Julian let the question remain where it was, between them, unsoftened and without any attempt to pull it back.
"When did you first know who I was?"
Lucian did not answer immediately. He did not look away either. His attention stayed on Julian with the same steady focus he brought to everything, but the silence that followed was not the usual kind. It held longer than it should have, long enough to be noticed, long enough to register as a choice rather than a pause.
Then Lucian said, "You're asking the wrong question."
Julian watched him for a moment, taking that in without reacting to it right away. There was no denial in the response. No correction. Just a shift, subtle but deliberate, moving the conversation somewhere else without closing it.
Julian did not repeat himself. He did not push the original question again. He adjusted.
"Then what's the right one?" he asked.
Lucian did not respond.
