Sage's playful mood evaporated, not slowly, but like a circuit being cut.

She noticed immediately that what he was about to say was serious. His tone had shifted. The easy confidence was gone, replaced by a low, grave timbre. Tension coiled visibly in his shoulders.

His refusal to visit the Capital Sector had been sudden and sharp. It wasn't a request it was a wall.

Her thoughts raced through possibilities. The Council? Had they found something else? Was he in danger again?

Her hand rose to rest against his cheek. "Okay," she said softly, her voice a stark contrast to the storm of calculations in her mind. "I'm listening. What is it?"

Zaeryn didn't waste time and told her. "Alright. The reason I froze when I met Valerie," he began, his voice a bit low and strained, "wasn't just because I was intimidated by her though I was." He paused. "But it's because I recognized her. We have a connection."

Sage remained silent, her mind processing, waiting for him to finish.

"We have the same eyes, Sage. The same blood. She's my cousin." He let that land, then delivered the final blow. "Ysmeine isn't actually my real parent. My mother is Princess Athea."

Sage finally moved. She rose from the chair with fluid, deliberate grace and turned to face him. She didn't gasp or laugh or dismiss him, despite his words sounding a bit absurd.

She just… stopped. Her violet eyes, usually so vibrant and analytical, went still and wide, pupils dilating slightly as she processed what he'd told her.

He is a Lumina? Royal blood.

For Sage, it wasn't a question of whether he was telling the truth, she knew Zaeryn would never lie to her. But the shock still reverberated through her. And also, now that she was remembering, it all made sense that Ysmeine was not really Zaeryn's mom.

Because for starters, she never heard Zaeryn call Ysmeine 'mom' not even once, and he always addressed her as 'Ysmeine' or something else.

After a long silence, she finally spoke, her voice a quiet, clinical whisper. "When did you find out?"

"I've always known," he admitted, the story tumbling out in a quiet rush. "I was swapped at birth. Ysmeine's daughter, Aeris's younger sister, was given to Athea to raise as her own.

Athea gave me to Ysmeine to hide me, to keep me alive. As we know, the royal family doesn't allow male heirs."

Another silence fell as Sage processed everything. It felt like a full minute passed before she spoke again.

"Okay," she whispered, but the word was different now. Heavier. "This… I didn't expect that." Her violet eyes searched for his, seeing not just her lover, but a political singularity—the most endangered man in the Queendom.

Not only was he an anomaly, but he was apparently the prince of the Lumina royal family. A title that shouldn't exist, but did because he existed.

"I didn't tell you sooner because...."

Sage smiled, cutting him off. "I know. This isn't a simple secret, and we've only been this close for five and a half months. What matters is that you trust me enough to tell me now."

She let out a slow, deliberate breath, barely audible in the quiet room. She took a step back and sat in the chair opposite him. "I just… wow." She muttered, still struggling to reconcile that her boyfriend was also royalty—something unheard of in this world.

After the initial shock had been processed and filed away, her brilliant mind began doing what it did best: calculating variables, assessing threats, finding new angles.

She leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms. The slow, dangerous smile that returned to her face was not just playful it was hungry. "Well," she began, her voice a low purr that did nothing to hide its sharp, analytical edge, "this exponentially increases your statistical probability of being assassinated."

Zaeryn let out a short, choked laugh, the tension breaking in a wave of disbelief. "That's… that's your first thought?"

"It's the most logical one," Sage corrected, tilting her head as her violet eyes gleamed.

She wasn't thrilled at the idea of him being assassinated that twisted something fierce in her chest, but a prince? That lit a fire. "A secret prince with forbidden powers, heir to a throne that would execute you on sight. You just went from being an anomaly to a politically volatile event." Her smile widened with genuine, dangerous excitement. "I'm guessing Valerie doesn't know?"

"No. Not many people do. It needs to stay a secret."

___

Meanwhile, the royal transport glided silently through sector seven's high-altitude channels, the gleaming spires of the commercial district receding into a blur of light and shadow.

Inside, the atmosphere was thick with unspoken thoughts and the lingering scent of Stellan Innovations' engineered perfection.

Princess Valerie leaned back in the plush, gel-cushioned seat, a soft smile playing on her lips as she gazed at the Omni-Pad resting in her lap. The screen glowed with a single image: a selfie, snapped in the final, chaotic moments of their departure.

In it, she was beaming, her blue eyes sparkling with genuine delight. Beside her, slightly blurred from the suddenness of the motion, was Zaeryn. His expression was a perfect storm of shock, confusion, and a reluctant, almost pained smile.

"Aww, I should have taken more," she murmured to herself, tracing the line of his jaw on the screen with her fingertip. The decision to capture the moment had been pure impulse, a spark of mischief she couldn't resist.

From behind her, General Eva Rostova leaned forward. "Are you sure? 'Cause it looked like he hated it."

"Yeah, I know. I caught him off guard, but it was an impulsive decision." Valerie put the pad away, but the smile lingered, softer now.

Then, her expression shifted, the playful light in her eyes replaced by a sharp, analytical focus. "Did you see how his demeanor changed when he learned I was a princess? He didn't look afraid, but like he was alarmed by a threat and was ready to pounce."

"Yes, I noticed that," Rostova confirmed, her own sharp eyes narrowed in thought. "For a moment, his posture was that of a combatant assessing an opponent, not a civilian meeting royalty."

Valerie nodded, her mind replaying the subtle shift in his body language. "But I think he knows now I'm not one to be afraid of."

"Yes, as long as he stays on your good side," Captain Nyx commented from her position by the door, her voice even and professional.

"What do you mean by that?" Valerie frowned slightly. However she didn't wait for an answer as she immediately realized what captain Nyx meant by that. "Oh, no. I don't think so much handsomeness, such cuteness, can ever get on my bad side, Nyx," she replied with a theatrical sigh, her playful mood returning.

A shadow of disappointment crossed her features. "It's too bad, honestly, that he is dating Sage Stellan. I wish…" She stopped herself, the words catching in her throat.

Sage had been nothing but a gracious host, and fantasizing about her boyfriend felt… unseemly. But what could she do? In a world of carefully bred, predictable men, of whom she'd never even met, Zaeryn was a wild, intoxicating variable. He was the first man she'd encountered who felt truly, vibrantly alive.

"That boy," Rostova said, her voice pulling Valerie from her thoughts, "he's an anomaly in more ways than one." The General crossed her arms, her gaze fixed on the passing cityscape.

"His acceptance into the Lyceum, his confidence… it defies all known data on male disposition. There's a strength in him that is not just physical."

She paused, then turned her gaze to Valerie, her expression uncharacteristically serious. "Perhaps you were too mesmerized by his other traits to notice, Princess Valerie, but did you observe his features closely? Specifically, his eyes."

Valerie's playful mood faltered, her mind replaying her brief, charged encounter with Zaeryn.

"That specific shade of piercing blue," Rostova continued, her voice low and deliberate, "is exceedingly rare. You only see it within the Lumina bloodline."

Before Valerie could process the implication, Captain Nyx added, her own voice hushed with dawning realization, "And the line of his jaw, General. It carries the same sharp, regal angle as Princess Athea."

The statements didn't land like observations; they landed like indictments. The air in the transport grew thin as Valerie froze, her mind snapping back to the corridor, to the moment she had looked into Zaeryn's eyes.

It was true. The familiarity she'd felt, that strange resonance in her Vitae it wasn't just a spark of attractio….. could it be an echo of her own bloodline.

The Lumina eyes. The sharp, aristocratic jawline she saw in her own cousin's reflection every day. It wasn't that he looked like them; it was that he was made of the same defining, regal features, assembled into a form that was undeniably male, yet could be royal.

The pieces of the puzzle she didn't even know she was solving slammed into place with the force of a physical blow, leaving her breathless.

Nyx murmured, her own professional composure cracking with surprise. "The resemblance is… strange."

Valerie's mind raced as she tried to connect the dots. The blue eyes. The sharp, royal cheekbones he shared with Athea. The way her own blood had seemed to sing in recognition.

Was she just overthinking it, or was it a resemblance? A sign that he carried the same blood as the Lumina line?

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