Chapter 17: The Information Broker
Veyra studied Caelus Vespera from across the room, waiting for the confidence to crack.
It didn’t.
He stood there as though having a hand at his throat moments ago had been a minor inconvenience rather than a near-death experience.
She had expected arrogance, followed by panic once he realized exactly whose territory he’d walked into.
Most young nobles became considerably less impressive when they discovered that their family name could not protect them from a blade at their throat.
Caelus had done neither.
He stood there with the same irritating composure he’d had when he first entered the basement, as though revealing secrets about the head of MIST was merely another item on a list he intended to finish before dinner.
At first, Veyra assumed he simply didn’t understand the situation.
That would have been easier.
Then she noticed his eyes.
He knew exactly what he’d done.
He simply wasn’t giving her the satisfaction of seeing him regret it.
When she’d first heard that Caelus Vespera had challenged the Hero to a duel, she’d assumed she’d never have to deal with him again.
A D-rank challenging Lucian Ashborne wasn’t bravery. It was the sort of arrogance that usually ended with a funeral.
She had written him off as another young noble with an inflated ego, a famous surname, and no understanding of the distance between the two.
Then he’d survived.
Not merely survived, either. The reports had been inconsistent, but every version agreed on one thing: the bastard son of House Vespera had stood against the Hero and walked away alive.
Veyra had dismissed it as luck.
She was beginning to wonder whether that had been another mistake.
Caelus blinked at her, his expression carrying the faintest hint of innocence.
It would have been convincing on someone else.
Veyra had spent too many years studying people to mistake that expression for genuine confusion. He was simply refusing to behave as though danger mattered.
He glanced around the basement, taking in the people who had stopped pretending not to watch them.
"I think this isn’t a suitable place for us to talk," he said. "You know, with the audience."
He gestured vaguely toward the room.
"Unless you’re comfortable with everyone listening."
Veyra almost laughed.
"I’ve already handled that."
She released a thin pulse of mana.
The noise around them vanished beneath a layer of manipulated sound. To everyone outside the barrier, the two of them would appear to be speaking normally, but nothing they said would escape it.
A subtle distortion spread out from her purple earrings and settled across their bodies, interfering with the way anyone watching them perceived their faces and mouths.
Nobody would hear them.
Nobody would be able to read their lips.
Caelus’s mouth curved slightly as he thought.
Sound Affinity really is broken.
"Your Sound Affinity."
The amusement disappeared from Veyra’s expression.
"What about it?"
Caelus looked at her for a moment before speaking.
"It’s Sacred, isn’t it?"
Her control over the barrier slipped for less than a second before she corrected it.
She hated that he had noticed something she had spent years making sure nobody noticed.
How?
Her Affinity had been tested before. More than once. It had never been identified as Sacred.
That was precisely the point.
Sacred Affinities weren’t something ordinary Affinity examinations revealed. Unless someone already knew what they were looking for, there was little reason to perform the additional testing.
And almost nobody knew to look.
Her first thought was House Vespera.
It lasted less than a second.
Caelus was the bastard son. Whatever influence Aldric Vespera possessed, there was little reason to believe he had handed sensitive information to a son he’d barely acknowledged.
The Church was even less likely. If they knew what her Affinity truly was, they would never have allowed her to remain beyond their control.
As for the people from her past...
Her fingers tightened.
Those who knew the truth had either disappeared or learned the value of silence.
Which left the possibility she liked least.
Caelus had figured it out himself.
She looked at him again.
He was still watching her, patiently waiting for her to finish thinking.
That was almost worse than the revelation itself.
"Now you understand why they wanted you." He leaned forward slightly. "The organization that tried to take you. They knew."
Knew what?
What does he mean?
"You’re assuming they knew."
Caelus looked at her.
"You were hunted."
"That doesn’t prove they knew about the Sacred Affinity."
"No."
His gaze settled on her.
"But the fact that corrupted contractors were involved makes it a reasonable conclusion."
Veyra studied him.
"You’re guessing."
"Maybe."
That answer caught her off guard.
He didn’t try to pretend otherwise.
"The difference," Caelus continued, "is that my guesses tend to have reasons behind them."
"Most people never test their Affinity beyond the ordinary classification. Why would they? Sacred Affinities are rare enough that most people will live their entire lives without encountering one."
He paused.
"But corrupted contractors can sense them."
Veyra’s expression hardened.
She already knew where he was going.
She simply didn’t want to hear him say it.
Caelus did anyway.
"And a Sacred Affinity holder can also serve as a vessel for a corrupted one."
For the first time since he’d spoken the word Sacred, Veyra stopped thinking about how he’d learned it.
She thought about the experiments.
The questions.
The things they had wanted to know about her body.
Things she had spent years convincing herself were unrelated.
He smiled.
"They weren’t interested in you as a person."
Veyra’s jaw tightened.
Caelus leaned back.
"A vessel, perhaps. A prototype. Maybe they simply wanted to know whether the combination was possible."
She said nothing.
"Either way, you’re still alive. And they’re apparently gone."
His smile stretched.
"The Church claims the site where you were taken was raided and purged."
"If that’s true, there should be records."
Veyra’s gaze sharpened.
"They do."
"And you don’t trust those records."
Silence.
Caelus leaned slightly closer.
"Neither do I."
"You don’t even know what’s in them."
"No. But I know who controls them."
He shrugged.
"That’s usually enough to make me cautious."
"Careful."
His smile barely changed.
"I’m being careful."
She stared at him. The barrier hummed softly around them. The workers in the basement continued their business, oblivious to the conversation happening beneath the distortion.
He was too calm. He had walked into MIST headquarters, casually revealed information that could have gotten him killed, and was now negotiating with her like this was a business transaction.
He knew things he shouldn’t know. He had no reason to know them. Yet he did.
She had initially categorized him as a spoiled noble with an unusual amount of confidence. That assessment was becoming increasingly difficult to defend.
"I think you’ve seen enough to understand what I’m offering."
Veyra watched him carefully.
"I know things."
"That’s vague."
"Then make it specific. An artifact you’re searching for. A location you can’t reach. A person you can’t find. An organization whose movements you want to understand."
He spread one hand.
"You give me the question. I’ll tell you whether I have the answer."
"And you expect me to believe you?"
"No."
He smiled.
"I expect you to test me."
She raised an eyebrow.
"And what do you want?"
Caelus smiled.
"Payment. Preferably enough to make this worth my time."
Veyra studied him for several seconds.
She had entered the conversation intending to interrogate him, determine the limits of his knowledge, and decide whether he was worth keeping alive.
Somehow, the conversation had turned into a negotiation.
Worse, she still hadn’t figured out where his information came from.
A D-rank with D-rank Potential should not have been able to identify a Sacred Affinity that had escaped every ordinary examination. He shouldn’t have known enough about her past to make her question things she’d buried years ago.
Yet he had.
And instead of demanding anything from her, he was offering her answers for a price.
Veyra almost laughed.
She had expected a spoiled noble.
Instead, she had found an information broker wearing a noble’s face.
And she had the uncomfortable feeling that Caelus Vespera had no idea how dangerous his own knowledge could become.