“You think she won’t betray you?”
He steps into the courtyard shadows.
Alone.
Disheveled.
Eyes burning.
“You expelled me for restraint?”
Lilith doesn’t look at him.
“I expelled you for regression.”
“You abandoned necessity.”
“You abandoned evolution.”
He laughs harshly.
“You’re both blind.”
The air trembles faintly.
Not ritual.
Not convergence.
Just tension.
“You want to rebuild architecture?” Ashcroft says to me.
“She wants to unify blood.”
“She wants control.”
Lilith’s gaze snaps to him.
“You mistake leadership for control.”
“You mistake acceleration for wisdom.”
Silence.
The fracture between them is complete now.
Visible.
Unrepairable.
“You’re both wrong,” Ashcroft says flatly.
“You think choice will save you?”
“Yes,” I answer.
“You think discipline will pre
