"There is nothing here." The Baroness says.
The chauffeur cannot argue with that. The building is clearly not there, regardless of what the internet says.
"I — I do not know why, Your Ladyship. Every source says the Rhaenas HQ should be right here. There is a photo online, and the two buildings on either side match these two exactly, which ans the HQ should be standing right in the middle. Here, Your Ladyship." The poor man rattles this off rapidly and thrusts his phone toward her.
The Baroness glances at the screen for two seconds and looks back at the empty space.
She sighs.
"It is not here."
The chauffeur swallows. "No, Your Ladyship. It is not."
"Let us go back. And find out what happened to it." The Baroness turns sharply and walks back toward the car.
"Yes, Your Ladyship." The chauffeur bows and hurries after her.
------------------------------
As the Baroness gets into her car and it pulls away, a figure steps out from the shadow of a nearby building.
Hawk watches the car until it disappears.
"What is she doing here? Why is she looking for Thea?" He mutters to himself.
He assus imdiately that the Baroness was looking for Theo. And sothing rises in his chest alongside the thought. A feeling he does not imdiately recognize.
Protectiveness.
He is feeling protective of Theo.
He does not realize it in this mont. He does not na it. If the green mist corrupted everyone inside Rhaenas, they were not the only ones exposed. Hawk had been in that building too.
His feelings toward Theo had not always been what they are now. When he first saw the white-haired young woman on the news, what he felt was closer to attraction than anything else. When he arrived in Solarys and insisted on seeing her, when he stood outside the HQ and stared, that was still what it was.
Hawk does not know exactly when it changed. Only that it has.
That soft, delicate, flawless face has slowly morphed into sothing else entirely. A face he cannot forget. A face that has been haunting him since his younger days. A face that reminds him, every ti it surfaces, of what a complete failure he is.
------------------------------
Linus is sitting at his desk in his study, leaning back in his chair. One hand rests on the table, one finger tapping slowly.
Several folders are spread across the desk, one of them open. His laptop is open beside them.
Both the screen and the open folder show the sa photograph. The sa na beneath it.
Roan Teska.
If Liam were here, he would recognize the face imdiately as Hawk.
Lockley had done exactly as he was asked. He went and acquired full dossiers on both Hawk and Sonia Hart. Both files are now on Linus’s desk. Hawk’s is not a thick one.
Roan Teska. Age 43. Born in Varnhol, a country that no longer exists. Current citizen of Haldane.
Varnhol had been one of several Altheon nations locked in a constant, low-level state of war. Not fought over ideology or survival, but over plain human greed. It was eventually annexed by its larger neighbor, Strathmore.
When Strathmore absorbed Varnhol, they systematically destroyed records. The goal was to render Varnhol’s citizens stateless, people with no country and no history, which would leave them with no choice but to accept Strathmore citizenship, stripped of rights and burdened with restrictions from the start.
There is no record of Hawk’s life before he beca a citizen of Haldane. The only reason his current file lists Varnhol as his country of origin is because it is noted in his Haldane citizenship record.
According to that record, Hawk sought military asylum in Haldane when he was barely eighteen. He entered Haldane’s military at nineteen and built a career out of it, rising to the rank of sergeant before being dishonourably discharged for beating a civilian man nearly to death.
He then disappeared for several years before resurfacing as a rcenary. He is currently a mber of a dungeon clearing team called the Hunters, led by a man nad Ethan Bartlett. They are based in Highcrest, the capital city of Aurenvale, one of the stronger nations in Altheon.
Lockley had confird that Ethan is also currently in Solarys, along with three other mbers of the team besides Hawk.
"What are they here for?" Linus thinks out loud. "Clearing dungeons? No. I have already checked. There is no record of a team called the Hunters clearing any dungeons anywhere in Concordia."
"And military asylum. That suggests he was already serving when the annexation happened. Which would an he was a soldier in Varnhol’s military before he was eighteen." He pauses. "A child soldier."
Linus sighs. "Unfortunately, that was not uncommon."
"Talking to yourself, Dad?" Liam appears in the doorway.
Linus turns and smiles. "Co in, Liam."
Liam steps aside to reveal soone behind him. Linus goes briefly still before his smile returns.
"Hello, Uncle Linus." A soft, lodic voice greets him.
"Hello, Thea." Linus’s voice softens without him noticing. "How are you?"
He turns to Liam with a faint frown. "Liam, is it not a little late for Ms. Montrose? She needs her rest." A light scolding.
"Please do not bla Liam, Uncle. It was my idea to co tonight. I insisted." Theo deflects smoothly.
Liam looks at his father and shrugs. "See? Nothing to do with , Dad."
Linus gives him a look. Just one second of it. Then he is all warmth and hospitality directed at Theo.
"Co in, please. Have a seat." He crosses to the side table stocked with drinks and snacks.
"Can I get either of you sothing warm? Hot chocolate? Tea?"
"No, thank you, Uncle. I already had a hot chocolate not long ago. If I have another, I will not sleep tonight." Theo grins.
"Fair enough. Have a seat then." Linus gestures.
Once everyone has settled, Linus asks, "What can I do for you this evening?"
"I know you prefer straight to the point, Uncle Linus, so I will do exactly that." Theo begins. "First, I would like to thank you for taking care of our hospital bills. I know you did it as your way of saying thank you, for us being good friends and teammates to Liam."
"It was a very thoughtful thing to do. All of Rhaenas is genuinely grateful."
Theo gives a small, unhurried bow.
Both Linus and Liam go still.
For Liam, it is not the bow that surprises him. It is everything else. He has never heard Theo speak quite like this. He knows Theo is honest and direct. But this is sothing different. This is Theo talking to Linus Monfort. The Monfort patriarch. The President Director of one of the largest multinational companies in the world.
Very few people speak to Linus this directly. This casually. As though they are equals. As though the gap in age and position and power simply does not exist.
Which should be impossible. Theo is sixteen. Linus is well into his fifties. How are they equal? How are they peers?
Liam cannot wrap his mind around it.
But Linus is not Liam.
The mont Theo steps into the room, before a single word is spoken, Linus’s mind goes on alert. It brings him back to the first ti he t Theo after the coma. He had noticed it then too, that quality about him that was difficult to na. But back then it had been subtle. Softer. Unstable. Like soone learning to walk for the first ti.
What is sitting in his study now is sothing else entirely.
The aura is strong. Quiet, but strong. And completely impossible to ignore. What makes it even more striking is that the mont Theo speaks, Linus feels sothing he has never felt before in a room with another person.
Intimidated.
This is impossible. Linus has never been intimidated by anyone. Not heads of state. Not the King of Aurenvale, whom he has t on several occasions.
And yet here he is, sitting in his own study, feeling it, and from a sixteen year old woman nonetheless.
A thought hits him like a crack of lightning.
Is this really a sixteen year old girl?
It lands so hard it nearly derails him entirely.
Stop it, Linus! That is offensive.
Theo stops talking.
Sothing has shifted in the room. Both Monfort n are looking at him with an expression he cannot quite read.
Why? I have not said anything that is not true. What is going on?
Theo does not understand the reaction. Without his mana, he has no way of sensing what he is projecting. He was simply being direct because he knows who Linus is and he knows that kind of man responds to directness. He was being serious because the situation calls for seriousness.
He has no idea that his aura has been pouring out of him this entire ti, quiet and steady and impossible to ignore, filling the room the way a presence fills a room before it announces itself.
The room falls into awkward silent.
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