Raizen stood near the foot of the bed with his hands loose at his sides, shoulders a bit stiff, like this was just another briefing with important people. He kept his face calm because it was the only thing he could control. But inside, his mind was loud - not with panic, but with questions that wouldn't stop stacking on top of each other.

Outside the chamber, Ukai was still engulfed in Atman's dark cloud. He could hear some sounds if he focused: the slow creak of living wood under its own weight, the faint groan of bridges somewhere in the tree-city, the restless hush of leaves brushing together as the wind passed through layers of green.

Inside, everything was so still that Raizen could hear the Ruler breathing.

His eyes drifted back to the Ruler's hands, resting on the blanket, fingers curled slightly like they were always ready to clamp down.

He swallowed.

He'd come to Ukai for a convention and a clean mission, something quiet and surgical, something he could do with Saffi and get out without leaving footprints.

He hadn't come to sit in a room where an entire nation's buried truths were being spoken aloud, not loudly, not dramatically, but with the kind of calm that made it worse.

And most of all he hadn't come to be this close to an Anathema.

His thoughts kept circling back to the faint whisper that had slipped into the edge of his mind.

"Oh… it noticed me." It said, right before the Ruler said that the Anathema reacted to him…

Now, the whisper was gone, and that was the problem. Raizen couldn't tell which was worse, a creepy whisper he could hear or a silence that let him imagine it.

He couldn't stop asking himself what it meant, whether it had been real or just his fear trying to give itself a shape.

Why would Ignorance itself notice him?

Why him, of all people in this room?

Or… Did it want something with him? Like the first time he heard it, when it guided him to Hikari?

Atman stood near the window, half in shadow, half in the pale lantern light. He'd been silent since the Ruler's confession about anchoring the fragment, about choosing not to heal, about spending years letting his life burn down slowly so everyone else could live comfortably unaware.

Finally, he breathed in, steadying himself, and spoke.

"I'll provide full cover."

His voice wasn't loud, but it didn't need to be. It carried that Ukai authority - not a demand, but an assumption that he will do his job perfectly.

"Routes, timing, misdirection" Atman continued. "If you leave, you won't be seen."

He paused. For a moment Raizen thought he was finished, but then Atman added something quieter, aimed at the bed rather than the room.

"You have my word."

Raizen watched the subtle shift in the Ruler's face. Not relief. Not gratitude. Just acknowledgement, the way you acknowledge moving a chess piece on a board when you're already losing the game and you're only trying to survive it.

Elin stood next to Raizen, posture straight, chin slightly lifted. Now her calm came back, but you could still see a faint tremble in her fingers.

"I'll take it" Elin said, voice settled. "The Anathema. I'll take it to the Floating Islands, to the Ice Sovereign."

Her eyes stayed forward. She didn't glance at Raizen or check his reaction.

The Ruler's gaze moved from Elin to Atman and then, for a heartbeat, to the ceiling like he could see through the wood, through the leaves, through the sky. Then his eyes returned to Elin.

"And him?" the Ruler asked.

Raizen kept his face still. He didn't like being discussed like a risk, or an object that needed a label before it could be allowed to leave the room.

Elin answered instantly.

"He can do whatever he wants."

The casualness of it almost irritated Raizen. It sounded like she didn't care, like his presence was irrelevant. Then she added, flat and final, "I trust that he'll keep his mouth shut."

Raizen blinked once, slowly. The Ruler studied him for a moment longer than necessary, and Raizen couldn't tell if he was being judged or simply memorized.

He can do whatever he wants. As long as "whatever" doesn't include talking.

Then the Ruler spoke again, softer this time, like he'd stepped down from the throne and become a man in a bed.

"I should apologize."

Raizen's brow twitched.

"Huh?"

"For dragging you into this" the Ruler continued. "For making you hear things you weren't meant to hear. Things you might not understand."

Raizen almost exhaled a laugh, but it could've been interpreted very wrongly. Dragging him into this? His gaze flicked toward Elin before he could stop it. She didn't react, didn't even blink, her face serene in that weird way.

His mind churned.

What did the Ruler think he didn't understand?

Raizen had seen Neoshima and its bones. He saw Solomon show him graves carved into glowing stone. He watched people die because someone somewhere named the "Council" decided the cost was acceptable. He understood secrecy. He understood sacrifices made quietly, dressed up as duty so everyone else could sleep peacefully.

He understood more than the Ruler probably wanted him to.

And still… he didn't understand this.

Not fully.

How do you capture something like an Anathema?

Why keep it instead of destroying it?

Why hide the truth of its defeat?

Why let one man carry it alone for years?

Why would Elin, who'd already declared war on Ukai once in her own way, agree to take their greatest burden now?

And then, like a hook catching in the soft part of his mind, the worst question returned again.

Why did it react to me?

Raizen forced his face to stay neutral and respectful.

"It's nothing" he said, because that was the only safe thing to say in a room like this.

The Ruler watched him a moment longer, eyes tired but steady. "I know this is confusing" he added, as if he was trying to soften the blow.

Raizen's unease tightened. "I know more than you think" he thought.

Elin's gaze shifted slightly, not to his face, but to his hands, as if checking whether he was trembling. He wasn't, but his fingers had curled without him noticing. He forced them open again.

The Ruler's mouth twitched at the corner, almost a sad smile. "Still" he said, "I apologize."

Raizen didn't argue.

Silence returned, thicker than before. For several seconds nobody spoke. Atman's shoulders lowered a fraction, like even speaking was too hard for him. Elin remained still, but Raizen could sense the tension beneath it.

Raizen found himself counting the Ruler's breaths without meaning to.

One.

Two.

Three.

Then a knock came from the door, sharp and precise.

The Ruler didn't flinch. He didn't even turn his head. He only said, quietly, like he'd been waiting for the sound.

"It's here."

Atman's eyes became even more confused. Elin's gaze lifted toward the door, and for the first time her distance didn't look like calm. It looked like impatience.

The door opened, and four Ukai guards stepped in.

"Prestigious" was the only word Raizen's mind offered, not because of decoration, but because of how they moved. They didn't rush or hesitate. They walked like men trained to treat every step as an oath.

Their uniforms were dark and layered, trimmed with faint lines that caught the green light in thin flashes. Their faces were neutral in the disciplined way, not empty, just locked down.

Between them, carried at waist height with careful balance, was a chest.

Not a simple box or crate.

A chest that looked like it belonged in a temple.

It was longer than Raizen expected, heavy enough that all four men carried it with controlled strain. Its surface was carved with intricate patterns that reminded Raizen of vines forced into flowers. Thin bands of something like dull luminite were embedded into grooves, lifeless for now, waiting.

The chest looked old.

And expensive. Super expensive. It looked like the kind of thing you protect because it represents an entire bloodline, not because it's worth money.

Raizen's throat tightened.

Why would you make a box this beautiful?

The guards stopped at the side of the bed, exactly where the Ruler's hand swiftly directed them.

"Here" the Ruler said, and they lowered the chest carefully to the floor, no scrape, no thud, like even the sound was dangerous.

They adjusted it until the clasps were centered and the patterns aligned perfectly, then stepped back and stood near the door, silent as pillars.

Raizen stared at the chest. His mind threw up possibilities like sparks.

Is it sealed with Eon?

Is it layered?

Is there a second container inside?

Is it alive?

Is it listening?

He forced himself not to step closer. Even from here, the air around it felt different. Not colder, exactly. Denser, like pressure before a storm.

Atman stared as if he wanted to burn the image into his eyes.

The Ruler breathed in and lifted his hand from the blanket. His arm moved slowly, not weak, just careful, like he knew motion itself mattered. His palm settled on the top of the chest.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Raizen held his breath without noticing he'd done it.

Then, the Ruler stretched his hand. Beneath the carved patterns, the thin lines ignited.

Not flames. Light.

Soft at first, like embers subtly waking under ash, and then brighter, spreading through the grooves in clean paths, tracing the chest's design as if it had been waiting for the touch. The dull inlays awakened into a faint glow, and the room changed, not visually at first, but in the way Raizen's skin prickled.

The pressure in the air increased, subtle but undeniable.

Raizen's ears started ringing, and he couldn't tell whether it was sound or his blood.

He glanced at Elin. Her face remained calm, but her eyes sharpened, focused on the chest.

Atman's fingers flexed once and curled into a fist.

The guards didn't react at all. Either they'd seen it before, or they were trained to pretend they hadn't.

The Ruler kept his hand on the glowing surface. His breathing stayed measured, but Raizen saw the faintest strain in his eyes, like the touch wasn't only ceremonial.

Then the Ruler lifted his gaze and looked at them.

Atman. Elin. Raizen.

His voice was quiet.

"Behold" the Ruler said,

"The Anathema known as Ignorance."

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