Chapter 25

Julian leaned back in his chair, his mind tracing the ripples he'd just sent through the timeline. "He took it better than I expected," Julian murmured. "But the outrage... that was palpable even through the link." The matriarch's voice slithered into his consciousness, tinged with a dry, telepathic amusement. *“Confusion was his primary state for the first several minutes. Surprise followed. But when I explained the nature of the mind-wipe—the sheer violation of his own history—the...