Vivienne caught it immediately. Neo was dodging on purpose.

He had gone quiet in that stubborn way that did not come from confusion, but from decision. He had heard the word, understood more than he wanted to admit, and chosen to play dumb rather than give her anything for free. She could not exactly blame him for that. What irritated her was the reason she had ended up here in the first place.

’Damn it... if I hadn’t let that slip.’

She had said it without thinking. That almost never happened. Around most people, every word passed through three filters before it reached her mouth. Around Neo, things came out more easily. Maybe because he did not warp himself around her surname. He had not done it in the Breach, and he was not doing it now. e answered her the same way he answered everyone else, and that had made her lower her guard without noticing.

The first time they crossed paths, he had watched her like a problem he had not classified yet. A variable. This time, outside the Breach, it had not changed much. Plenty of people wanted her contact. Plenty of people wanted favor, proximity, opportunity, relevance. The Mournes had fallen far from what they once were, but a name like that did not stop weighing on the world just because power had cracked around it. Neo still refused to bend.

Vivienne let out a quiet breath and gave up on waiting for him to move first.

"It seems you’re not going to say anything," she said, resting her fingers against the stem of the glass. "Information about Divine is important. Very few people know anything useful, and most who do could make someone disappear without effort. I could do the same."

Neo kept his attention on her and said nothing.

He knew she was telling the truth. He simply refused to reward it.

Vivienne tilted her head a fraction. "Even that doesn’t work." Her mouth curved faintly, though there was little warmth in it. "I like that about you, Neo. You stay loyal to yourself. That may kill you one day, but it’s still rare. If Leo had been sitting where I am, tonight would have gone very differently."

That got him to speak.

"So what now?"

"Now I offer you something fair." She leaned back and crossed one leg over the other, the red of her dress deepening under the citylight behind her. "You’re curious about Divine. Anyone with a functioning brain would be. I’m curious too. I know a little. Less than I would like. More than most. My family is tied to things like that, which is why I’m even having this conversation."

Neo’s expression tightened slightly. "Your family?"

Vivienne gave a small nod. "How do you think families like mine become pillars of Atlas? Do you think ordinary awakened climb that high and stay there for centuries by luck? Look at the Duplains. Look at us. Families like that never rise on simple talent alone. There is always something underneath."

He did not rush the answer. He sat there with the cutlery untouched for a moment, weighing risk against value.

Trusting her was dangerous. That part was obvious. She was a Mourne, not a classmate at a cheap school. Money, protection, secrets, history, enemies, all of it sat around her whether she acknowledged it or not. At the same time, information about Divine was worth more than the payment she had used to lure him here. He had already stepped into something tied to gods, ruins, relics, and a past the world wanted buried. Walking that road blind was another form of stupidity.

"You first," he said at last.

Vivienne accepted it without protest. "That’s fair." 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

A ring appeared in her palm.

At first glance it looked ordinary. Silver. Slim. Elegant. The danger sat deeper than shape. Neo felt it at once. The air around it changed slightly, not enough for a normal person to notice, but enough for him. That pressure did not come from craftsmanship. It came from age, weight, and the sort of power that had stopped trying to announce itself because it no longer needed to.

"This is one of my family’s Soul Relics," Vivienne said. "Not the only one. One of several. You already know relic descriptions can hold fragments of truth, names, and pieces of history. This one is Divine. It is important to my family. To me as well. Its effects have supported the Mournes for a very long time."

Neo’s attention stayed fixed on the ring. It looked so normal that it became worse.

He reached out almost on instinct.

Vivienne closed her hand around it at once, though her voice stayed soft. "You can’t touch it."

Neo drew his hand back.

"Protective."

"Reasonably."

She lowered her hand. "Your turn."

Neo brought out his relic in its original form.

The black mass floated above his palm, shifting with that wrong fluidity that never truly resembled metal no matter what shape it pretended to wear. It had presence. Hunger. A quiet life to it that common relics lacked entirely.

Vivienne’s attention locked onto it the instant it appeared.

"Because of this," Neo said, "I know Divine exists. I found it in the last Breach."

Vivienne leaned forward slightly. "Interesting."

"Can I touch your ring?" Neo asked.

"No."

"Then no, you can’t touch this either."

That drew the faintest trace of approval from her. "Fair."

The relic dissolved back into his soul.

Vivienne remained silent for a few breaths after that, piecing things together. He could almost see the lines moving in her head.

"That explains some things," she said quietly. "It also makes Leo’s presence in that Breach more interesting."

Neo’s brow rose. "Why?"

"You may not know this, but there are ways to learn things about a Breach before entering it." Her fingers drifted once around the base of the glass. "Not everything. No one gets a neat map and a written answer sheet. But there are methods. Fragments. Indicators. Enough to prepare. Enough to guess what sort of place is waiting on the other side, what sort of danger, and sometimes what sort of prize."

Neo listened without interrupting.

"You told me Leo knew a great deal about that tower," she continued. "More than he should have. If a Divine relic was hidden there, that may have been the reason. He may have gone in expecting to find what you found."

Neo let that sit.

That possibility fit too well.

Leo had moved through the tower with prior knowledge. He had hidden information, used it, and treated the whole Breach like a place he had already half-solved. If he entered with a goal tied to the tower itself, that changed the shape of everything.

Vivienne caught the moment it connected.

"So yes," she said. "That may be why he was there in the first place."

"Then he was after this."

"Possibly. Or after something adjacent to it. Divine relics are not small prizes, Neo. Families have built power around less."

He remained quiet for a beat, then nodded once.

Vivienne’s shoulders eased a little after that. "Thank you for telling me," she said, and this time the gratitude did not sound decorative. "That explains more than you realize."

"It was our agreement."

"Yes." The word came with a small curve at the corner of her mouth. "It was."

The room fell quiet around them after that. The plates sat half-finished. The city glowed through the glass in long veins of light. The giant by the wall had not moved enough to prove he was fully human.

Vivienne picked up her phone and unlocked it with one hand. "Well," she said, lifting her chin slightly toward him, "shall I make the transfer now?"