Orion filed it and kept his expression easy.
The energy around Ren had not moved in the way he expected from a lie, even a skilled one. It hadn't jumped or pulsed or done any of the things energy did when someone was working to keep their face ahead of their intentions.
It was still, dense, sitting exactly where it had been when Ren started speaking. Quiet in the way that true things were quiet, without the slight defensive pressure of something being managed.
Orion laughed.
Not with cruelty. With the genuine amusement of someone who has just been surprised by something they hadn't predicted and finds the surprise itself worth appreciating.
The walking experiment that Julius and the old woman had been protecting for years was in love with his niece. Had said "it wasn't even a decision" in that dulled, barely-functional voice as though it were the most straightforward thing in the world, the kind of fact that didn't require inflection because it had never been a question.
