Nia held the ribbon between two fingers as if it were evidence in a murder trial."Elias.""Master.""Why is there a woman's ribbon in your bed?""Technically, on the bed. The bed is no longer a bed."Frost spread across the floor.Elias corrected course at once. "I borrowed it during retrieval practice. Accidentally. For academic reasons.""Academic reasons.""Yes.""From Alice.""Accidentally from Alice."Nia's ahoge rose straight up. Steam, somehow, began to drift from her hair despite the frost at her feet.This is not jealousy, she told herself. This is mentorly concern. A mentor has the right to regulate dangerous ribbons.Elias, unfortunately, chose that moment to think, It really is just a ribbon. Although if Master gets any angrier, I may need to classify it as a lethal artifact."You think I am angry because of a ribbon?" she asked in a dangerously soft voice."No.""You think your respected mentor is that childish?""Never.""You think you can treat your mentor like a fool?

Elder Green greeted them near the central gallery with the pale dignity of a man who had survived Nia's health juice and intended to make that everyone else's problem."Archmage Frostvale," he said, bowing carefully. "Thank you for coming. The Sunstealers claim these relics were recovered from an outer chamber of the Violet King's burial complex."Nia's fingers tightened around her cup of fruit punch.Elias, still disguised as a mild scholar, stared at the elder."The Violet King's burial complex," he repeated."Yes. A discovery of historic importance."Historic, Elias thought. They dug up my emergency bunker and are calling a broken kettle royal domestic technology.Nia almost choked.Green lifted a small golden sphere from one display with careless scholarly excitement."This object fascinates me. We do not yet know its function. Perhaps a meditation orb? Perhaps an offering vessel?"Elias's eyes widened.That is a compression grenade.Nia's smile vanished. "Elder Green, maybe put t

The corrupted soldiers discovered that killing Nia was impossible.They also discovered that surviving her confidence was emotionally difficult.She marched across the hall behind Elias's defensive barriers, swinging her staff like a ceremonial mace that had misunderstood its own job description."Ice Bolt!" she shouted.A possessed guard dodged the spell and ran face-first into the rebound shield. He bounced off with a noise like a dropped sack of flour."Ice Bolt again!"This one hit the floor, froze an entire snack table, and sent six silver trays skidding into enemy ankles.Nia pointed at the fallen soldiers. "See? Tactical."That was not tactical, Elias thought. That was catering-based warfare.Her ahoge formed four glowing frost-letters above her head: UNDEFEATED.Every conscious scholar stared.Elias's soul experienced secondhand embarrassment.The thing wearing Alice's body hissed. "This creature is intolerable.""Correct," Elias said quietly. "But she is mine to supervise."T

The false Soul King burned badly.That should have been the end of it. A projection could not withstand Elias's fire forever, especially not one threaded through another person's mind and carried by stolen relics. Yet the thing smiled while half its face melted away, and that smile made the Bone King, watching from a scrying shard miles below, lower his skull in silent dread."You are angry," the Soul King said through the flames. "Good. Anger proves there is still something in you that remembers us.""Do not turn this into loyalty.""It was loyalty once."Elias stepped closer. The floor cracked under his heel. "Once is not enough."The projection's eyes filled with black light. The fallen god's power surged, trying to climb through the burning link. It wanted Elias's scent. It wanted his old corpse. It wanted the ripened soul that had escaped the harvest and learned to hide.Elias cut the connection before it could breathe his name.The Soul King vanished in a shower of ash-colored s

When the light faded, the Soul King was gone.In his place sat a small clay urn covered in command seals, tied with a ribbon of bone-white light and smoking faintly like a pot that had survived Nia's cooking experiments by divine intervention.The Bone King picked it up with both hands."Is he...""Alive," Elias said. "Embarrassingly alive. Unstable, reduced, memory-damaged, spiritually undercooked, and likely to complain when he wakes."The Sunstealer peered at the urn. "You put the second king of the Violet Empire in a jar.""Temporarily.""That is what all jar owners say."Elias ignored him and placed three fingers against the urn. "Listen carefully. If you can hear me in there, do not panic. Do not attempt possession. Do not communicate with suspicious eyes in the dark. Do not start another empire while unsupervised."A faint knock came from inside the urn.One knock.The Bone King's soul-fire flared with relief so sharp it almost looked painful.Nia stepped closer. "What happens