A pointed, obviously fake cough sounded behind Keiser. He didn’t even need to look. Even with the voice pitched lower, there was only one person who would deliberately linger on the stairs just to make an entrance.
"...not that I want to interrupt your little reunion," the voice drawled, "but we have to go. Now."
Of course Althira wouldn’t appear as herself, that would have been far too obvious, with her green hair and unmistakably elven features. Instead, she arrived in the sa disguise she had worn in the dungeon, though this ti it was the version he had encountered in the temple, not the slurring, half‑drunk broker.
Even so, Keiser noticed the careful, almost tentative steps she took as she approached. She was testing the ’leeway’ granted to her, the limits of the sigil he had placed upon her. Mana threaded toward their wrists, drawn to the runes etched into both their skins.
It pulsed faintly with the terms of their bargain, what she called his "list of demands," and what he countered with as the "paynt" he had conceded to her... or rather, the only one he could offer of equal weight in exchange.
Keiser didn’t miss the way Althira’s gaze softened, just for a flicker, despite the disguise that hid her real emotions behind soone else’s face. Both of their eyes drifted toward the sixth princess, who was struggling to rise from her knees even with Olga’s help.
Her mana was the only force holding the collapsed building at bay, woven into the do of fabric like vines, shielding them from being crushed beneath the wreckage. Even her elven features could no longer be kept a secret, not when her mana was focused entirely on keeping everyone alive.
The exhaustion etched across her face was undeniable, her limbs trembling with the strain.
"I suggest we leave now," Olga muttered, her voice low and strained. "I don’t think... her highness can keep this up much longer."
The tone startled Keiser more than the words. The usual snarkness and confidence in Olga’s voice were gone, replaced by sothing tight and subdued. The sudden shift hit him with a strange sense of deja vu.
She looked like she had on the day she learned his missing brother, gone for years, was declared dead.
That quiet change in her... the silent rage turned inward, the hurt she tried to hide beneath discipline, the rigid determination threatening to snap if pushed too far.
The Olga standing here now reminded him not of the woman he had seen hours ago, spirited, sharp, unyielding, but the one from months later. The one he rembered as Keiser, not the one he had t as Muzio.
That Olga had carried herself just like this, composed on the outside, burning quietly on the inside.
And he could already tell he would need to keep an eye on her again, make sure that quiet, simring fury didn’t erupt at the worst possible mont.
But he had no ti to unpack Olga’s self‑hatred, not when the air grew taut again, tension rippling through the group. Olga’s eyes snapped toward Lenko, who had stepped in front of Keiser without warning, forcing him further back.
Keiser didn’t even notice the movent at first. His attention was locked on Olga’s expression, the flicker of panic tightening her features as her gaze darted between her brother and the ’man’ standing a few paces away.
He was going to have to address her worries later and firmly, before they spiraled.
But right now.
Those who knew the "man" standing behind him reacted far too sharply. Tyron’s hand went straight to his chest, probably rembering his pendant. It was obvious how his fingers clenched over his tunic, bunching the fabric.
And then Jim and Jill, sensing sothing both familiar and wrong, moved to shield Tyron, mirroring exactly what Lenko had done for the tenth prince.
If that didn’t scream ’suspicious stranger---danger,’ nothing would.
Diego and Yona, even without context, exchanged a wary glance, alert, bracing. Olga’s posture tightened. Althea’s eyes narrowed. But they couldn’t have known that the ’stranger’ was the very sa elven Keiser, Lenko, and Tyron had struck a deal with. The sa elf the sixth princess had been searching for this entire ti.
"...Lenko? Is he a threat?" Yona asked sharply. She pushed past Keiser, placing herself beside Lenko with twin blades drawn, her stance tightening, ready to snap.
Keiser rubbed his forehead in weary exasperation. He wanted, needed, to turn fully toward them and defuse the situation before soone swung first and destroyed all chance of peace. But little fla clung to him stubbornly, arms wrapped around his torso.
So he remained half‑turned, his back to the elven, his gaze angled toward the sixth princess. She was frowning, squinting at the stranger as if trying to unravel who or what, Keiser had brought into their refuge. And when their Aurex eyes t, the tension in the air thickened.
Keiser exhaled deeply and closed his eyes for a mont, as if bracing himself for the inevitable. But he had to address the coward behind him, this can’t go on like this, he had do his part.
"You said you kept them sowhere safe," Keiser said, turning his head just enough to et the elf’s eyes. "You ntioned that you put them sowhere you ’like’. But I don’t think it was you keeping them safe right now."
"A deal is a deal. They’re relatively safe... and you haven’t fulfilled your end yet." The elven curled their lips into that familiar, mocking half‑smile.
"...Equal bargain rember. I had to keep things equal." The elven then tapped a finger against their chest, and that was where Keiser saw Tyron’s pendant hidden beneath the man’s tunic.
He noticed how Tyron stiffened, how the man on his back suddenly grunted, how Diego narrowed his eyes, and how Jim and Jill placed their hands on Tyron’s shoulder as if to steady him when he faltered, however imperceptibly.
Keiser only shook his head, weary with annoyance and exasperation. Of course Althira wouldn’t simply let it go, not when he hadn’t fulfilled his part of the bargain.
The runes he had placed on her were effective enough to let her stand before her child, even in disguise, the ’leeway’ he had granted sufficient.
He contemplated placing ’release’ upon her, as he had accidentally done with Yona, but the thought of unleashing an elven’s full capability in such a mont was intolerable.
He couldn’t risk another disruption to the fragile plan he had built, not when he still intended to use what he knew of the future for as long as possible. Not when the Trials were soon to begin.
So he tilted his head back just enough to et the elven’s eyes.
His expression, seen by Lenko and Yona... made them freeze in place.
"I’m sure I have."
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