Chapter 02
The Reunion
In the half-light of the room, the silhouette sat unnervingly still. A sudden flash of lightning outside illuminated the space for a fraction of a second, catching the cold gleam of a silver insignia on a crisp, black uniform. The Security Prefecture of the Seventh Republic.
It was Fia. Aurelia Fabia Severina.
Despite the sheer absurdity of the situation—and the terrifying fact that an elite security agent had somehow breached my locked apartment—a familiar, ancient warmth spread through my chest.
"Fia? Is that you, love?" I asked. I masked my shock with deliberate, heavy irony, casually leaning against the edge of my massive wooden desk. Right in front of her.
"Assistant Prefect of Security, Aurelia Fabia Severina," she corrected me. Her voice was pure ice. She wore that impenetrable, grey mask reserved only for the Republic’s most loyal hounds. "Or, if you prefer, you may simply call me 'Your Grace.'"
"Your Grace, Fia..." I couldn't hold back a bitter smile. "It's been five years. You must have missed me terribly to choose such an... unorthodox and intimate way to reunite. You could have just summoned me to an interrogation room."
"Stop playing the clown, Mr. Cornelius," she sighed. For a second, the rigid grey mask slipped just a fraction. The frustration in her voice was suddenly, painfully human. "I don't understand how you maintain this idiotic levity when your entire world is collapsing. The guillotine is already hanging over your neck, and you..."
"Fia, Fia, Fia," I interrupted, a pang of sorrow hitting me as I wondered if the vibrant, rebellious girl I once knew was entirely dead beneath that uniform. "I thought you knew me better. No threat, no public opinion, and certainly no Cardinal can force me to abandon what I know is true. We always knew what we'd eventually face."
"You're still acting like an eighteen-year-old boy!" Fia’s voice spiked, her professional veneer shattering completely. "Don't you get it? We grew up! The game is over! The day we graduated, we lost the right to act on emotion. Now, there is only logic and survival." She let her gaze sweep over me, adding with a dry, cynical edge, "You're in far too good a shape for a normal, obedient cleric of the Republic. You know that raises unnecessary questions among the elite?"
"I don't know what the elite thinks, but once upon a time, you certainly didn't mind my... attributes," I raised an eyebrow, baiting her.
"Ace!" Fia exploded, slamming her fist onto the desk. "Do you not grasp the gravity of this? Are you completely insane, sleeping with His Holiness’s only daughter?! The Cardinal didn't believe a single word of your supposed repentance! He filed a complaint—"
"You know what?" I cut in calmly. "Sometimes, her stubbornness reminds me of you. Which, honestly, only makes her more irresistible."
"You are both absolute psychopaths," Fia groaned in despair.
A rustle of sheets interrupted us.
Clio slowly opened her eyes. She looked at the dark silhouette sitting by the desk, and without a single ounce of surprise or fear, spoke with the exact same casual intonation I had used moments ago:
"Wow, Fia? How have you been?"
A deathly silence fell over the room.
Two exhausted rebels and a tightly-buttoned agent of the Security Prefecture stared at one another in the gloom. The situation was so profoundly detached from reality, so completely beyond the borders of logic, that by some unspoken agreement, all three of us erupted into hysterical laughter.
It was the manic, breathless laughter of the condemned.
I moved back to the bed, pulling Clio close. Fia, wiping a tear of mirth from her eye, leaned forward into the faint light. It turned out that beneath the cold, grey armor of the Prefecture, the girl who could still appreciate the sheer absurdity of the moment was still alive.
"Now then," Clio said, her smile lingering as the laughter subsided. "What were you saying about His Holiness's daughter?"
