Chapter 36: The Devil and the Golem

Unable to sleep after Naia’s coerced seduction, Hadrian scalds himself in the shower and collapses in a corner wrapped in his coat, haunted by the memory and by homesickness. When he finally sleeps, a recurring dream returns: a bodiless plunge over dark waters as a voice commands him to listen, jolting him awake before impact.

The next morning, Hadrian avoids exploring and wrestles with doubt and guilt, recalling Gibson’s counsel about choice versus Kharn’s dehumanizing control. He frames Kharn’s actions as a deliberate experiment—stimulus in a sealed environment—meant to break his will, and resolves that he still can choose to remain and see this through until his friends return with Tanaran.

Yume enters with food, clears the suite, and conveys Kharn’s apology for the previous night. When Hadrian challenges surveillance, Yume asserts there is none in the diplomatic suite and that it cannot lie by design, describing itself as a high-order virtual assistant. Hadrian remains skeptical, keeping his sword close and reading the golem’s single eye as one of Kharn’s “Ten Thousand.”

Pressed about his companions, Yume reports that Valka and the others are still aboard the Mistral at the marina and likely to depart soon to retrieve him, estimating a nine percent chance they leave without him. Hadrian holds to his decision, armed and alert, to wait for Tanaran’s arrival amid Kharn’s manipulations.