"Stop pretending… I know y'all heard it."
Vaelor's voice cut clean through the chamber as the doors groaned shut behind him. The room was dim, lit only by that faint red glow bleeding through the cracks in the walls. For a moment, nothing answered.
Then..
A slow clap.
"Of course we heard it," Malrith drawled, stepping out from behind a pillar, dusting his hands like he'd just finished a performance. "Hard not to, really. 'A perfectionist being scolded.' *chuckle*"
Janus leaned casually against the wall beside him, arms crossed. "Welcome," he added, tilting his head, "you are now a part of us!"
Vaelor didn't even look at them. "You were eavesdropping."
"We prefer strategic listening," Malrith corrected quickly.
Janus nodded. "Accidentally strategic. Big difference."
Vaelor finally turned, eyes sharp. "And what did your 'accidentally strategic' minds conclude?"
Malrith opened his mouth, then paused.
"…We may have misunderstood at least half of it."
Janus frowned slightly. "Or twice as much as we think we did."
A soft laugh slipped through the tension.
Leila stepped forward from the shadows, her movements unhurried, deliberate. The dim red light caught on her features, making her smile look almost dangerous.
"But we understood enough," she said smoothly, eyes settling on Vaelor. "Enough to know something has… unsettled you."
She stopped just a little too close.
Her gaze dipped, then returned to his eyes. "And you don't strike me as someone who's easily shaken."
Vaelor held her stare, unmoving. "Careful, Leila."
Her smile deepened, subtle, knowing. "Mm. I always am."
Vaelor straightened slightly, his expression slipping back into that calm, unreadable mask.
"As some of you may already know," he said evenly, "Lord Callous has begun searching for a particular embodiment… a human named Kim Hae-joon."
Malrith scoffed almost immediately.
"And you're telling us this because…?" he drawled. "It's a human. Shouldn't be that difficult for someone like you to deal with." His grin sharpened. "Or are you finally getting old?"
A quiet snicker escaped Janus beside him.
Vaelor's gaze shifted toward them at last, cold and unimpressed.
"Mhm," he replied flatly. "If only it were that simple."
Vaelor's voice stayed flat, but there was something beneath it now. Something colder.
Malrith's grin slowly faltered.
The chamber fell quiet again, save for the low hum pulsing through the crimson cracks in the walls.
Vaelor finally moved, taking a slow step forward.
"You think Lord Callous is searching for him because he's weak?" he asked softly. "Because he's human?"
Janus uncrossed his arms, expression sharpening.
Leila watched silently.
Vaelor continued, "Kim Hae-joon survived direct exposure to the Rift."
That got their attention.
Malrith straightened almost immediately. "No human survives the Rift."
"Exactly."
The word landed heavily.
A faint breeze stirred through the chamber though no doors were open. The red glow flickered once.
Janus frowned. "Wait… survived as in escaped? Or survived as in.."
"As in the Rift rejected him."
Silence.
Even Leila's smile disappeared for half a second.
Malrith let out a short laugh, but it sounded forced this time. "That's impossible."
"That," Vaelor replied calmly, "is what concerns me."
He walked past them toward the center of the chamber, dark robes brushing against the stone floor.
"The Embodiments were never meant to coexist with mortal vessels. Humans break. Their minds collapse long before synchronization."
Janus tilted his head. "But Kim Hae-joon didn't."
"No." Vaelor's eyes darkened faintly. "He adapted."
A long pause followed.
Then
"Oh, that is deeply unpleasant information," Janus muttered.
Malrith rubbed the back of his neck. "So Callous wants him because he's useful?"
Vaelor stopped walking.
"No," he said quietly. "Callous wants him because he's afraid."
That sentence hit harder than any of them expected.
Leila's gaze narrowed slightly. "Lord Callous? Afraid of a human?"
Vaelor finally looked at her again.
"You didn't hear the Rift the way I did."
The air in the chamber grew heavier.
"When it opened…" he continued, slower now, "something answered from the other side."
Janus visibly stiffened.
Malrith's joking demeanor vanished entirely. "Answered?"
Vaelor nodded once.
"And it called him by name."
Nobody spoke.
For the first time since entering the chamber, Vaelor looked genuinely unsettled.
Leila noticed immediately.
Her eyes lingered on him for a moment too long before she spoke softly.
"What exactly is Kim Hae-joon?"
Vaelor's expression became unreadable again.
"That," he murmured, "is what I intend to find out before Callous does, or maybe, he knows and isn't intending to tell me."