The glow in the chest didn't brighten.

It simply kept breathing through the carved lines, steady and patient, as if the box had never been an object at all - only a boundary made of wood and precious metals.

Raizen stood a little closer than he meant to. Not close enough to touch it, but close enough that he could see the way the light ran through the grooves.

The room was quiet in a different way now. Not like hesitation, but the silence of people holding their breath because they don't know the danger they're facing.

The Ruler's hand remained on the lid. His eyes were fixed on the chest, and for a moment Raizen caught the strangest look on his face.

Not fear or hatred, like he expected.

Something sadder than both.

Like grief, or something that looked like regret.

Then the Ruler's fingers shifted.

The clasps released, soft and smooth. The lid separated from the base by a hair's width.

Raizen felt a cold shiver down his spine.

Elin stepped forward first, not hesitating. Her calm was almost insulting in a situation like this, but Raizen had seen enough of her to know it wasn't bravery.

It was discipline. The kind of discipline that made her terrifying when she finally decided to move.

Raizen moved with her, one step, then another. His mind kept offering questions, but silencing them before they reached his mouth.

What is in there?

How small is it?

How do you even look at an Anathema without it looking back or sensing you?

How does this "fragment" even look like?

Atman leaned forward from the chair, shoulders rigid, but he didn't get up from his chair or come closer

He only extended his neck like a man trying to see a disaster from a safe distance.

The Ruler lifted the lid.

The inside wasn't lined with velvet or silk. It was lined with something even softer, a white blanket that looked too smooth for this world, like fresh snow that hadn't been touched. It cradled a single object in its center.

A sphere.

Perfect. Clear. Small enough to hold in one hand.

It looked like glassy crystal, but not the decorative kind that catches light to impress you. This was a kind of purity that felt wrong. The surface was flawless, smooth enough that the room's warm light slid off it without finding an edge.

And inside it, darkness moved.

Not shadow or smoke from a fire.

Something thicker.

The black within the sphere churned in chaotic movements, curling and collapsing into itself, constantly reshaping, constantly refusing to settle.

It looked alive in a way that made Raizen's skin crawl, like it wasn't merely contained - it was pressed into the shape of containment, and it hated every second of it.

The sphere sat on the white blanket like a jewel in a shrine, yet everything about it felt dangerous.

Elin's eyes narrowed slightly, but she didn't do anything. She simply watched, face unreadable, as if she were taking in a weapon's balance before deciding where to grip it.

Raizen leaned forward a fraction more, unable to stop himself.

He wanted to understand what he was seeing.

He wanted to prove to his own brain that he wasn't imagining it.

The darkness inside the sphere convulsed.

At first Raizen thought it was random, just the same restless movement he'd already seen. Then it hit the far inner surface and splashed across it like liquid thrown against glass.

And then it tried to run.

To run away in a frantic, violent rush, folding over itself, slamming against the inner wall as it gathered on the side farthest from Raizen. It packed itself there in a panicked mass, pressing so hard it looked like it wanted to crawl through the crystal and escape into the air.

It kept moving, but now the movement had something recognizable to it.

Fear.

Obvious, ugly fear.

Raizen froze.

A cold thread ran down his spine, and his mind went empty.

It was terrified... Of him.

It tried to run away from him.

Elin's head turned slightly toward him, just enough to confirm what she'd seen.

Atman straightened his back. He didn't speak, but his posture changed, like a man who'd just watched something impossible to confirm.

The Ruler frowned.

It was a small expression, barely there, but it changed his whole expression. It didn't look like surprised in a normal sense. It looked like a man noticing a crack in a wall that had held for decades.

He leaned closer, his voice dropping into a whisper that barely reached Raizen's ears.

"It never reacted like this before…"

Raizen tried to swallow, but his throat felt dry.

Why?

Why is it afraid of me?

Why is that terrified?

The Ruler adjusted his expression, then spoke normally, as if he could smooth the moment back into order by choosing the right tone.

"Don't be afraid" he said. His hand trembled just slightly as it hovered above the sphere, then steadied. "It cannot escape…"

He suddenly coughed, and for a second the human frailty in that sound made Raizen's stomach twist.

The Ruler's eyes narrowed, and his voice lowered again, but not quite a whisper.

"For now..."

The darkness inside the sphere didn't calm. If anything, it pressed harder into the far side. It kept shifting and writhing, but it refused to drift back toward the center. It remained pinned against the crystal like an animal trying to climb a wall with no grip.

Raizen stood very still.

His mind had restarted, but now it was running too fast. He felt the questions lining up behind his eyes.

Is it reacting to me?

To something it recognizes?

…The whisper inside my head?

He'd been hoping it would never happen again.

He'd been hoping it had been his imagination.

His thoughts circled back to the faint whisper that had slid into his mind without warning. "Oh… It noticed me."

The sphere held its chaos.

And right then, Raizen heard it again.

Inside his head, in the same place at the back of his mind, between his thoughts, the whisper spoke again.

Silence.

Raizen's whole body froze for a fraction of a second.

The Anathema, the fragment, whatever it was inside the sphere, reacted like it had been struck.

The frantic motion snapped, the chaotic smoke compressed into itself in a heartbeat, tightening into a dense, dark mass at the exact center of the crystal.

It didn't stop moving entirely - it still shifted, but now its movements were smooth and contained, and it looked like like a thick liquid blob with a perfectly even surface.

The Anathema obeyed… Whatever that dark whisper inside of Raizen's mind was.

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