Alaric didn't speak for a long moment after Silas said it.
He just looked at him the way a man looks when something lands and breaks open a place he thought was already closed. The corridor was empty but the silence around them had ears.
"An agreement," Alaric said. Not a question. Just the word repeated back like he was testing the weight of it.
Silas nodded once. "He said it like he expected me to already know what it was."
Alaric's eyes moved down the corridor toward his father's door and stayed there for a moment.
"He wanted to see your reaction," he said. "He was checking how much you knew."
Silas looked at him. "Which means whatever it is, he thinks it is big enough to change things between us."
Alaric said nothing to that. He turned and walked and Silas followed and neither of them spoke again until they were inside their room with the door closed behind them.
