I huff a laugh, still watching him. God, he’s pretty. I alwaysknewhe was pretty, but not like…this pretty.The morning light streams through the window and plays across his skin, catching on a pattern of golden, nearly invisible scales.
“On some level I hoped you’d decide we could just let it lie,” I say. “Or that everything would just…go away if the translatorstopped having an effect. But it’s not affecting me anymore, and I still want you. I still like you. I still…”
I still love you. Maybe I always have. Fuck me.
I don’t say that part. Not yet.
“I’m not looking for an exit anymore,” I tell him. “Just needed you to know that. Especially if you’re about to, you know…blow your whole career for me.”
He slides his hand into mine, fingers threading together. “That’s not going to happen,” he says.
I swallow hard. “I hope you’re right.”
But for some reason, I have a feeling this is going to be worse than he thinks.
CHAPTER 29
KAELION
I have preparedfor this meeting the way I prepare for everything: methodically, thoroughly, and without sentiment.
The documentation is immaculate. Disclosure forms, signed and timestamped. A formal request for supervisory reassignment, citing the university's own conduct framework. A summary of Walker's research trajectory—her output, her citations, her timeline—presented without flourish, because it needs none. The work speaks for itself. It always has.
I know these people. I've sat on this committee. I've chaired it. I know which arguments land and which ones provoke, and I have no intention of provoking anyone today.
I intend to be civil. Precise. Impossible to argue with.
I take my seat at the long table in the Faculty Relations chamber—a room I've always found aggressively beige—and fold my hands. The committee filters in over the next few minutes. Seven members. I know four of them well. The other three are newer appointments, faces I've encountered only at faculty symposia. I nod as they settle. They nod back.
Then Councillor Dresh arrives.
I have known Yenne Dresh for eleven years. A Mlok scientist, she is brilliant, relentlessly political, and has never once madea decision based on anything other than institutional calculus. When we heard the case for Thorne Valtheris years ago, she was the one who advised me on what arguments to make…how to decide what to do.
She takes the chair at the head of the table and doesn't look at me as she opens her agenda file.
I keep my expression neutral.
We begin.
The first twenty minutes proceed exactly as I anticipated. I present the documentation. I explain the timeline. I note that the relationship developed after significant professional collaboration, that I am disclosing proactively and in accordance with policy, and that I am requesting reassignment of supervisory duties effective immediately so that Walker's project can continue without institutional conflict.
"Her research is at a critical stage," I say. "A change in formal supervision need not interrupt her timeline. I've drafted a handover memo. I'm prepared to remain as an informal consultant, if the committee deems that appropriate."
Silence.
Then Councillor Veth—one of the newer faces, a Merati with the particular brand of studied neutrality that tends to precede an unpleasant observation—says: "And the researcher in question. She initiated the relationship?"
"It was mutual," I say.
"But she is human."
"Yes."
"And a doctoral candidate."
"A postdoctoral fellow," I correct, keeping my voice even. "She completed her doctorate at Stanford. She is here on a research fellowship, not as a student."
Veth nods slowly, as if I've said something he'll want to return to later.
