Akeel placed the hidden records and Theron’s old token inside his coat. Before leaving the room, he touched the door one more time.The old formation woke beneath his palm.He had hidden almost all his energy, but the room still accepted him as its owner. A matching face and name could fool people. They should not fool a formation built to recognize blood.Akeel removed his hand and left the room.The sun had not risen yet. Most of the Corvain estate remained dark, but Aldric was already waiting downstairs.The old man sat alone near the cold fireplace. His birthday robes were gone, and he had changed into a plain house coat.“I heard about your mother,” Aldric said. “If you want to see her, this may be your last chance.”Akeel stopped.Aldric had spoken as though the missing Akeel had chosen to stay away from his mother for years.“What happened the last time I visited her?” Akeel asked.Aldric studied him for a moment. He seemed to think Akeel was avoiding a painful memory rather th

Before Selene could open her eyes, the hidden pressure around her core began to tighten again.Her fingers still held Akeel’s hand, and a weak line of spiritual energy continued moving toward him through the channel he had restored. Beneath his clothes, Theron’s token grew warm.Akeel felt the connection, but he did not assume that Selene recognized him. One reaction was not enough to prove that.He focused on her core instead.The restored channel was working, but thin lines of foreign energy were already closing around it. The hidden pattern was trying to block the path he had opened.That confirmed another important detail. The pattern did not remain still. It reacted whenever someone tried to remove it.Akeel placed two fingers near the restored channel and sent a small amount of healing energy through it. He did not try to wake Selene. Her core and mind had been inactive for too long, and forcing her awake could damage both.Instead, he placed a medical seal around the open chann

Akeel took Selene’s hand.Her fingers tightened around his almost at once. The grip was weak, but it was not an accident. She held on as though she had been waiting for him to touch her.The hospital healers watched the monitors closely. Instead of becoming unstable, Selene’s energy began to calm. The channel restored during her treatment settled into a steady flow, while the pressure around her core became weaker.Darius stared at the readings. “She’s calming down,” he said.No one answered him.For years, the family had believed Akeel’s presence was dangerous to Selene. The order added to her protection had supported that belief whenever anyone questioned it.Now Selene was becoming calmer because Akeel was holding her hand.The clear wall of energy reacted again. A thin line of power moved between them and tried to force their hands apart.The pressure came from the newer part of the protection, which carried the order to reject Akeel Corvain. Selene’s own energy pushed back agains

Selene was his biological mother.Akeel read the full report, then returned to the first page and read it again. The numbers had not changed. The test showed a direct biological relationship between them.He stood beside his workbench without moving. Relief came first, and it was stronger than he expected. Selene’s reaction to him had been real. Her tears, the way she had reached for him, and the familiar pull between their energies now had a clear reason.The relief did not last long. Confusion replaced it, followed by anger. Someone had hidden the truth, but Akeel did not know who had done it or why.He closed the file and forced himself to think before accepting the easiest answer. The result did not prove that he and the missing Akeel were twins. It only proved that Selene was his mother.The test did not explain why the Elaris family remembered only one child. It also did not explain why another Akeel Corvain had the same face as him. The Corvain estate recognized his bloodline,

Akeel kept his voice calm. “What did the formation compare?” he asked.Cyrus explained that Selene’s sample had confirmed she was Akeel’s biological mother. He then added the old Corvain bloodline record tied to the missing Akeel. Instead of reading the two men as separate people, the formation reacted as if their bloodline energy came from the same source.The result did not prove that they were twins. It also did not mean they were somehow the same person. It only proved that the result should have been impossible under normal bloodline rules.“Run three more checks,” Akeel said. “Repeat the test with a different formation. Check the age and structure of the old sample, then find out if anyone changed it after it was recorded.”“I’ll start now,” Cyrus replied.“Do not use any Corvain systems,” Akeel said. “Keep this within our own group.”“What do you think the result means?” Cyrus asked.“It means I still don’t know enough,” Akeel replied.Before ending the call, Akeel gave Cyrus a