"I know you killed the Beast Sovereign."

The sentence didn't land like something incertain.

It landed like something absolute.

For a second, Elin didn't react at all. Not a flinch, not a blink, not even the faint twitch Raizen had started to recognize as her warning sign. She just stood there, frozen in the warm lantern light.

Then her breath cut, and her always-calm mask slipped.

Elin took a step back so fast her heel left a small mark on the wooden floor. Her eyes went wide - not with anger, not with irritation, not with that lazy arrogance she wore like armor.

With fear.

Real fear.

Her mouth opened as if to speak, but nothing came out. Her chest rose quickly, too quickly, like the air wasn't enough for her.

The lantern flames trembled. Not much - just enough to make the light stutter across the frames on the wall. A few photos rattled softly, the tiny metal brackets tapping against wood like nervous teeth.

Raizen saw her hands, too.

They didn't go for knives.

They didn't reach for… Who knows what Eon tricks she might have in her sleeve.

They hovered in that useless space between fight and flight, fingers half-curled like she didn't know where to put them.

Atman moved on instinct.

He took a half-step toward Elin, one hand lifting as if he could steady her, stop her from exploding or something, stop her from doing anything regrettable, stopping the past from walking into the present.

"Elin, wha-"

But the words broke off in his throat.

His expression went blank in a way Raizen had never seen on him. Atman was warmth, jokes, easy confidence, the kind of teacher who could turn panic into a lesson. (He forgot that the same jolly man was centimeters away from sticking a knife in his throat, and a few seconds away from strangling him)

But now, Atman looked like a man who'd just been told the sky had been lying to him his entire life.

The black smoke around Atman's arm reacted, too. It tightened, then loosened, then tightened again, as if it couldn't decide whether to shield the room or run from it.

Raizen didn't move.

He didn't reach for Elin, or for his swords.

He'd seen panic before. In the Underworks. In the Med Wing. On the mountain. In people who'd watched something die and never fully climbed out of the moment.

If you touched them wrong, you didn't help. You just gave the fear a new target.

So he stayed where he was, breathing slowly, shoulders still, and just let her have the space to not drown.

Elin's gaze snapped to the wall of photos.

To the bigger frame.

To the wild smile of the woman called the Beast Sovereign.

Her throat tried to speak once, like she was instinctively trying to explain.

Then her eyes flicked to the Ruler.

Not hate. Not defiance.

A desperate, silent question that didn't need words.

How do you know?

The Ukai Ruler didn't look triumphant or betrayed. He didn't even look disappointed.

He looked… Tired.

Tired in a way that only had to do with carrying too much truth for too long.

He let the silence linger for a moment.

"I know why" he then simply said.

Elin's breath hitched again.

"I know how" the Ruler continued, voice calm and even.

Atman's hand trembled once, then fell back to his side.

"And I know what it cost you."

Elin's shoulders shook - not with sobs or tears, but with the sheer effort of holding herself together. Her eyes were wet and shiny, but no tears fell. It wasn't that kind of panic.

This was the kind that came when a wound you'd buried a long time ago got dug up with bare hands.

"No, you…" Her voice finally found itself. "No. You're wrong!"

It wasn't convincing at all.

The Ruler didn't argue. He didn't correct her. He didn't push.

He simply nodded, like he'd expected the denial. Like he'd heard it before from other people with blood on their hands and a reason in their heart and mind.

"I have never blamed you for it" he said again, softer this time, as if he wanted the words to stick. "Never."

Elin's jaw clenched so hard Raizen saw the muscle tensing.

"So you let them call it an accident" the sentence came, pure disbelief. "You let them turn her into a story."

The Ruler's eyes closed for a short second, then rose back to hers.

"I let Ukai survive" he answered.

That was all.

No excuse. Just the truth.

Atman finally spoke too, but it came out broken.

"My Ruler…" he began, and stopped again, as if the rest of the sentence refused to exist.

The Ruler didn't even look at him. His attention stayed on Elin like the entire world was built around this moment.

"You think you were the only one who saw her" the Ruler said quietly.

"You think you were the only one who knew what she thought about beasts" he continued. "About their lives. About constructs. About chains that look like kindness when you gilded them with gold."

Elin's eyes flashed, and for the first time, her fear sharpened into something dangerous.

"She was going to ruin them" Elin whispered. "She was going to ruin everything. She didn't even understand what she was making. She didn't care what they felt. She didn't -"

Her voice cracked on the last word.

Her lips pressed into a hard line, and she looked away, breathing too fast.

The Ruler didn't flinch.

"I know"

Elin's fingers flexed once, and Raizen saw a faint shimmer of red near her skin - not threads coiling around knives, not a technique, just Eon reacting to emotion, the way a storm reacts to heat. It vanished a second later, but it was enough to tell him she was fighting for control.

"You didn't call me here to judge me" Elin said, voice low. It wasn't a question.

The Ruler's mouth curved into the faintest smile.

"If I wanted to judge you" he said, "I would have done it years ago. Publicly. Loudly. With a crowd watching, so they could feel innocent while someone else was sentenced."

Elin stared at him again, and something in her expression twisted. Pride. Shame. Fury. Relief.

All tangled.

Atman swallowed so hard, even Raizen could hear it.

Raizen finally understood something that had been bothering him since he stepped into this room.

This wasn't a ruler trying to save a fancy face, or a public image.

This was a ruler who had been managing damage - not just to a city, but to people.

To legends.

To the fragile balance that kept Ukai from tearing itself apart.

The Ruler's gaze drifted, briefly, to the big framed photo on the wall. He looked at the Beast Sovereign's wild smile.

Then back to Elin.

"You think this meeting is about her?" he asked. "Because her name sits on my walls, and her absence sits in my city? No – our city?"

Elin didn't answer.

The Ruler drew in a slow breath. It sounded heavier than it should have, like even speaking costs him something now.

"Sadly, she is now dead, but I never intended to talk about her. It's not a discussion for now" he continued. "The deal I mentioned was never made with the Beast Sovereign."

Atman's eyes widened a fraction.

Elin's brows bent, confusion breaking through fear for a second.

"Then…" Atman tried again, voice carefully respectful. "My Ruler, the deal -"

The Ruler lifted one hand, palm down, not to silence Atman harshly, just to slow him.

"All of you have been loyal to me" the Ruler said, and the warmth in his voice toward Atman made something in Raizen tighten. "And you all have been useful, I'm grateful for that. But you have also been protected."

Atman went still.

Raizen didn't know how to react. He wasn't supposed to be here. He didn't know what they meant.

"Protected from what?" Elin asked.

The Ruler's eyes now looked more tired than ever.

"From my biggest sin" he said.

"And you have to understand that I had no other choice."

The words were calm. Almost casual. That was what made them horrifying.

The Ruler's gaze slid to Raizen for a moment, brief and assessing, and Raizen felt it like a cold hand on the back of his neck.

Then the old man looked back to Elin.

"You think you were the one who did an unforgivable thing" he said quietly.

At this point, the only thing Raizen wanted was to get out of this room.

"You think your fire ended a chapter" the Ruler continued.

Elin didn't speak, but her eyes flickered. Fiery smoke. Dragon fire. A moment she couldn't rewrite.

"It ended a life, yes. But not a chapter."

The Ruler's voice lowered, turning almost intimate, as if he couldn't afford anyone hearing what he was about to say.

"That night" he said, "was not the beginning of Ukai's curse."

Elin's gaze sharpened.

"Atman" the Ruler added, and Atman flinched like he'd been called out of a dream, "do you know why I never built a palace? Why I never formed a Council, like Neoshima or other cities? Why I kept my room small, my guards few, my life quiet?"

"No, my Ruler." Atman swallowed again.

The Ruler nodded, as if that answer was the only right answer.

"Because Ukai doesn't survive by pride" he said. "It survives by containment."

Raizen's stomach dropped.

Elin's shoulders tightened again.

"I did not make my deal with the Beast Sovereign" The Ruler whispered.

Silence.

"I made a deal…" he continued, voice steady despite the struggle in his body.

"…With an Anathema."

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