"You mean… all of them?"
Thalor's eyes widened as he finally grasped what Auren was suggesting.
"Yes," Auren said calmly. "All of them. The pure ones. The mixed ones."
He paused, then frowned slightly. "I still don't understand why the marriage was carried out that way. Why your bride was chosen when the heiress of the mermaid clan was right there."
Lucian's gaze sharpened.
"It never made sense," Auren continued. "So bring them all in. Every branch. Every bloodline." His eyes dimmed. "Who knows? They might have hidden your bride among them for reasons they never intended to explain."
Thalor was silent for a moment.
Then he nodded once. Slowly and firmly. "I like that idea," he said.
For the first time in that damn, exhausting thirty years of waiting, something shifted in Thalor's expression—hope.
Lucian leaned in slightly, lowering his voice near Thalor's ear. "If you truly believe she might be one of them," he said quietly, "why not test her as well?"
