Princess Yona thrashed again with a frustrated growl, the blanket cinching tighter in perfect reaction to her defiance. The runes pulsed faintly, responding to every flare of movement with more precision than any ordinary magic.
Lenko flinched, glancing back at her with clear panic, unsure if he should intervene or stay rooted to the spot.
"Uh… herbs, mostly. For fever, for mana exhaustion, head trauma--uh, because of the sickness, my lord. You, um… well, used to get sick. A lot. And…" he trailed off, giving the bound princess a quick glance, "…sometimes after the, um, spells… there were fits. Collapses. Memory lapses."
Keiser frowned, watching a thick greenish tincture slosh behind the glass like swamp water. No wonder the boy tastes rust and rot just thinking of it.
"How long?" Keiser asked quietly.
Lenko blinked. "Pardon, my lord?"
"How long has... I've been like that?"
Lenko looked down at his hands, voice quieter now. "Since you were a child. The magic… it never sat right. Like something inside was broken. But the healers said it wasn't. Just... warped. Wild."
Keiser didn't spare the bottles another glance. He stared down at the dark sludge in each bottle with clear disdain. This body really needs all that just to stay functional? He grimaced deeply, thinking of battlefield rations and foul-tasting tinctures. Those, at least, worked. Some of these looked like they'd been fermented in the guts of dying animals.
"Fuck," the princess spat. "Hey, we don't have time for this! I'm telling you--Hinnom's got problems!"
That caught his attention.
Keiser turned sharply, his expression hardening.
Finally, he thought. Now she's talking.
Because yes, something wasn't adding up.
Why would the first prince send his fiancée alone?
How did they even know where Muzio was hiding, especially so close to the border, to Sheol?
And if what she said was true…
Then Hinnom, the kingdom's most fortified village, the heart of the military watch... was compromised.
His jaw tightened. The blanket pulsed slightly in reaction to his shift in mood, as if sensing its caster's change in focus.
He stepped toward her slowly, letting the silence press.
"You said Hinnom has problems," Keiser said evenly. "Tell me exactly what you know."
A pause. A hiss. Then, through clenched teeth.
"Let me breathe without this thing on me, and I'll tell you everything."
Keiser glanced at Lenko, who was finally shaking off his panic. Without a word, Keiser stepped forward and grasped the blanket. His hand began to glow faintly as he traced the runes, whispering 'release'.
The runes seared briefly, and the cloth instantly stopped twisting tighter around the princess.
She gasped as the suffocating weight eased, clawing the blanket away from her face. Sweat glistened on her skin as she shot Keiser a fierce glare, hand moving instinctively toward her sword. But Keiser held the part of the blanket still in his grip--silent, but firm--halting her before she could draw her weapon.
Princess Yona's focus snapped back to wrangling the rest of the blanket wrapped around her, frustration flashing in her eyes. As soon as she managed to throw the blanket off herself, she stomped past Keiser with a glare and rushed to the window. She pulled the curtain aside and peeked through with narrowed eyes.
"Seriously? I was just asking what your manservant meant by 'head sickness.' There's no way I'm letting you anywhere near Prince Alaric if it's contagious." She grumbled under her breath.
"Though I think I'm starting to understand what Miss Olga's little brother meant."
Her scowl deepened as she kept watch outside.
"Anyway, we don't have time to unpack whatever that is, especially with your habit of using sigils on random objects…" She clicked her tongue in irritation, her eyes still scanning the horizon.
Keiser turned slightly toward her. "Is it assassins?" he asked bluntly.
He ignored the clinking of bottles being shuffled somewhere behind him, and Lenko's whisper-shouted "What?!" voice cut in from across the room.
The princess merely glanced back at him, her expression calm but sharp.
"Yours or mine?" she asked.
Keiser paused, blinking at her response--then gave a small nod. He understood.
It meant the threat wasn't just his--Muzio's--but hers as well. Assassins from both sides were closing in. That could only mean the court had already discovered Muzio's location. Perhaps that was why the First Prince had sent the princess.
But… would the prince really send his own fiancée to a place where assassins might strike?
That didn't make sense.
Unless… unless he trusted Muzio to protect her.
Or perhaps… she was the one sent to protect Muzio.
Keiser narrowed his eyes, the pieces of the puzzle refusing to settle.
Something just wasn't adding up.
"You said there was a problem. Here in Hinnom." Keiser's voice was low, measured.
He knew this village, tucked near the edge of Sheol's corrupted border, a stubborn little settlement that had endured for decades despite the monsters that loomed just beyond its weakening protective sigils. The villagers here rarely left, even if they wanted to. Most of them couldn't.
The princess didn't answer right away. She looked back out the window, her gaze sharp and distant.
"Beasts around this area always hovered near the village gates, lurking at the edge of the sigil barrier, testing it. It was a constant threat."
She paused, fingers drumming lightly on the windowsill.
"But then… five years ago, they stopped. Just like that. For months at a time, nothing. No sightings. No breaches. It was considered a miracle."
Keiser's brow furrowed.
"Five years ago?"
A sharp inhale broke the silence. Keiser turned. Lenko stood behind him, face drained of color.
"Young lord," Lenko whispered, voice trembling, "that's… that's when we arrived. That was when we came here."
Keiser blinked.
So Muzio had arrived five years ago and at the same time, the beasts had retreated.
Coincidence?
Keiser didn't believe in those.
Keiser glanced back at the princess.
"What happened? Why has the absence of the beasts for those few months become a problem?"
The princess stepped away from the window, her gaze steady and somber as she met his eyes.
"Because during that time, the village began to lose people instead."