Page 101 of The Sovereign: Part One
“Hi,” I replied, quieter than I intended.In the next moment, my face was buried in his chest, my knuckles white as my fingers gripped his coat.
He held me tight, his cheek against my hair.“You’re exhausted.I should’ve stayed with you last night.Helped you to fall asleep.”
My shoulders sank.“The last thing we should do is break the rules before our appointment.”
“Lev was confident we would pass.He’s protected us this long.He’s not going to risk losing data now.”
“Data,” I muttered.
He leaned back, waiting until I looked up to meet his gaze.“You’re more than that to him, and you know it.He’s ten steps ahead of The Citadel.And even if he’s not, what have I told you?”he asked with a gentle smile.
I exhaled.“You have a plan.”
“I have a thousand plans.”
I nodded, closing my eyes and leaning in as he kissed my forehead.“Okay.Let’s go.”
Maxim took my hand as we approached the transport—toward the Assessment, toward The Citadel’s unforgiving lens, and into the aftermath of an experiment we never agreed to.He only let go long enough to guide me to my seat before circling to the other side, slipping in beside me, and once again lacing his fingers through mine.His thumb moved in slow sweeps along my palm, as if coaxing my breath into a steadier rhythm.
“Calyx,” he said.“Initiate route to The Paragon.Interior sector, private intake.”
“Confirmed,”Calyx replied.“Estimated arrival is in approximately twenty-two minutes.”
I swallowed hard, my gaze clinging to the familiar terrace greenery draping lazily from our Sablestone as we pulled away, from the landing outside Ibith’s house, the signage at the edge of our district, the community gardens.I wanted to believe that if I just kept our home, the safety of our district in sight, I could stay, that holding on with my eyes might keep us tethered to the only place we could be ourselves, beyond The Citadel’s watchful eye.
The structures grew sparser as we neared the Auriel Span, its glistening arc rising ahead, suspended in silent strength over the Iveris Sound.Those last two kilometers bridging the mid districts to the Core Sector felt like the final threshold, my last bastion before the descent.A dull sickness settled in my stomach, dense like the sediment pressed deep beneath the waters of the Sound.
As if reading my mind—which, in some ways, he could—Maxim’s voice softened.“Calyx, play track:Ariadne Threadlight, Volume Six.Moderate volume.”
The music began, subtle and spatial, threading through the air like water beneath transpane.It wasn’t distracting, but it shifted the silence and dread just enough.
“You’re holding tension in your fingers,” Maxim said, lifting my hand slightly, his thumb brushing over the joints.“You’re imagining too many variables we can’t control.”
“I’m imagining the one I can’t live through,” I said, finally looking up at him.“If something goes wrong in there—”
“It won’t.”
“You don’t know that.”
He waited to respond as the transport curved through the last turn and slowed to a soundless stop, its slipgates opening like a held breath finally exhaled.Then, he turned to me with resolve that didn’t ask for permission.“I do know this,” he said.“Every trace of my programming anomalies is buried under layers of synthetic normalcy.Not by chance, Isara.By design.By Leviticus Phineas Navon, Hyperion’s Chief Architect.And he’s confident that not even the Lead Psychometrician will identify a single inconsistency.Eshran Virek will not find what he’s not cleared to see.”
“But if Ezri sees it?She’s his counterpart and a Supplicant.Some say she’s even tougher than he is.If she even suspects—”
“She won’t,” he said, voice low.“We’ll enter together, and we’ll leave the same.You’re afraid of a misstep.I understand.But Lev has accounted for this.And if he hasn’t… I have.”
I stared at him a beat longer, then finally gave a small nod.
“Walk me through it again.”
Maxim smirked, unable to hide his admiration for my tenacity.“They’ll begin with what seems like conversational rapport.Eshran will focus on emotional compatibility, your openness to intimacy, your receptivity to affection and vulnerability.He’ll ask about our daily routines, how we attune to one another, how consistently I meet your needs.”
“And Ezri?”
“She’ll be watching you, tracking how you recall it all.Whether your responses reflect connection, stability, appropriate Sovereign temperament.Whether the bond is progressing as it should.She’ll read your micro-expressions.Pauses in your speech.Blood pressure shifts, pupil dilation.She’ll focus on decision-making and control structures.Questions designed to uncover conflict patterns.One of them will eventually ask if I’ve ever hesitated to comply with standard Sovereign directives.”
I blinked.“Why would they even think to ask that?It’s against The Eight.”
“They’ll ask it indirectly, gently, as if it’s a curiosity.But it’s the only question that matters.Not because they expect deviation, it’s more diagnostic in nature.They’re simply confirming optimal function.But Supplicant hesitation, even momentary, means something in the system isn’t syncing with Sovereign priority.”
