Chapter 266
There’s something surreal about planning a potential insurrection while sitting on the edge of a bathroom sink.
The room’s a tight fit with all of us packed in—steam filling the space with the scent of mint and salt in the air, the mirrors half-fogged and catching strange, warped reflections of tired faces.
I perch on the sink. Wake leans against the wall by the door, arms crossed, face unreadable. Cora sits cross-legged on the closed toilet lid, and the rest of the Nereid team huddle on towels and upturned laundry baskets like it’s some kind of middle school lock-in.
It’s become our unofficial war room. Neutral ground. Private. And, critically, the vents don’t pipe sound directly into any monitoring stations.
“I got a good look inside the latest corpse,” I say, voice low. “Lily, let me assist with the dissection.”
Cora raises a brow. “She let you?”
“She didn’t fight hard enough to stop me.” I glance toward Wake, but he says nothing. He hasn’t since I told him where I was going. “Anyway, the creature wasn’t just growing legs and lungs. It was forming entire new organ systems—like its biology was reconfiguring itself to live on land.”
“Adapting?” Rory asks from his seat on the floor.
“More like evolving,” I say. “Rapidly. It wasn’t random. It looked… driven.”
Cora frowns. “By what?”
“That’s the thing. I didn’t realize it until we opened the skull. The brain was full of black, slick tissue—veins threaded through it like fungus, glowing purple. And I recognized it. It’s ether poisoning.”
Silence. The word settles heavily in the air.
Tyler, who’s been sitting quietly beside Arista, leans forward. “You’re saying the Elder Kin have been exposed to Darklite?”
I nod. “Yeah, and a lot of it.”
“Hold on,” Cora says, “I remember the reports from Ao about the miners. People were getting sick from exposure, yes, but… headaches, memory loss, nosebleeds. No one was sprouting gills and extra limbs.”
Tyler clears his throat. “I can confirm Enigma’s been experimenting with Darklite. Purposefully dosing some of the Enkian prisoners.”
Cora’s head snaps toward him. “Dosing how?”
Tyler runs a hand through his hair. “A few ways. Some are kept near raw chunks of the mineral. Others have collars or cuffs laced with it. And lately, they’ve started distilling it—injecting it into cryo chambers.”
Wake curses under his breath, the sound low and sharp.
I narrow my eyes. “And you’re sure that hasn’t resulted in any mutations?”
Manu scoffs. “Define mutation. No claws or tentacles, if that’s what you’re asking. But there’ve been plenty of effects. Lethargy. Nausea. Seizures.”
“Seizures?” Cora echoes, stiffening. “Who?”
Rory raises a hand slightly. “A pair from The Expanse. They were arrested for speaking out against the Amphitrite Heir.”
“You said they were a pair?” I ask.
He nods. “One male, one female—pretty sure they were a couple.”
I freeze. My gaze meets Cora’s across the steam-hazy room.
“Mates,” we say at the same time.
Cora straightens. “They’d have more access to the Ether than most. If they were trying to reach each other through the bond—”
“—They could’ve triggered something without even knowing it,” I finish. “Especially in a place like this. They’d need to reach for one another.”
Cora exhales slowly, then rises to her feet. “We’ve got to be careful with this. No one outside this room hears about what we’ve figured out.”
I nod. “Agreed. This changes everything.”
She turns to the others. “That’s all for now. Get some rest, and keep your ears open. We’ll reconvene when we’ve got more.”
The Nereid crew filters out in twos and threes, moving quietly, quickly. A few exchanged nods. One nervous glance over the shoulder. Then it’s just me, Wake, Cora, Arista, and Silo.
Silo folds his arms, leaning against the towel rack like it’s a strategic perch. “So let me get this straight. Enigma is dosing monsters and outcasts with Darklite?”
“Not Enigma,” I say. “Lily. She’s been falsifying her reports. I confirmed it—Enigma doesn’t know about Shoal. They don’t know what’s happening in the Marble at all.”
Wake lets out a breath through his nose. “I honestly can’t tell if that’s a good thing or a disaster.”
Cora shakes her head. “On the one hand, we don’t have to worry about some drone strike or full-scale intervention from Enigma HQ. But on the much worse hand… it means Lily and Shoal are doing all this without oversight. No leash. No limits.”
“They should be the ones under the microscope,” Arista mutters. “They act like this is all some grand experiment in curiosity and science. But to what end? What’s the goal?”
Wake crosses his arms. “They’re tracking neural activity, experimenting with Darklite, and Lily’s personally overseeing the Elder Kin mutations.”
“And don’t forget Shoal’s infatuation with the warships,” Arista adds.
Silo shrugs. “Feels like they’re just throwing everything they can at the wall to see what sticks.”
I shake my head, slow and thoughtful. “No. There’s a throughline. We just haven’t found it yet.”
I meet each of their gazes, one by one.
“Lily’s original mission was simple—figure out how to replicate Enkian biology. How to make more of us. I don’t think that’s changed.”
Wake frowns. “Even now, with free access to all the Enkian felons she could want?”
“She’s got access to Enkians, yes,” I say. “But not ones she can control. For Lily, control is all that matters.”
Cora’s brow furrows. “She can’t direct us or predict us. But if she can build one? Program it from the ground up…”
“She wouldn’t hesitate,” Wake finishes.
Silence falls again. The kind of silence that fills every crack with dread. The kind that says the war’s already started, and we didn’t notice until the casualties were on the table.
I push off the sink and exhale slowly. “We stay sharp. We stay quiet. And we watch everything. Because they’re close to something. Too close. And if they succeed…”
I don’t finish the sentence.
I don’t have to.
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