The disappearance of the assassin left a wound.
Not in flesh.In structure.
Anos Voldigoad felt it as he walked—gaps in mana flow, spells that failed to complete their circles, contracts whose clauses no longer aligned with reality.
"So the world bleeds through intermediaries," he said. "Spirits."
He stopped in a quiet square where the air shimmered faintly with elemental presence. Normally, lesser spirits drifted here freely, responding to casual magic and instinct.
Now, they hid.
A young mage stood at the fountain, brow furrowed, hands trembling as she tried to cast a simple water spell.
"Why won't you answer?" she whispered.
Nothing happened.
Anos watched.
The spirits sensed him.
They recoiled.
Not in fear of violence—but in recognition of authority beyond hierarchy.
"So you understand," Anos said quietly. "You were never partners. You were tools bound by clauses you did not write."
He extended his will—not to command, but to expose.
The contracts governing spirit obedience became visible, glowing faintly in the air like chains made of law.
Anos snapped his fingers.
The chains shattered.
The spirits gasped—if such beings could gasp—then scattered, freed from obligation for the first time.
The mage stumbled back. "W-what did you do?!"
"I corrected a misconception," Anos replied. "Spirits do not exist to serve."
Across the capital, the effect multiplied.
Greater spirits withdrew into silence. Lesser spirits vanished entirely. Elemental magic destabilized as its foundation collapsed.
In the castle, court mages panicked.
"Our spells aren't responding!"
"Spirit contracts are failing!"
"This has never happened!"
Anos continued walking.
"A world that borrows power without responsibility will always break," he said.
High above, in a place untouched by mortal sound, the Witch of Envy tightened her grip on nothing.
Spirits had been her buffer—her way of influencing the world indirectly.
Now they refused to answer her as well.
Anos looked up at the sky.
"You built your order on consent you never earned," he said calmly."Do not be surprised when it is revoked."
The wind died.
The square fell silent.
And for the first time since the world's creation—
Magic waited for permission again.