"The truth does not erase the past, but it provides the foundation to rebuild the future."
I walked out of the containment chamber and into the corridor, leaving Elara to the sterile silence of her forced rest. The heavy door clicked shut, severing the immediate psychic link, but the raw, chaotic energy of the confrontation clung to me. I had not cried; I had not yelled. I had merely performed an agonizing, necessary data analysis, confirming that my mother was a strategist of chilling perfection, and that the foundation of my life was a calculated wound.
My mind, though, was no longer in control. The psychic exhaustion was total. The decades of suppressed confusion, layered beneath the anger at Ostel for the paternity lie, had finally erupted, leaving me raw and exposed.
I did not head back to the command center. I headed toward the private wing, toward the only people who could process this catastrophic influx of truth: Lord Ostel and Dr. Kael.
