Chapter 342: The Meeting X
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Then he answered. "Grandfather sent me to the lower domain. To him..."
Sekhmet’s eyes sharpened instantly. "Grandfather."
So now the old man behind Eyra’s exile, behind the vanished name, behind the Middle Domain and all the old family rot was no longer a distant story in Elena’s voice. Now he stood at the center of current action.
Seraphiel did not let the moment breathe too long.
"And did you deliver the actual message?"
Mihos looked at her.
"No."
There was the first true shift in Seraphiel’s face.
Not a shock. She was too old for that over Mihos. Irritation, perhaps, and that was more dangerous.
"Why?"
Mihos’s answer came with the lazy honesty of a man too arrogant to understand when lying would have protected his dignity better.
"I wanted entertainment."
Silence followed. Not because anyone was confused. Because everyone understood too well.
Kess lowered his eyes farther.
Stephen looked briefly like a man having a familiar headache.
Elena’s face did not change at all, which was somehow more condemning than visible judgment would have been.
Sekhmet’s mouth moved slightly, not toward a smile.
Toward anger given shape.
Bat Bat looked at Mihos with the bright fascination of someone who had just found a nobleman even more childish than she was and was trying to decide whether to be impressed or offended.
Lady Seraphiel spoke first.
"You delayed a family message because you were bored."
Mihos lifted one shoulder by a fraction. "He was here. I was here. The trip was already tiresome. I chose to see what he would do."
Sekhmet finally stepped fully into the conversation again. His voice was colder now.
"What are you talking about?"
Everyone looked at him.
Good. Let the road remember who had the right to ask.
He continued, each word more controlled than the emotion under it.
"What message? What happened to my father. Explain it properly."
Lady Seraphiel looked at him for one long second.
Then she sighed once, softly. Not because the answer was difficult. Because the shape of the answer would change things no matter how carefully spoken.
So she gave him the truth.
"Eyra was taken back to the family."
There it was. It was simple. It was direct. Yet it was hard enough already.
Sekhmet did not move. Not outside. But inside, the sentence struck like a hammer thrown through old fog.
Taken back.
Not summoned loosely. Not merely delayed. Taken back.
Seraphiel continued before he could interrupt.
"A family meeting happened in the Middle Domain some time ago. More than one thing changed there." Her eyes held his. "Your father reached the True God rank."
That part hit almost as hard.
Mihos said nothing.
Stephen said nothing.
Elena watched only Sekhmet.
Good. That was the only reaction that mattered.
Seraphiel went on.
"The House Master intends to leave for the Upper Domain. Before doing so, he returned Eyra to the family structure. Officially." Her tone sharpened slightly on the word. "Not from kindness. From need. A True God inside the family becomes too valuable to keep outside old politics."
Sekhmet’s jaw tightened. He still said nothing.
So Seraphiel pushed farther.
"Your grandfather now wants to see you. The family wants you brought to the Middle Domain. You are expected to attend and be measured properly."
Measured...
There it was. The old house speaking through Seraphiel’s mouth more honestly than it would ever have spoken for itself.
She did not soften it into welcome. There was no point.
"If the blood proves itself worth acknowledging," she said, "you will be given a position and required to prove yourself inside the family."
Sekhmet stared at her. Then, with complete flatness, said, "No."
The word dropped into the road and stayed there.
Mihos’s eyes brightened with open amusement now. Stephen’s face became more careful. Seraphiel’s expression did not shift at first because she had expected resistance. Elena did not move at all.
Sekhmet continued.
"I am not interested."
Seraphiel’s voice stayed calm. "Sekhmet."
He cut across her.
"I do not care what some old man wants."
There it was. No ornament. No noble restraint. Only the truth.
"Tell me when my father is coming back."
That question was the real one. The only one he cared about. Not position. Not a family test. Not the chance to walk through old house halls like a grandson invited under condition.
Eyra.
When?
Seraphiel saw that and, despite everything, felt something painfully familiar move through her. Eyra would have asked the same way once. Not "what do I gain." Not "what title." First the person. Then the structure around them, if there was time left for such things.
She answered honestly.
"I do not know when he will return."
That made Sekhmet’s face harden further.
"He is still in the Middle Domain. There are matters around his place, the House Master’s departure, and the new internal structure that must be settled. But—"
"I do not care about any of that."
The line cut her off cleanly. He had every right to do it.
Seraphiel stepped closer, not enough to challenge him, enough to try reason one final time.
"You should care."
His eyes met hers.
"Why."
"Because the Middle Domain is not this city. Because what waits there is larger than what you know here. Because if your grandfather truly means to draw you in, refusing without understanding the board may cost you more later." Her voice lowered. "And because there are benefits to going. Real ones. For you. For Eyra. For what you may yet become."
She meant it.
That was the worst part.
She was not defending the family. She was defending opportunity, however poisonous its source. She knew what the Middle Domain could offer in resources, bloodline knowledge, protection, power, and access. She also knew what it could take.
Sekhmet did not bend.
"No."
Again. It was very clean.
He did not even look toward Mihos when he said it, which made the refusal land harder. The heir was not important enough to be the target. The whole family behind him was.
Seraphiel exhaled and did something she did rarely.
She turned to Elena.
"Talk to him."
Mihos almost smiled. "Interesting."
He wanted to see whether Elena, of all people, would place old family necessity over the lower branch young master she served.
Elena did not make him wait long.
"What the young master decides is the final decision," she said.
Nothing in her voice changed.
"I cannot do anything about that. You know I cannot disobey him."
That landed harder than Mihos expected.
Because yes, of course he knew the structure of service. But hearing Elena say it plainly in front of him —that her obedience now belonged to Sekhmet and not to the old main-line logic— made the split inside Dawn blood more visible than he liked.