ROOT OF ALL EVIL

Oxford, 1998.

Lysander Mareno never intended to remember the night he met Elias Lavigne.
It began with a billiard game, cheap whiskey, and rain against the ancient stone of Oxford.

Elias was calm, brilliant, and far too composed for someone their age, like a statue carved in marble, untouchable and perfect.

What began as a quiet academic partnership soon turned into something far more dangerous.

Two brilliant minds. One impossible experiment.

A discovery that should never have existed.
Years later, the consequences of that night continue to grow quietly, patiently, like roots beneath the earth.

And some roots were never meant to be unearthed.