Chapter 71: A Lattice of Scars...
Keiser turned his face away, refusing to meet her eyes.
His gaze fixed instead on the shelves lining the far wall, rows of parchment and scrolls stacked so meticulously they seemed untouched by time. Each one was worth a fortune, the knowledge and offerings of generations, gifts brought to her altar by countless worshippers.
All the wealth of the kingdom at her back, and yet here she sat across from him, calm and unshaken, as though the last hour had never happened.
As though she hadn’t struck him with her hand, sharp enough to sting his cheeks and pride.
As though she hadn’t smuggled them out beneath the very noses of the knights hunting them, then demanded her due the moment they were safe.
As though she hadn’t ushered them into her temple, fed them, offered them rest, and now, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, sat close enough to hold his hand as if it mattered.
Her touch lingered. It was soft, steady, and disarmingly warm.
Keiser’s jaw tightened. His thoughts strayed, unbidden, to Muzio, how his life had taken a different road, and yet still, in some cruel mirror, was bound to the same patterns. Perhaps all of them were.
"...Maybe," he murmured at last, his voice hoarse.
He swallowed, as though the words were carved out of stone. "Or maybe my choices were taken from me long before I ever knew what choice meant." ’Muzio’s. Keiser’s. The others’. Maybe every path was already laid out, exactly as Gideon would have it.
Silence followed, heavy enough to feel like a weight pressing down between them.
Still, her hand didn’t leave his. It stayed where it was, gentle yet firm, her warmth at odds with the cool, deliberate bite of her words.
Keiser didn’t pull away.
The sixth princess did not speak. Instead, she lowered her gaze, her frown still etched deep across her features. A faint hum slipped from her lips, low and steady, like a hymn carried on temple winds.
Light bloomed between her fingers.
Soft threads of runes, intricate, curling lines of pale silver, unfolded from her palms and wrapped around Keiser’s hand. They moved like living vines, winding up his wrist and across his forearm.
Keiser stiffened. "What are you...?"
"Quiet," she murmured, her voice sharp but not unkind. "If you move, it’ll hurt more."
The runes pulsed softly as they spread, weaving beneath his bandages, crawling across his shoulder, over the slope of his neck, trailing down his back like roots sinking deep into soil. Keiser clenched his teeth, the instinct to pull away clashing with the surprising relief that followed.
The mana was cool, cooler than spring water, smoother than silk. It seeped into him, soothing the heat that had haunted every step of his. He let out a slow breath, one he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.
Her frown only deepened as the runes expanded further, tracing his spine, coiling down his legs, winding even around his calves.
"You’re a mess," she muttered under her breath.
Keiser huff a laugh faintly, though his voice was hoarse. "Tell me something I don’t know."
She ignored the jab. Her hum continued, steadier now, until the runes climbed higher, slipping over the side of his face, brushing against the rough bandage that covered his left eye.
His body tensed. "Don’t..."
But the runes did not stop. They curled gently over the bandage, and when the mana sank deeper into his skin, Keiser’s breath hitched.
The cold sank into his eye, no, deeper, into the burning ache that had throbbed for days. It wasn’t just relief, it was release, the heat bleeding out of him, replaced by that calm, soothing chill.
Involuntarily, his good eye fluttered shut. He let the sensation wash through him, muscles slackening against his will.
"...Better?" the princess’ voice was softer now, though her frown remained.
Keiser exhaled slowly. "...far better than the fever."
Her hand lingered on his, the glow still pulsing faintly between them.
And yet, behind the soothing touch, he could feel her disapproval like a blade pressed against his throat.
Keiser lowered his gaze. His fingers twitched. Carefully, he tugged at the edge of the bandage wrapped around his hand. The fabric unraveled with a soft rasp, each layer peeling away until at last the skin beneath was revealed.
Scars.
Not the clean lines of steel, nor the simple burns of flame, his hand bore something far more dreadful.
A lattice of scars, a maze of red welts carved into flesh like ancient runes etched onto living skin. They pulsed faintly in the light, raw and angry, as if they still remembered the pain of their making.
These were not wounds meant to heal. They were brands of mana that should not have existed, scars written into him.
The princess’s breath hitched, sharp and audible.
Her composure, always so immovable, so unyielding, fractured in that instant. Her eyes widened, riveted to the hand she had just touched with her own spell, as though only now realizing what her healing had uncovered.
This was no injury born of battle or accident, nor the work of assassins. It was deliberate. Ritualistic. Sacrificial.
The silence that followed stretched taut, brittle as glass.
Then Keiser broke it, his voice low and unhurried, each word landing with the finality of a blade driven into wood.
"You managed to heal me."
Her lashes trembled, but she held herself rigid. Lips pressed into a thin line, she refused to speak, but her breath betrayed her again, a faint, uneven catch that told him enough.
Keiser’s mouth curved, not into warmth but into a smirk stripped of humor. Cold. Knowing.Dangerous.
He flexed his scarred hand deliberately, letting the lamplight crawl over the welts she had tried to smooth away, each mark glistening like ink bleeding through flesh.
"And yet," he went on, voice dropping softer, "no one should be able to. Not herbs, not vials, not even runic scripting should touch this. And still, you did."
He leaned forward, the faint scrape of wood under his arm breaking the stillness, his gaze never leaving her face.
"How about a bargain, Princess," he said softly, victory coiled in his voice. "You’ve already let the secret slip... let’s make a deal."