---
The man who had disappeared into trade matters and strange absences and half-answers. The man who felt strong, yes, but still ordinary in the shape Sekhmet's heart had chosen to understand. Stern sometimes. Distant in strange ways. Capable. Hard to read. But still a mortal man in the way sons assumed fathers were mortal unless something forced the truth differently.
And now Elena was telling him that father was not simply important.
He had once stood as heir to one of the most powerful ancient houses in the Middle Domain.
Sekhmet remembered the first question that had burst out of him afterward, but it had not been the most logical one.
It had been the most human.
"What about Lady Seraphiel?"
Elena had been silent for one second.
Then she said, "She used to date your father."
Sekhmet had actually laughed once then, not because it was funny, but because his mind had reached some bright cliff edge where laughter and disbelief briefly became cousins.
"What?"
