Chapter 35: Chapter 35: Liar

Rafael discovered the problem halfway through his morning.

Not through a memo or a formal notice like normal people. Through Gabriel standing in the doorway of the secondary office with the particular expression he wore when he had noticed something and decided not to let it go.

Rafael felt it immediately. A tightening between his shoulders. A sense of impending administrative violence.

“Good morning,” Gabriel said pleasantly.

Rafael did not look up. “If this is about the seating chart, I have already denied House Vale access to the staircase, the balcony, and the illusion of relevance.”

“It is not,” Gabriel replied.

Rafael paused. That alone was suspicious.

Gabriel stepped inside, one hand resting on his stomach, the other holding a thin tablet. He did not sit. He leaned against the doorframe instead, relaxed in a way that suggested Rafael should be deeply alarmed.

“Rafael,” Gabriel said calmly, “how old are you?”

Rafael’s stylus froze.

“…Twenty-four.”

“And did you,” Gabriel continued, “ever attend your Coming of Age ceremony?”

Rafael resumed writing with unnecessary force. “No.”

“Why?”

“Because,” Rafael said flatly, “for five years the ceremony was suspended due to the rebellion, restructuring, war, three near-coups, and your current mate emerging with a new dynasty.”

Gabriel nodded. “Correct, but Rafael, I had to do it last year because of the protocol, so… what did you do to skip it?”

“I wasn’t in the Empire then. I’ve returned later, just before your citrus tea party.”

Rafael’s stylus slowed, then stopped entirely.

“I wasn’t in the Empire then,” he repeated, a little more tightly. “I returned later. Just before your citrus tea party.”

Gabriel’s brows drew together as he tried to do the math. “You were absent during the reinstated cycle.”

“Yes.”

“And no one flagged that,” Gabriel said quietly.

Rafael’s mouth twitched. “You’d be surprised how much slips through when the Empire is busy not collapsing and when Max was forced by Damian to organize the ball.”

Gabriel exhaled through his nose, a sound halfway between amusement and concern. “I am going to pretend I didn’t hear that last part, if only for Max’s sanity.”

Rafael set the stylus down with deliberate care. “You asked. I answered.”

“I did,” Gabriel agreed. “And the answer is… concerning.”

Rafael finally looked up. “It really isn’t.”

“It is,” Gabriel replied calmly. “The Coming of Age ceremony is not optional once reinstated. It is not a party. It is a legal acknowledgment.”

“I am legally employed, legally contracted, legally overworked, and legally exhausted,” Rafael said. “I assure you, my adulthood is functioning.”

Gabriel pushed himself off the doorframe and stepped farther into the office. “Function is not the same as recognition.”

Rafael’s eyes narrowed. “This is about paperwork.”

“This is about status,” Gabriel corrected. “Public, recorded, unambiguous status.”

Rafael leaned back in his chair. “You cannot possibly be serious.”

“I am,” Gabriel said. “The ceremony applies to anyone who reached eligibility during the suspension period and did not attend once it resumed. You fall squarely into that category.”

“I was twenty-three when it resumed,” Rafael shot back. “I was already past the age threshold.”

“And I was twenty-five and brought back from Ashmonth just for it,” Gabriel said evenly. “If I had to do it, so do you.”

Rafael stared at him, unimpressed.

“That was different,” he said. “You are the Emperor’s consort. He had you by his side for almost the entire event. You are a legal, political symbol. I am an overworked administrative inconvenience.”

Gabriel’s mouth twitched. “You are a senior imperial secretary with cross-departmental authority.”

“I file complaints about nobles who think phoenix embroidery grants them divine seating rights,” Rafael replied. “That is not symbolism.”

“It is visibility,” Gabriel said calmly. “Which you have been avoiding.”

Rafael’s eyes narrowed. “This is spite.”

“It is consistency,” Gabriel corrected. “And law.”

Rafael leaned back in his chair, exhaling through his nose. “You enjoy this.”

“I enjoy order,” Gabriel said. “And closing loopholes.”

“There are no consequences,” Rafael insisted. “I am already recognized in practice.”

Gabriel tilted his head. “Rafael, how come someone as capable as Delphine didn’t catch it?”

Rafael froze in place. “Oh, no. Please don’t.”

Gabriel watched him in silence for a moment longer, then tilted his head slightly, eyes sharpening, curious in a way that suggested a thread had just been pulled.

“I don’t think Delphine missed it,” he said quietly.

Rafael stilled.

“I think,” Gabriel continued, “that she never saw it.”

Rafael’s fingers tightened on the armrest. “That is the same thing.”

“No,” Gabriel said mildly. “It really isn’t.”

He stepped farther into the room, lowering himself into the chair opposite Rafael’s desk with a careful exhale that acknowledged both pregnancy and patience.

“Delphine audits everything that concerns her children,” Gabriel went on. “Titles, placements, appearances, legal transitions. Especially ceremonies. If your file had been flagged as incomplete, she would have intervened immediately. Loudly.”

Rafael’s jaw set. “You’re assuming she had access.”

“I am assuming,” Gabriel replied, “that access was removed.”

The silence that followed was not comfortable.

Rafael looked away, eyes fixed on the far monitor. “You’re reaching.”

“Am I?” Gabriel asked softly. “Because when I pulled the registry this morning, your absence wasn’t listed as an oversight. It’s listed as a deferred acknowledgment, manually rerouted during the suspension period.”

Rafael closed his eyes.

“Someone,” Gabriel continued, calm and clear, “requested that your Coming of Age status remain unresolved until further notice.”

Rafael refused to answer.

“You did it because your introvert ass didn’t want to be the center of attention for six hours.”

Gabriel studied him for a moment, then sighed, the sound long-suffering and very, very unimpressed.

“Rafael,” he said evenly, “that is the least dramatic reason you could possibly give me, and yet somehow it is also the most convincing.”

Rafael opened his eyes and shot him a glare. “I didn’t do anything.”

“Liar.”

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