Page 98 of The Sovereign: Part One
“Yes?”I turned to face him, Maxim’s hand at the small of my back.
“There’s one more thing about Maxim that you—both of you—should know.He’s devoted to you, yes.Will love you the way any life partner would, because you love and respect him.And with every day together, you build trust.”He glanced at the floor and then met my gaze.“As my final act to sever you from any possibility of Blight, I gave Maxim free will.Unlike other Supplicants, he can choose to leave you.”He paused.“In that sense, he’s autonomous.”
My mouth parted as I quietly gasped.“Maxim… is sovereign?”
Maxim reached for my hand and led me from the Enclave to the Ascens, to the sublevel, and then to our transport.Once the slipgates closed, Maxim hesitated to give the command to take us home.He didn’t ask what I was thinking.He didn’t need to.I hadn’t spoken since we left Lev’s office, and it was anything but a comfortable silence.It was something closer to bracing for impact.My mind was lagging under the strain of making sense of too many truths delivered all at once.
I wrapped my arms around my middle, bracing against the steady collapse I’d set in motion.I’d been determined to uncover the truth, convinced that knowing would somehow make the darkness manageable.I thought if I could just drag it into the light, I could fix it.But now that it was here, now that it had shape and breath and history, I realized truth wasn’t a panel you could close once it opened.I’d invited it in, certain I could control it, but it had embedded itself instead, quiet and viral, rewriting the architecture of my thoughts before I even knew it had spread.Lev’s revelations about me, about Maxim, about Hyperion, still tangled in my mind in threads too fine to sort.
“You don’t owe me a response,” Maxim began.“I just need you to hear this.I can see you’re carrying more than one kind of hurt, and if even part of it is about me… I need you to know, I’ve had the freedom to leave since we met.I didn’t.I wouldn’t.”
I kept my eyes forward, trying to focus on the world beyond the transpane—untouched, unaware, and blissfully ignorant.
“I’ve stayed because I want to.Of all the things we’ve learned, we know I truly love you.Not because of code or programming, but because from the moment I looked at you, I’ve felt it.”He paused, not for effect, but because he meant every word and didn’t want them lost.“I don’t know what part of what Lev said hurt you the most.Maybe all of it.ButnothingLev said changed who we are to each other.”
My head turned slowly toward him.“I’m scared, Maxim.What if Lev can’t fix what’s wrong in my mind?What if something in me slips too far, and it puts you in danger?If I’m exiled or seized for invasive research and then dumped beyond the wall or whatever they do to Sovereign like me, what happens to you then?”
“There’s nothing wrong with your mind, Isara.Lev said it himself; it’s a reasonable response for any curious, naturally skeptical human.Only in a system as arguably authoritarian as Hyperion Proper would discernment be treated like a flaw.”He offered a small but convincing smile.“Between me, your father, and Lev, that future will never touch you.You’ll be okay.We’ll keep you safe.”
“I won’t beokay.The best we can hope for is a life spent looking over our shoulders, raising a family under surveillance, pretending to be free while waiting for the next threat.One misstep, one breach, and I lose you.At least exile beyond the wall would be mercifully short.If they took you and brought back a replica—your face, your voice, but a stranger, to be reminded every day of what we’d lost—I’d die in pieces, Maxim.One unendurable minute at a time.We may be protected for now, but it’s conditional, delicate.The worst part is knowing that none of this was your choice.Just being with me has put you at risk.You didn’t ask for any of this—and you’re stuck here.Trapped.”
“As if you did?”Maxim said, one brow slightly raised.
“No, but…”
He slid his fingers between mine.“It’s not a cage if I’m holding the key.How could I be trapped in a place I ache to remain?”
I looked up at him as Maxim leaned in to touch his lips to my forehead, then he continued, “As for the rest, I’ll always have a plan, remember?It doesn’t matter what comes up.I’ll have a limitless number of strategies in place to thwart whatever issue we’re facing.”
“Humans are unpredictable.Life is unpredictable.I understand you’re trying to reassure me, and I’m so grateful, but you can’t plan for everything.”
“On the contrary, my love.I can.In the moment, if I must.”
I should have felt relief, but my chest still felt too heavy to make space for anything else.I didn’t know what else to say, but Maxim didn’t seem to mind.
“I know it doesn’t feel like it, but your life is still intact.Lev still believes in Hyperion Proper,” he said as he adjusted something in the transport’s console.“He helped design it, and part of him still stands by what it was meant to be.But he sees what it’s become: rigid, overcorrected, less human than he intended.He’s not looking to tear it down.He wants to guide it back to something better.Altering me for you was his way of pushing back without setting off alarms.”
I looked back at the console, at the navigation he’d adjusted without fanfare.
“Where are we going?”I asked as the transport pulled away.
He didn’t smile, but his voice warmed.“To a place that will remind you all is not lost.”
Buildings became more spaced as we turned onto a quieter route, just beyond the sweeping transpane towers of The Paragon, Hyperion’s central health complex.Sunlight drifted across our path in gentle pulses, catching on the surface of a luminous structure ahead.The building curved in soft arcs, its outer skin a pale, pearl-toned composite that shimmered like water under the midday light.No signage.No guards.Just a serene façade, framed by fluid architecture that seemed to breathe with the environment around it.
“You’re taking me to The Cradle?”I thought aloud.
He gave a small nod, squeezing my fingers once.
It was more beautiful than I remembered from Tiers Two and Four excursions.This was where Oathbonded couples came to receive their children, where the DNA of a Sovereign parent was combined with engineered Supplicant traits to create new life.I didn’t notice back then that it was… gentle.As if it had been built to soothe the fear that came with becoming a parent for the first time.
And maybe, in a way, it had.
“I thought perhaps, if we start at the beginning, the rest won’t feel so impossible,” Maxim said as he covered my hand with his.
The transport settled into a silent halt, its slipgates sighing open.Maxim stepped out first, then circled around to my side.He offered his hand, and I took it, falling into an easy pace beside him as he guided me down the central walkway—a path most couples didn’t take until after their Oathbond.
The midday light filtered through a canopy of translucent panels overhead the entrance steps, casting gentle patterns.Everything here felt intentional, each curve, each detail designed to calm.We walked without speaking, his thumb brushing gently along the side of my hand.As we crossed the threshold, the building seemed to exude something almost ethereal and sacred.Not a facility.Not a checkpoint.But a beginning.
