Valmont Series - Inheritance Code

Chapter 6.5 - Unscripted

Three settings. Hover-table already warmed. ONYX quietly pulsing. Around them, the Gallery shimmered in restraint — vaulted skylights shifting with the hour, casting light not in beams, but in hierarchies.

Aria sat with the posture expected of her—straight-backed, untouched by uncertainty—but her fingers brushed the thermal field just once, signaling nothing. Just grounding herself.

"Solara Subcouncil," she repeated under her breath. "What even is that?"

Allegra didn't flinch. She'd been waiting for the question.

"It's the cultural filter," she said, tone as smooth as her espresso. "They monitor everything that affects Avalon's aesthetic ecosystem—narratives, styles, reputations, public behavior. If you're in Solara, you don't just follow trends. You decide what survives."

Aria arched a brow. "So... taste police?"

Aurora tilted her head, brows gently knit.

"So... they get to decide what counts?"

Her voice wasn't mocking—just quietly baffled.

The kind of question that made the whole system sound even more absurd.

Allegra smiled faintly. "More like prestige curators. They don't enforce rules. They define them."

Aurora leaned in, eyes wide. "Why you, though?"

That made Aria pause.

Just for a second.

She wanted to feel flattered—wanted the rise in attention to feel earned, even exhilarating.

But it didn't.

Not after the whispers. The veiled mockery. The thousand quiet ways Avalon shrank her

Back in Sydney, visibility meant popularity. Here, it felt more like provocation.

What unsettled her was the attention. The pressure.

The sense that something was watching—waiting.

Then, without shifting her tone:

"No idea."

"Because you're an anomaly. You didn't climb the ranks yet—you arrived already destabilizing them. You weren't shaped by Avalon's etiquette ladder, but you're fluent enough to pass. That makes you... interesting."

Allegra leaned back slightly, her croissant untouched, eyes flicking across the Gallery as if checking for listeners. Then she turned to Aria, voice smooth, almost amused.

"You know what this is, right? Solara didn't invite you out of kindness."

Aria didn't speak right away. Her silence wasn't hesitation—it was evaluation.

Then, calmly:

"Is that what this is? A test wrapped in etiquette and veiled invitations?"

Allegra continued,

"It's what happens when someone who wasn't even on the social blueprint suddenly starts... mattering. You're trending. People are quoting you. Watching you. And no one knows why. You're not linked. You're not backed. You're just—disrupting."

Aurora blinked. "And that's... bad?"

Allegra smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes.

"It's unpredictable," Allegra said, tone dipped in diplomacy. "Which makes it... destabilizing."