Lord of the realm

Jaenor looked at the destroyed dashboard where the speaker was mounted.

"If you want this to end," the voice continued, "come to 20 Graham Street in Joyhills. Tonight, alone."

The speaker clicked off.

Jaenor stood in the middle of the street with a wrecked car smoking behind him and Vivian trembling beside him. Around them, other vehicles had stopped. Pedestrians were emerging from shops and offices, drawn by the sound of the crash.

Phones appeared. People were filming, calling emergency services, and creating the particular chaos that accompanied any public incident in a modern city.

Jaenor looked at the gathering crowd, at the attention that was about to become overwhelming, and decided to leave. Though it was too late, some of the people had noticed his inhumane build and the unbelievable thing they had just witnessed.

He grabbed Vivian’s hand.

"We’re leaving. Now."

"But the—"

"Now."

He pulled her into the nearest alley, moving quickly away from the crash site. Behind them, sirens were already approaching. The crowd was growing larger. Within minutes, the entire area would be locked down for investigation.

But Jaenor and Vivian were already three blocks away, moving through back streets and service corridors with the efficiency of someone who understood that visibility was the enemy of freedom.

Vivian stumbled beside him, shock keeping her mostly compliant.

Finally, when they were far enough from the immediate chaos, Jaenor stopped in a narrow space between buildings. He looked at Vivian, assessing her condition.

She was pale and shaking, her earlier confidence completely shattered.

"What the fuck was that?" she managed.

"What the fuck are you?"

Jaenor looked at her steadily. "Someone you should probably forget you had lunch with."

"They grabbed me. They just—" Her voice broke.

"Why did they grab me?"

"To get my attention."

"Why? Who are you that people are—" She stopped, really looking at him now. At the complete absence of injury despite having been hit by a car at speed. At the calm in his eyes that suggested this wasn’t even particularly unusual for him.

"You’re not human, are you?"

"That’s complicated."

"Fuck complicated!! Are you human or not?"

Jaenor stared at her; it made her startle.

Vivian pressed her hands to her face. Took several deep breaths. When she lowered her hands, her expression had shifted from terror to something harder. Anger maybe, or the particular fury that came from realizing you’d been lied to by omission.

"I want to go back to the office," she said flatly.

"And then I want to go home. And then I want to pretend this entire afternoon never happened."

"Better."

"Can you get me there without more people trying to kidnap me?"

"Yes."

"Then do that. Please."

They walked back to Ardan Motors in silence. Vivian kept distance between them now, no longer interested in closeness or flirtation. Just wanting to be somewhere safe and familiar.

When they reached the Maeridian Tower, she turned to look at him one last time.

"Whatever you are," she said quietly.

"Whatever Kate and Martha are involved in with you. I don’t want any part of it. Understand?"

"Yes."

"Good." She turned and walked through the lobby doors without looking back.

Jaenor stood on the sidewalk and watched her go.

*

Kate found Jolthar standing near the parking garage entrance, his borrowed shirt torn at the shoulder and stained with blood that clearly wasn’t his.

His expression was calm, but she’d learned to read the particular quality of his stillness—the way he held himself when processing something significant.

"Are you hurt?" she asked immediately.

"No."

"Then whose blood is that?"

"The people who tried to grab someone to get my attention."

Jolthar looked at the torn fabric. "I should probably change before going back inside."

Kate opened her trunk and pulled out the emergency blazer she kept for unexpected client meetings.

"Put this on. It’ll cover the worst of it."

He pulled on the blazer without argument. It was slightly too small across the shoulders, but it hid the damage well enough.

"What happened exactly?" Kate asked as they walked back toward the building.

"Someone jumped on us on the street when we went out to lunch," he said; his voice was even and factual.

Kate studied his face. "Is Vivian all right?"

"Where is she now?"

"She had left. Nothing happened to her, but she was a little shaken."

Judging by her reaction, it seemed like Vivian didn’t tell Kate about what happened.

Kate absorbed this information and made several quick decisions.

"Alright. I have one more meeting. Thirty minutes, maybe less. Can you wait in the visitor lounge without attracting more attention?"

"Yes."

They rode the elevator in silence.

Kate’s mind was clearly working through implications, organizing questions, but she didn’t voice any of them.

The visitor lounge was empty when they arrived. Jolthar settled into the same chair he’d occupied earlier, and Kate headed toward her office with the brisk efficiency that meant she was going to compress a thirty-minute meeting into twenty.

*

Vivian didn’t speak to Kate for the rest of the afternoon.

Kate noticed her moving through the floor with the particular avoidance patterns that suggested deliberate evasion rather than coincidental scheduling. When their paths did cross near the coffee station, Vivian offered a professional nod and immediately found urgent business elsewhere.

Kate didn’t push. Whatever had happened during lunch, Vivian clearly needed space to process it.

That was fine. They could have the difficult conversation later, when emotions were less raw.

She finished her final meeting at 5:47 PM, collected Jolthar from the lounge, and drove home in the gathering dusk.

"Martha will be home around seven," Kate said as they merged onto the highway.

"She texted earlier. Finishing up some departmental paperwork."

"Alright."

Kate glanced at him.

Jolthar looked out the passenger window at the city passing by.

She didn’t speak or try to talk to him but she wanted to. She then thought, in time maybe she could talk to him freely.