Chapter Eight The Choice Joseph Left Behind #2
The video showed no audio at first.
Then sound activated.
Mercer circled Lucas slowly.
"You weren't supposed to reach Spain."
Lucas remained still.
"Yet here I am."
"You always were the flaw Joseph couldn't predict."
Lucas's expression hardened.
"You knew Joseph?"
"Better than you ever will."
Naomi moved closer to the screen.
Mercer smiled.
"The question is whether Naomi chooses you when choosing you costs her everything."
Lucas looked directly toward the camera.
Naomi felt as though he could see her.
"She doesn't need to choose me."
Mercer tilted his head.
"How noble."
"It's not nobility."
Lucas's voice remained calm.
"She belongs to herself."
Naomi's eyes filled.
Mercer studied him.
"Joseph said something similar."
"Maybe that's why she loved him."
Mercer's smile vanished.
The feed cut.
The screen returned to the question.
STATE THE TRUTH YOU MOST FEAR.
Naomi stared.
Now she understood the pressure.
Give the House a secret.
Advance.
Reach Lucas.
Or refuse and leave him with Mercer.
Her hands curled into fists.
Joseph's voice returned from memory.
Your advantage is what you refuse to surrender.
Naomi sat again.
"My greatest fear isn't a secret."
The microphone illuminated.
She continued.
"I'm afraid I'll lose people I love."
The screen flickered.
"That's not confidential."
She leaned closer.
"That's human."
The system paused.
Then displayed:
INADEQUATE RESPONSE.
Naomi smiled without humor.
"That's your problem."
She stood.
"You were built by people who confused vulnerability with leverage."
The screen flickered again.
"Fear doesn't belong to you because I admit it."
Naomi moved toward the door.
"And love isn't weakness because someone can threaten it."
The lights changed.
The door unlocked.
Naomi stared.
A new message appeared.
CLAIMANT PASSES FIRST JUDGMENT.
She laughed.
"I didn't even answer your question."
Joseph's recorded voice suddenly returned.
"Exactly."
Naomi froze.
On the screen, her father smiled.
"If you saw that part, then you understood."
She began crying again.
Joseph looked directly into the camera.
"Go find your brother."
The recording ended.
The door opened into another underground passage.
Naomi ran.
"Lucas!"
No answer.
"Adrian!"
Still nothing.
Then she heard shouting.
She followed it.
The corridor opened into a large library chamber.
Lucas stood near the opposite wall.
Mercer stood between them.
He looked exactly as Naomi remembered him, only older.
Same composed posture.
Same intelligent eyes.
Same maddening calm.
"Professor."
Mercer turned.
rue emotion crossed his face.
"Naomi."
Lucas moved toward her.
Mercer raised one hand.
"I wouldn't."
Naomi saw the wire in his other hand.
A trigger.
Ross wasn't here.
No weapon.
Naomi stopped.
"What did you do?"
"Nothing yet."
Lucas's gaze remained fixed on the trigger.
"Charges are beneath the archive supports."
Naomi looked toward Mercer.
"You rigged the monastery?"
"Only one section."
"Why?"
"Insurance."
She laughed bitterly.
"Everyone in this family has a terrible definition of insurance."
Mercer's expression softened.
"You've grown."
"Do not speak to me like you're proud."
"I am."
"I don't care."
That seemed to hurt him.
Good.
Naomi moved slightly closer.
"You raised Adrian."
"Yes."
"You knew he was my brother when you became my professor."
"Yes."
"You looked me in my face for years."
"Yes."
"And never told me."
Mercer held her gaze.
"Joseph forbade it."
"Dad is dead."
"And promises survive people."
Naomi stared.
"You sound exactly like this House."
Mercer's expression tightened.
"Perhaps."
"Where is Adrian?"
"Completing judgment."
"Elias?"
"Likely doing the same."
"Serrano?"
Mercer smiled faintly.
"He has no intention of answering honestly."
"Neither did I."
Interest appeared in Mercer's eyes.
"How did you pass?"
"I refused."
His smile widened.
"Joseph."
Naomi frowned.
"You knew?"
"I helped him redesign portions of the system."
"You knew there was a way around the test."
"Yes."
Naomi's anger rose.
"Then why let Adrian believe the old rules?"
Mercer's face changed.
"Because Adrian must choose who he is without me."
Naomi stared.
"That's convenient."
"It's necessary."
"No."
She stepped closer.
"You don't get to manipulate someone their entire life and call abandoning them a lesson in independence."
Mercer's jaw tightened.
Lucas looked toward Naomi.
Pride showed despite the danger.
Mercer noticed.
"You really do love her."
Lucas answered instantly.
"Yes."
Mercer looked at Naomi.
"That complicates things."
"You keep saying that as though love is an administrative problem."
"In organizations like this, it is."
"Then organizations like this deserve to die."
Mercer studied her for several seconds.
Finally he lowered the trigger slightly.
"Joseph believed you'd say that."
Naomi frowned.
"Apparently Dad predicted every sentence I've ever spoken."
"Not every sentence."
Mercer reached into his coat.
Lucas tensed.
Mercer slowly removed a small envelope.
Joseph's handwriting covered the front.
For Naomi and Adrian—together.
Naomi stopped breathing.
"Where did you get that?"
"Joseph gave it to me seventeen years ago."
"Why haven't you opened it?"
"It's sealed with two locks."
He turned it over.
Two tiny silver clasps.
One compass.
One broken wing.
Naomi touched her pendant.
"Mine."
"And Adrian's."
Mercer nodded.
"Joseph said the letter could only be opened once both children chose each other over the House."
Naomi's throat tightened.
"Did we?"
"You refused judgment without betraying anyone."
He looked toward the corridor.
"Adrian did the same."
Relief hit her.
"He passed?"
"Yes."
Mercer smiled faintly.
"By smashing the microphone."
Naomi laughed before she could stop herself.
"That sounds like him."
"It does."
Footsteps approached.
Adrian entered.
A bruise darkened his jaw.
He saw Naomi.
"You okay?"
"I'm okay."
His eyes shifted toward Lucas.
"Lucas?"
"Annoyed."
"Good."
Then Adrian saw the envelope.
His face changed.
"Where did you get that?"
Mercer held it between them.
"You know."
Adrian's jaw tightened.
"You said it wasn't time."
"It wasn't."
"And now?"
Mercer looked at the twins.
"Now you've both rejected the House."
Naomi walked closer.
"Give it to us."
Mercer did.
No argument.
That worried her more than resistance would have.
Adrian removed his pendant.
Naomi removed hers.
They looked at each other.
"Together?" Naomi asked.
Adrian nodded.
"Together."
They placed both pendants against the silver clasps.
Click.
Click.
The envelope opened.
Inside was one sheet of paper.
Naomi recognized Joseph's handwriting immediately.
She unfolded it.
Adrian moved beside her.
They read silently at first.
Then Naomi began aloud.
"My children,
"If you are reading this together, then for once my hope defeated my fear."
Her voice cracked.
Adrian stared at the page.
Naomi continued.
"I am sorry I let this House convince me that separation was protection."
"I am sorry I allowed Mercer to raise one child while Evelyn and I raised the other."
"I am sorry that survival demanded choices neither of you deserved."
Adrian looked away.
Naomi squeezed his hand.
He did not pull away.
She continued.
"The Covenant cannot be repaired while one person owns its secrets."
"Elias will never accept that until the end."
"Gabriel will never accept it because ownership became the language through which he survived pain."
"Daniel understands the problem but loves knowledge too much to destroy it."
Mercer's face tightened.
Naomi looked at him.
Joseph had known him well.
She continued.
"Beatrice will preserve what should sometimes be allowed to die."
Beatrice wasn't present, but Naomi could imagine her reaction.
"That leaves you."
Naomi paused.
Her heart pounded.
"The fifth bell does not choose the Keeper."
Adrian looked sharply at the paper.
Naomi read faster.
"It never did."
"The original founders designed the fifth bell as a release."
"A Keeper who rings it alone accepts authority."
"But two rightful heirs who ring it together dissolve centralized succession."
Silence filled the library.
Mercer closed his eyes.
Lucas stared.
Adrian whispered,
"He found a loophole."
Mercer corrected softly,
"He restored the original rule."
Naomi continued.
"If the visible heir and hidden heir choose each other, the House must surrender its authority."
"Every protected identity is transferred to independent guardianship."
"Every criminal record is released to lawful international authorities."
"Every stolen cultural object enters restitution review."
"And the Ninth Circle loses control."
Naomi's hands shook.
This was it.
A way to end it.
A real way.
Then she reached the final lines.
Her stomach tightened.
"What?" Adrian asked.
Naomi didn't answer.
"Naomi?"
She read aloud.
"But the release requires four living claims to stand before the fifth bell."
"All must hear the choice."
"Only two need ring."
Lucas understood.
"Elias."
"Serrano."
"Naomi and Adrian."
Mercer nodded.
"Four claimants."
Naomi looked toward the corridor.
"We need Serrano alive."
"Yes," Mercer said.
"And Elias."
"Yes."
She exhaled.
"That's inconvenient."
Adrian gave a humorless laugh.
"Family specialty."
Naomi read the last paragraph.
"If Gabriel refuses to stand before the bell, tell him the truth I never had the courage to tell him."
Naomi stopped.
Adrian leaned toward the page.
"What truth?"
She looked at Mercer.
He knew.
His face confirmed it.
Naomi looked back down.
Joseph's final words blurred through tears.
Then she read them.
"Edmund Taylor did not abandon Gabriel."
Lucas froze.
Naomi continued.
"He never knew Gabriel existed."
Silence.
Even Mercer seemed affected.
Adrian whispered,
"What?"
Joseph's letter continued.
"Arthur discovered Marisol and the child years later."
"Arthur—not Edmund—ordered the records hidden."
"Arthur feared Gabriel's existence would destroy Hudson's inheritance and expose Edmund's affair after his death."
Lucas's face went pale.
Naomi stared at him.
Everything Serrano believed—
Everything Elias had fed him—
His father had never knowingly rejected him.
Arthur had erased him.
Naomi finished.
"Elias knew the truth."