Elias didn't reply at first.
He looked down at the laptop screen again, where the cursor blinked back at him with mechanical indifference. A slide title hovered, unfinished. The words didn't matter anymore.
"That's a dangerous thing to say," he said finally, his voice quiet, almost flat.
Adam didn't flinch. "It would be. If it weren't already true."
Elias exhaled through his nose, not quite a laugh. "He told you to come?"
"No," Adam said. "I waited until he left."
That earned a glance. Elias met his gaze, faintly wary. "Why?"
"Because I've seen too many people given something extraordinary and walk away before they even understand what they were handed," Adam said. His tone remained calm, but there was a firmness behind it now, the kind that came from years of watching fires be set in rooms like this one. "And because I don't want that to happen again."
