Joric Tahl's investigation led him back to Dr. Lydia Thorne. He needed to understand the potential of a biological strike, especially if the architect was moving away from the electronic realm.
He presented Lydia with the file connecting her father's disgrace, the ADO compound's base components, and the secret lab location.
Lydia was devastated. "My father... he helped manufacture weaponized despair?" she whispered, staring at the evidence. "I thought he was just protecting his pride."
"He was leveraged, Doctor," Joric said, his voice quiet. "Leveraged by someone with a devastating need for vengeance."
He then showed her the Kaelen house's exclusive food supply contract with the Citadel Gardens- the largest, most secure nutrient facility in the sector.
"If the target has moved to a biological vector," Joric explained, pointing to the facility's logistics, "they need a systemic, internal breach. The Citadel Gardens is the heart of the Kaelen supply chain. The final target must be someone consuming that supply, likely Elias Kaelen, due to his specialized, restrictive diet."
Lydia, driven by a desperate need to undo her father's catastrophic moral compromise, immediately focused on the biological threat.
"If they are targeting cognitive function, they need a complex compound," she said, pulling up various biological schematics.. "Something that passes the blood-brain barrier easily but is non-fatal and slow to detect. A Mnemotic Lapse agent, perhaps designed to disrupt specific synaptic structures responsible for long-term memory."
"What would be the effect on a child?" Joric asked, the image of ten-year-old Elias Kaelen, shielded and innocent, flashing in his mind.
Lydia looked grim. "Not death, as the architect claims. But the erasure of the self. A living void. The destruction of his future promise, as you call it. It's an agonizingly cruel form of intellectual murder."
Joric felt the weight of his moral contract crushing him. He was paid to protect the Kaelen dynasty, and that meant protecting Elias. But the architect he was hunting- Elara Vane, the Archivist- was fighting for a truth that mirrored his own moral frustration.
"The attack is scheduled for the next maintenance cycle at the Citadel Gardens," Joric stated, consulting his timeline. "Three days from now. I will be there."
"I have to go with you," Lydia insisted. "If my father synthesized the compound, I could design an immediate, high-dose antidote that might neutralize it before it binds permanently. I can't let my family's science become the instrument of a child's erasure."
Joric agreed. He now had the means to stop the attack, and the professional justification to pursue Elara.
He returned to Kaelen Manor, the full picture of the vengeance clear in his mind. He knew Elara's identity, her motive, her methods, and her final target. The Vane vengeance was cold, complete, and terrifyingly elegant.
He stood by the window, looking out over the city. He had two choices:
Stop Elara Vane, fulfilling his contract and saving Elias, thereby preserving the corrupt Kaelen machine. Allow the strike to happen, upholding the silent justice Elara believed in, but sacrificing an innocent child and betraying his professional duty.
Joric's moral line, drawn by the need to protect his sister Elena, felt agonizingly taut. If he let the Kaelens fall, Elena's life support would vanish. But if he saved them, he was upholding the silencing of Arthur Vane. The conflict was absolute. He had to stop the architect, but he realized with cold dread that he desperately needed her to stop herself.