The second bell cut through the hall like a blade,people stopped,plates froze halfway to mouths and the drums fell silent.
Eiji felt it first,the air changed,the light bent wrong. He knew before anyone spoke that sothing was closing in.
"Now," lchior said, low and fast.
Rhea pushed back from the table,she stood before anyone could move and her hand went to her sword.
Vesper slid from her seat the way a shadow moves. She had three bone chips in her palm. She set them on the table and readied a sigil with the tip of her ring.
Selendra was already rising, tail tight,her eyes hunted every face and her smile was gone.
Borath rose from his throne. He laughed, but it was thin. "You try to move," he said. "You break a rule...the bell tolled twice. The ga begins."
His mother stayed seated in the center of the hall,her blindfold was still white and clean. Her dress shimred,the small sound she made as Borath spoke was not a laugh,it did not belong to a human throat.
She lifted her head and looked in Eiji’s direction and all at the table felt the weight of that gaze.
"Enough," she said. Her voice was calm and soft,the kind that made people steady themselves. "No one leaves until I decide."
Rhea moved first,she stepped toward the exit and hands reached out from the crowd. tal bars rose from the floor,doors slid shut,the windows darkened and beca mirror plates,the hall changed into a cage.
"Doors," lchior said. He checked them with one palm. "Sealed,not normal seals,old wards."
Vesper hissed. "They planned for us to run."
"They expected the bell," Selendra said. There was no mockery in her voice,she looked at Borath and then at his mother.
The woman in white rose then she moved slowly and without haste. When she stepped down from the dais, the people around her stepped back. n who had been feeding Borath turned into servants again. The whole room rearranged around her like a feast set for a single mouth.
Maethra walked to Eiji’s table. She stopped a pace away. Her presence took space,no one touched her,no one wanted to.
"You brought a toy," she said,she did not smile but the words promised trouble. "A system,how amusing."
Alma stirred with hard light at Eiji’s chest. Her hum went bright,then low. She spoke through the bond,sharp and angry this ti.
"Do not touch the host," Alma said. "Do not touch my body. She is a god, She’s Maethra. If she reaches into ,I will scream."
Maethra reached out one hand,her fingers were long and clean. For a mont Eiji thought she would simply pass a hand over the charm and feel it. Her hand closed on empty space,as if she was trying to hold wind.
The charm burned under Eiji’s shirt and he felt the contact like a heat against his ribs. Alma pushed out, a wall of sound no one else heard. She filled him and she filled the little space at the edge of the bond. She made herself hard to touch.
Maethra laughed,the sound slid through the hall.
"You show a thing I cannot hold," she said. Her voice softened. "How rude."
She stepped back and spread her arms. The hall answered,plates clinked,n who had been laughing earlier looked sick. The light bent again and the threads of energy that had been feeding her thickened like ropes.
She turned her head and looked at Borath. "Heel," she said.
Borath bowed his fat head and smiled like a content beast. "Shall I open the cages, mother?"
"No," Maethra said. "Keep them,the trap is the theater. I want them to know why they are held."
She looked back,her smile touched Eiji’s face like cold water. "You will serve ," she said. "You will perform,give your offerings and I will reward you. I like to watch,I like to taste the price."
lchior heard the threat under the words. He stepped forward. "You can’t take what is bound without consent," he said.
Maethra lifted one eyebrow. "Can’t I? I have taken more than consent. I have fed on crowns and temples. You think your little rules matter?"
She turned and the lights dimd around her. For a mont she seed to grow larger. The blindfold fell away, but not the cloth. Her eyes were closed, but the marks on her face were different. The room shifted and people around the table clutched at their chairs.
Eiji felt nausea and Alma choked on sothing inside him making her hum shuddered.
"Try then," Alma said. Her voice had steel in it. "You cannot touch ready for killing. You cannot take what is not surrendered."
Maethra smiled like soone amused by a locked chest. She stepped close to Eiji again and her hand went to his chest. This ti it seed like she could reach him.
Eiji flinched,he felt the air tighten. He could not stop the warning that rushed out of Alma,raw and full.
"I will not be your al" Alma said. You "cannot reach,you will not."
Maethra’s fingers found the charm and closed in.
She felt it but she could not pry it loose. Sothing in Alma’s core tightened and Maethra hissed. She tried raking the bond with pressure. The charm burned like a coin on her fingers and she recoiled.
"It resists," she whispered,fury sharpened her voice. "A living lock,cever device."
lchior watched her hand and she said nothing for a long mont.
"We cannot let her keep trying," Rhea said. Her blade was out but she did not step forward. "If she damages the bond, we’ll lose more than a charm."
Vesper gritted her teeth,her fingers twitched around the bones. "She can’t hold the charm,that is a violent rcy."
Selendra stepped between Maethra and Eiji,baring her fangs. "No one threatens my host."
Maethra placed both hands on her hips. "You are fierce,little succubus. Bold to stand between and my prize."
Selendra leaned in so close that her breath touched Maethra’s face but the goddess did not flinch.
"You think your bonds stop ?" Maethra said quietly. "I am older than your rules, I am older than your gods, I feed on rulers, I drink faith. You holding a toy inside you is noise and I will strip it away."
Eiji shoved back. "You will not touch Alma."
He had not planned to speak,he had not planned to be brave,he only had a sudden, clean anger in his throat.
Maethra turned her head,her sightless eyes seed to open onto him. "You claim her," she said. "You made a bargain,how quaint,give her to ." She smiled. "Give her willingly and I will let you go."
Alma’s tone dropped to a whisper in his skull that shook his bones. "Do not,do not surrender . Do not give away to any god."
lchior stepped in,he spoke fast,each word like a blade.
"There is a way to break this," he said. He did not look afraid. He looked tired. "I have t a thing who can unmake gods. It is old enough to fold a queen’s throne into dust. It eats nas and can empty a worshiper’s power."
Maethra’s head tilted. "Who claims the breaker now?" Her voice was like honey over iron. "Who dares summon such hunger?"
lchior looked at the goddess full on. "His na is forbidden in polite halls,I will say it here and now because you leave us no choice. The breaker is Kroth the Naless,he answers one debt and one debt only. He takes a price,he devours what you would not offer and in that hunger he will strip you down to a na."
The hall breathed out,no one spoke.
Maethra’s smile thinned,ehe reached for him but this ti she did not try to touch the charm. She moved to stand before lchior like a wall.
"You call for a butcher," she said. "You bring a raven to eat a crown. What will you give him in trade? What will you offer to see fall?"
lchior’s jaw tightened,he did not look at Eiji. He t Maethra’s sightless face and did not blink.
"He asks for a sacrifice," lchior said. "He wants a kernel,A living core. He consus a system’s heart. That is the price to unmake a god. He strips the god and then the cost is paid in the sa currency,a system for a god."
Alma scread then,It was not loud for anyone else but It was a blow inside Eiji. "No," she said. The word broke. "I am not a thing to be eaten."
Vesper swore out loud and Rhea stepped between Eiji and lchior. Selendra’s face went white for the first ti Eiji had seen.
"You would roast my heart to kill your enemy," Selendra said. "You give to him like a ration."
lchior rubbed his forehead,he looked older in that room than Eiji had seen him. "I will not bargain to take you," he said to Selendra. "If a kernel is to be spent, it will be of the willing only. No force, Kroth demands consent too. He will take because they allow him."
Eiji felt his world tilt,he had no right to be the center of a bargain like this,he had no right to be offered as a price,his chest felt hollow.
"I won’t let anyone take Alma," Eiji said. "I will not..."
"You are a child," Maethra said, and the word cut clean. "You think your little heart matters. You who wear luck and sha like clothes."
Rhea’s hand tightened on the sword. "Enough."
lchior turned to the group. "We have options. No, we do not,we have danger that kills slowly and a chance that may cost a life. If Kroth devours sothing from us,he will answer,he will co and he will rip the na from Maethra. But the one he eats never wakes. The kernel is gone,the soul is spent."
Alma scread again. "I will not be their al!" she cried inside Eiji. "I will not be feasted on to feed your war."
Eiji’s hands shook,he could feel the charm under his skin,he could feel Alma’s panic. He could feel the bedrock of his life tilt toward a choice he did not want to make.
"Is there no other way?" Rhea asked.
lchior took a breath. "There may be another way," he said. "But it requires what Maethra keeps closest. Her children,the tied pieces of herself to the reapers and the watchers. They are like her blood,If you can sever those links, her throne weakens. Kroth will still take a toll but it will be less. To break those chains you will need a blade that drinks oath-blood. You will need a smith who can forge nas into steel."
Selendra laughed,a short sharp sound. "You speak like a man who has ti. We do not have surplus hours. Doors are sealed,guards are patient,her hunger grows with the bell."
Maethra smiled as if they amused her. "Run your errands," she said. "If the dancers tire,I will rest. If the at cools,I will feed. We can play this theater all night."
Vesper put both palms flat on the table and closed her eyes. She breathed slow, then looked at Eiji. "Host," she said. Her voice was steady. "If they ask for a sacrifice, you do not give it,you hide. If they force it,I will break their hands and if Kroth cos,I will trap whatever he eats in bone. I will not let him walk free with a friend’s na."
lchior nodded and looked at Eiji. The edge in his face was not friendly. "You can stay alive," he said. "Or you can die well."
Eiji swallowed,he could not imagine the option to die well. He could not imagine being offered like a thing.
Alma’s voice was thin. "I will not let them take ,"she said. "Even if your hands shake,I will not allow it. I can fight,can burn. I will do anything but be eaten."
Maethra’s laugh filled the hall. "You think your system is a warrior? It is a trick,It is a toy. Give it and I will let you join my table as honored playthings. Refuse and I will take what I wish. I can break the charm by burning the host. That is the easiest path for ."
Rhea lunged forward,her blade shot out but Borath’s guards blocked her movent before she could clear a foot. tal caught and held her down and the whole room tensed.
"Stop," lchior shouted. He stepped into Rhea and reached out a hand. The motion cald her enough to take her sword back and he spoke into the silence. "We bargain,we do not fight her here,we do not beco her feast."
Maethra lowered her hands and sat back. "Good," she said. "Your restraint entertains . I will give you one hour..One hour of rcy,If no choice is made,I will take what is left. Choose then,decide who you will offer,bring a na. Then Kroth will co and I will let him have his gratitude."
lchior’s face hardened. "You give us terms like chains."
Maethra shrugged. "Chains are comfortable to those who wear them... I give you a choice and you may choose who to feed or you may attempt to break and fail. Either way,i will be fed."
She turned her head like a queen sniffing a breeze. "Tick. Tick. You have a ti of my making."
The bell tolled again in the hall,but not from the tower. It ca from sowhere inside the palace,deep and flat and the sound shook the plates.
Eiji felt every fiber in his body pull tight. He looked at his hands,he looked at Alma’s core under his skin. He looked at Rhea,at Vesper,at Selendra and he looked at lchior.
"I won’t give her up," he said. "Not willingly."
lchior t his eyes and for the first ti,the young man looked almost gentle. "Then you prepare," he said. "You make a plan,you make the hardest choice when you must. If the choice is not made,she will make it for you and she will take what you care for most."
Alma filled him like an ocean. "Then prepare," she said. "And if this is my end,make it swift. If it is not,then make it so she rembers the taste of being denied."
Maethra leaned back and closed her eyes. "Excellent," she said. "Then we will dine on their fear until they decide."
The hall erupted in low sound again and eople went back to eating. Plates clattered,the music resud an angry rhythm. The guards kept their distance and the table where the group sat felt like a storm center.
Eiji folded his hands to hide how much they trembled. He did not want to show the way his chest ached for a future he could not imagine losing,he did not want Alma to see him break.
Outside,a bell tolled three tis. The ti she gave was shorter than they had thought.
lchior leaned over, voice small. "We have one hour," he said. "We either find a blade or we find Kroth or we make a bargain,we have to ecide quickly."
Selendra laughed sharp and bitter. "We decide quickly...How convenient."
Rhea stared at the goddess without flinching. "We will not kneel."
Maethra opened her eyes,for a mont Eiji saw sothing terrible settle under the blindfold, like a map of the world folding into one small point.
"Then entertain ," she said. "Let the hour pass in good company."
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