"Yes."
The answer landed flatly.
Dean's breath caught.
Ilara looked up.
"I know," she said. "That is why I asked to meet you here, away from the court, away from formal temple channels, away from anyone who could turn this into doctrine before it became intelligence."
Arion's expression did not change.
Ilara looked at Dean then, and the clarity in her eyes was no longer prophetic. It was frightened.
"I was wrong to frame this first as Sebastian needing to come here," she said. "That was fear speaking faster than judgment."
Dean swallowed.
Ilara continued, "But I will not withdraw the warning itself. Something is building around your brother. Nero is part of it. Sebastian's inheritance may be part of it. The infected beasts are part of it, or will become part of it, and I do not know which thread pulls the others tight."
Dean's hand went cold again.
Arion said, "Then the temple will give us everything."
Ilara held his gaze.
