He pressed a hand against his chest. "This."Aiden laughed through tears.An

Timeline: Seven years after weddingThe visiting prince was handsome in the specific way that visiting princes were handsome — with the practiced ease of someone who had been told they were attractive since childhood and had organized their entire personality around this fact.His name was Prince Damien of the Western Reaches and he had been in the palace for approximately four hours and had already found three separate reasons to touch Adrian's arm.Cassian was counting."Prince Adrian," Damien said, with a smile that was technically polite and was also, Cassian noted with the precision of someone who had been reading rooms for three centuries, designed to be charming specifically to people who found that kind of smile charming. "Your integration policies are remarkable. I'd love to discuss them in more detail — perhaps over dinner tomorrow? Privately?""That's kind," Adrian said, "but my schedule is—""Flexible, surely," Damien said. "For such an important conversation."Through the

Timeline: Eight years after weddingThe artifact looked harmless."Don't touch that," Kieran said.Too late.The flash was gold and crimson. The sound was a very specific kind of silence that followed very loud things. Adrian looked down at his hands and found them pale, long-fingered, and faintly shadowed at the edges."Oh no," he said.The voice that came out was Cassian's voice. Which was correct. Because these were Cassian's hands, which were attached to Cassian's body, in which Adrian was currently residing.Across from him, Cassian stood in Adrian's body looking at Adrian's hands with the expression of someone encountering something that defied their established understanding of the world, which, for Cassian, was a short list."This is—" Cassian said. Adrian's voice came out."Yes," Adrian said. From Cassian's body."We're—""We are."They looked at each other."How long," Cassian said, to Kieran, in Adrian's voice, which was deeply strange."Twenty-four hours," Kieran said, exa