---
Mihos watched all this with unmistakable entertainment now. The lower one refused the Grandfather. Seraphiel trying and failing to move him. Elena openly confirmed where her loyalty sat. For all the insults of the night, some bitter part of him enjoyed the chaos.
Stephen chose that moment to step in.
He had let the emotional lines run as far as they usefully could. 'Good. Enough.' The road did not need more argument around theory when there was still one thing that might cut through refusal more effectively than some old family pressure.
"Young Master Sekhmet."
Sekhmet's eyes moved to him.
Stephen reached into his inner sleeve and withdrew a dark polished stone about the size of a man's palm. It held faint internal light, dormant but alive. Not a common message stone. Not a simple voice imprint. Something more expensive. More personal.
"I carry a record stone from your father."
That stopped the road.
