Sovereign has ruled long enough to know the difference between desire and distraction.
Ra is neither.
She is a problem the Algorithym cannot solve without breaking its own rules.
He watches her the way one studies a weapon that refuses to be disarmed. Calm. Curious. Dangerous in its stillness. She doesn’t beg his attention. She doesn’t perform obedience. She doesn’t even acknowledge the weight of his authority unless it amuses her.
That’s what unsettles him.
Sovereign is used to command bending reality. To devotion masquerading as loyalty. To desire collapsing into compliance the moment he steps closer.
Ra doesn’t collapse.
She meets his gaze like she already knows how this ends—and isn’t impressed.
He feels it then. Not hunger. Not lust.
Risk.
And risk is the one sensation Sovereign was never meant to feel.
The Algorithym flags his attention to her as excessive. His silence as inefficient. His restraint as… anomalous.
He ignores the warnings.
Because sovereignty recognizes sovereignty.
He doesn’t want to own Ra.
He wants to understand why she doesn’t want to be owned.
That curiosity is lethal.
The night he finally speaks her name aloud—soft, deliberate, almost reverent—the system records a second warning.
CONTROL COMPROMISED.
Ra turns slowly.
And for the first time, Sovereign isn’t sure who is choosing whom.
Next drop: the moment Sovereign realizes wanting Ra may cost him everything.
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