The next day passed in a strange kind of peace, the artificial kind, like calm water stretched thin over something deeper.
Elias spent most of the morning pretending he didn't notice the quiet footsteps outside the suite or the subtle shimmer of active warding runes over the doorframe. The privacy screen on his temporary phone blinked green once every five minutes, confirming that, yes, someone was always watching, just not intrusively. Not unless he did something stupid.
Which, for now, he didn't plan on doing.
Instead, he picked up the threads of the project he'd let unravel earlier that week. The lab simulations had stalled without his input, again, and the last few progress memos had been written by people who clearly hadn't understood the actual purpose of the ether-reduction interface. Elias reworked the equations without comment, his fingers flying across the touchpad as though the numbers could offer sanctuary.
It helped. A little.
