Julian let the words hang between them.
"He wasn't found. He was located."
Lucian stood a few feet away, phone still in hand from the call he had ended moments earlier. He set the device down on the side table with a quiet click.
His expression remained the same steady calm he wore for every conversation, but the pause before he answered stretched a fraction longer than usual.
"You heard that," Lucian said.
Julian nodded once. "I heard enough."
He kept his hands loose at his sides. The room stayed still around them, light from the overhead fixtures casting even shadows across the floor. No movement came from the hallway outside. No other voices carried through the closed door.
Lucian did not step closer. He did not reach for anything. He simply stood there, posture relaxed in the way it always was when nothing was supposed to be wrong.
Julian studied him. "They spoke like it was common knowledge. The bloodline. The orders. The way everything was arranged from the beginning."
