Eziel was still fixing my tie when ARIA appeared in her normal human form which ws hot as fuck... she finally spoke.
She had given me time—a full, measured, deliberate stretch of silence that was itself a form of commentary. ARIA didn't usually grant me time out of kindness. She granted it out of precision.
She had already run the numbers.
Already simulated every branching path of this conversation in parallel across a thousand probabilistic threads.
Already filed the conclusion twenty minutes ago, timestamped it, and was now simply waiting for my brain to arrive at the same destination she had reached before Eziel's fingers even touched the knot.
I watched Eziel adjust the silver mask on my face. Small, practiced movements. The quiet ritual of a woman rebuilding her man's armor after letting someone slip behind it for a night.
The mask caught the low light of the suite—silver warming to molten under the lamp, edges catching fire like liquid mercury poured over bone.
