Chapter 90: Every Answer Wanted First

The reflections stopped following Laureen almost at the same time.

One raised its hand while Laureen’s remained at her side. Another turned toward Nadia before Laureen herself even looked away from Marek. The others followed with slightly different movements, each behaving as though it had decided what Laureen would do before she had done it.

Rhovan responded by opening his golden field.

Light spread across the former cosmetics section and caught every surviving panel of dark glass. Under ordinary circumstances, the pressure of his presence would have made ignoring him difficult. Laureen’s Gemini Authority answered differently.

Every reflection became Rhovan.

Twelve golden-haired men appeared across the panels with nearly identical expressions. Some stood at slightly different angles, while others were already looking toward people the real Rhovan had not yet turned to face.

Rhovan frowned at the nearest one. "Its hair is wrong."

Marek gave him a long look. "That’s what concerns you?"

"There are standards."

Before Marek could answer, the reflected Rhovans raised their hands. Gold flashed across the panels, making several members of the group react before they realized nothing had actually come from those copies.

While the group reacted to the false attacks, Laureen used the opening to move.

Several shards of glass lying across the floor lifted beside her. One became two, then four, with the copies appearing through different panels before shooting toward the group from several directions.

Dario dragged a broken display counter across the floor and forced it upright before the first shards reached them. Kellan ducked beside him, then sent red light across one side of the counter when another set of copied glass fragments curved around it.

"This is your fault," Marek told Rhovan while keeping his attention on the mirrors.

"My field is holding her attention."

"Your field has given her twelve versions of you."

Rhovan glanced toward the reflections but did not say anything.

Another cluster of glass struck the counter hard enough to bury several fragments in the wood. Marek stared at him until Rhovan finally seemed to accept that the situation might contain one or two disadvantages.

The reflected Rhovans were not simply repeating movements. One lifted an arm before the real Rhovan shifted his shoulder. Another turned toward Silas while Rhovan was still watching Laureen. A third stepped aside when Kellan moved, as though it had already decided how Rhovan would react.

Eren had stayed behind the counter with Dario, but his attention remained fixed on the sequence rather than the attacks. "Fourth panel moved before the third again. The delay isn’t random."

Marek had noticed the same thing.

Laureen was not copying Rhovan’s Authority. The gold inside the mirrors was only the field reflected at them, but Rhovan’s presence had given her a much stronger source to work with. Every panel could present a different answer to what Rhovan was about to do, while the ordinary objects around Laureen gave her something physical to duplicate.

Normally, a copy only needed to resemble its source. Laureen’s copies were doing something worse. Each one behaved as though Rhovan had copied it instead.

"Stop trying to predict what Rhovan will do," Marek said.

Kellan glanced over the counter. "I have no idea what he’s going to do anyway."

"Then you’re already helping."

Kellan looked strangely satisfied. "Finally, something I’m naturally qualified for."

Nadia listened to the voices coming from the panels before turning toward Laureen. She had already heard the woman speak enough times to reproduce her voice accurately.

"Close."

Two reflected Rhovans immediately lowered their raised hands even though Laureen had given no order herself.

Silas moved before she could correct them. His rod struck one panel near the edge, sending cracks across the surface and removing one reflected Rhovan from the room.

Laureen’s expression tightened.

Marek focused on the relationship rather than the image. Laureen remained the living Gemini bearer. Rhovan remained the source of the appearance being copied. The glass gave those copies somewhere to appear, while the objects already inside the store gave Laureen something physical to duplicate.

Black Errancy had not given her Leo Authority. It had twisted Gemini’s normal relationship between source and copy, allowing the copy to behave as though it were the original.

Every answer wanted to be first.

Marek looked toward Rhovan. "Close the field."

The suggestion offended him more visibly than the flying glass had.

"Your field is making this easier for her," Marek continued. "She isn’t overpowering you. She’s using you as a better source."

Rhovan looked around at the remaining versions of himself. "There are considerably worse things to fill a room with."

"Rhovan."

A copied shard struck the floor beside his boot.

He sighed. "Fine."

The golden field withdrew.

The effect was immediate. Light disappeared from the glass, and the reflected Rhovans faded with it until only the real one remained standing beside Marek.

Laureen frowned.

Marek glanced at Rhovan. "You survived."

"Physically, perhaps. I’ll need time to assess the damage to my dignity."

Marek stared at him. "You’ll live."

"Your compassion moves me, Dear Ophiarch."

Marek stopped encouraging him.

Without Rhovan’s field to use, Laureen returned to something that had already worked better.

Mara’s voice came from the nearest panel.

"Marek, run."

Another voice answered from behind him. "Don’t leave."

A third accused him of taking too long, while another called him the worst brother in Linden with enough irritation that Marek hated how believable it sounded.

Each voice sounded familiar enough to hurt, but Marek refused to treat familiarity as proof that any of the words had actually come from Mara.

Marek remembered his sister complaining about noodles, grabbing his sleeve while still angry with him, and sending messages that somehow managed to sound demanding even when she was asking for help.

Those memories were his.

Laureen only had a voice.

He stopped reacting to every variation and watched the panels instead.

The change was small, but Laureen noticed. She repeated Mara’s voice from another direction, then tried Amara’s, yet Marek gave her no indication of which words mattered more.

Rafe returned from checking the rear section of the store and reported that the service passage remained connected to the botanical institute courtyard. The white fabric was still visible farther ahead, exactly where they had seen it before entering.

"The route is open," Rafe said. "Nothing has changed outside."

Marek merely nodded.

Whatever Laureen wanted from him, she had placed herself directly along the route toward the silver-white woman. Whether she intended to stop him or learn something from his connection to Mara remained unclear, but he no longer believed this encounter had happened by accident.

A thin black line appeared across one of the panels.

It did not move across the actual floor. Instead, it traveled through Marek’s reflected image, beginning near the edge of the glass and extending toward the reflected version of his right shoulder.

His Mark warmed beneath his clothes.

"Don’t let that reach my reflection."

Kellan looked between the panels. "Which one are we breaking? There are still too many."

Marek watched Laureen instead of answering immediately.

Most of Laureen’s reflections moved before she did, but Marek knew at least one of them still had to depend on the real Laureen’s movement before it could react.

"The one that still has to follow the real Laureen," Marek said.

Kellan’s expression made it clear that the explanation had not helped him nearly enough.

Nadia understood first.

She faced the mirrors and used Laureen’s own voice again. "Turn around."

The corrupted reflections reacted immediately. Several turned before Nadia had even finished speaking, apparently accepting the copied command as though it had come from the original Laureen herself.

One did not.

Near the far end of the cosmetics section, one reflection remained facing forward until Laureen’s real head shifted slightly in its direction.

Silas saw it at the same moment Marek did. His rod flew across the room and struck the panel directly through its center.

The glass shattered.

The black line approaching Marek’s reflected shoulder broke apart with it, while several of Laureen’s remaining reflections suddenly lost their timing. Some froze halfway through movements; others repeated actions they had already completed.

Laureen screamed, but none of the reflections repeated it. For once, the sound belonged only to her.

Dario crossed the distance before she recovered. He struck her hard enough to send her into one of the concrete pillars supporting the upper level.

Laureen hit it shoulder-first and nearly collapsed, but she caught herself against the wall. Blood ran from the corner of her mouth when she looked back at them.

The thin black lines around her Gemini Mark had spread farther beyond its original geometry.

"He is already looking."

Marek did not approach her. "Who?"

Laureen’s smile widened slightly. "The one following the girl."

The surviving glass panels changed before anyone could ask what she meant.

A man appeared inside them.

He wore dark clothing that concealed most of his body, leaving Marek unable to see whether a Mark was present. What caught his attention instead was the thin black defect visible through a tear near the man’s right waist.

Marek had never seen the man himself, but he knew enough about him.

The description matched the Scorpius Astrant who had been asking about Mara and the silver-white woman, the same stranger connected to the Unclaimed Trace before Ikleni Ferrer became an Errant.

Until now, Marek had only suspected that the man was still following the same trail.

Laureen had just given him a reason to stop calling it a suspicion.