When the Nightmare Flower’s entanglement caught him again, Luka’s dreams were faint. He heard a young Veric asking him if he was broken somehow, felt a young Acacius tearing his arm out of his grasp with a fearful gasp. He saw Sacha floating in the air, looking down at him indifferently, white hair fluttering in an unknown wind. She raised her hand like an executioner’s blade. It was coming for him.

Luka watched, as he had always been watching. He thought he should feel upset. Angry, perhaps, or sad. It was what someone human would do.

But just like last time, the more the Nightmare Flower drew on his dreams, the emptier he felt. Carved out and cleaned. A once-messy canvas peeling away to reveal the cold frame that had always been waiting underneath.

The dreams dispersed like smoke on the breeze, and behind it he saw the calm and utter emptiness of the void.

As Luka emptied of himself, the mad hunger of the wolf swelled. It was pressing against his edges now.

[Willing Thrall of an Artificial Heart] flickered like a candle’s guttering flame, struggling to fill in for what was now missing. If he was stronger, perhaps it could have bound the wolf entirely. As it was, the shadows of emotion it produced were swallowed one by one into his shadow’s hungry jaws.

The Luka of a few minutes ago would have cared to stop it.

But it was hard to feel that it had anything to do with him.

So Luka watched. As he did, a spark appear in the darkness.

At first, nothing but an ember, then roaring forward in a blazing inferno…

The dark void before him burned.

The wolf howled. It rushed forward to devour the fire that dared to appear before it.

The wolf started burning, too.

The flames burned through its throat, its stomach, turning everything it had eaten into ash. The wolf wailed like a hungry ghost as its form was consumed by the conflagration. In the fire, Luka felt an overwhelming madness, a resentment that couldn’t be cleansed.

How dare you take and eat.

How dare you live on.

How dare you when we…

The illusions burned away, and Luka opened his eyes.

The Nightmare Flower, which should have been impervious to ordinary fire, had caught like dry tinder. Heat washed against his skin; smoke smothered the skies. Luka reflexively circulated his aura to resist the heat and looked around.

The court formed by the inquisition ritual was burning like yellow talisman paper. The summoned constructs, which were neither material nor immaterial, were being reduced to a very real ash. The Nightmare Flower’s tendrils were withering into embers on the ground.

One by one, everyone who had been present at the ritual here was regaining clarity. Roxana clasped her hands together, blue light pulsing out to grant healing. Veric threw up a barrier, manifesting her dragon phantom, and shouted for the others to wake.

But Acacius, kneeling in the burning forest, showed no signs of emerging from his dreams.

He didn’t stir when Luka hooked his arms under his shoulders, nor when Luka dragged him out of the fire. His eyelashes trembled; his face contorted as if caught between laughter and despair. One by one, crimson droplets rolled down his face.

It was polite to reciprocate what others had done for you. Luka took out the handkerchief provided with Nithemoore’s school uniforms and wiped Acacius’ face clean.

Then he looked back to see what the others were doing.

Everyone at Nithemoore had their own capabilities. The others had all escaped the fire, one way or another; Dagian was in her sun chariot, and Jules had planted a safe zone large enough for her to walk out from the flames. Mehran steadied her with one arm as he guided her out.

The mist that Veric had gathered in the area rolled over the forest like a twisting serpent, extinguishing the small flames trying to expand outward. She was standing with Roxana now, clasping their hands together in prayer. As a blue glow rose around them, clouds formed in the sky and began to rain.

Even the Great Dragon’s rain showed signs of igniting and burning in Acacius’ fire. The false sky of the Illusion Stage was distorting, too, flickering like a mirage under the heat.

Dagian was the first to act again. She was someone who liked claiming first place in any game, and for that, the game board had to be preserved. She summoned her sun chariot and flew over the forest, absorbing the flames to control their spread.

But Acacius’ fire seemed to come from Ghost, and Ghost was a Fantasm Spirit born from the death of a world. How could their fire be simple? Even the sun chariot under Dagian’s hands showed signs of melting.

Luka lowered his gaze back to Acacius’ dreaming face. Despite Roxana’s healing prayers, his bleeding hadn’t stopped.

“Acacius,” he called softly.

Of course, there was no response.

The Nightmare Flower had already managed to lure the wolf out from behind its seal. Since that was the case, Luka might as well look at everyone’s emotions more closely. It would not help the fidelity of his seals. But without using it, how could he understand?

It was just that using it did not always mean he would understand, either.

Having made up his mind, Luka peered at Acacius’ strings.

The emotions roiling out of him were thick as a storm. He was overflowing with rage, a hatred that could destroy a world, a sorrow so deep it could drown it.

No wonder Acacius wasn’t waking up. The Nightmare Flower had already sank him deep into the prison of his heart.

Luka had been informed that it wasn’t good for him to do what he was about to do, but…

According to the criteria, it seemed like this was an “exceptional circumstance”?

So, with a thought, he activated [Eater of the White Dragon’s Dreams].

He controlled it carefully so he wouldn’t absorb too much. [Willing Thrall of an Artificial Heart] trembled. Luka took a deep breath.

What he felt now…

Did it come from Acacius? Or from Ghost?

As the intensity of Acacius’ emotions faded, the crease between his eyebrows smoothed out, and his blood and tears finally began to dry up. In the distance, the fire’s ferocity waned.

Acacius opened his eyes in a daze. He looked up at Luka, and the crease reappeared between his brows.

“Can you put out the fire?” Luka asked.

Acacius gave him an unreadable look, pushed himself out of Luka’s hold, and stood up, gazing out at the forest.

“…Is the Stage itself burning?”

Luka followed his gaze to the dark patches spreading through the sky.

“That’s why you should put it out.”

Acacius sighed.

“How did it become such a mess…”

The flames in the distance slowly diminished. Finally, under everyone’s concerted efforts, they extinguished.

Where the Nightmare Flower’s forest had once spanned across territories, swallowing up the Illusion Stage’s space, there was nothing but ash. It was gray wasteland as far as the eye could see. Burn marks hung in the sky.

Dagian and her chariot glowed like a second sun under the cover of Veric and Roxana’s rain. She steered the chariot around, and her eyes fell on Acacius. He stiffened next to Luka, and a moment later, the wings he’d put away spread themselves out again.

He was getting ready to run.

Luka put a hand on his shoulder. Acacius twitched.

Placing his other hand on the hilt of his sword, Luka said, “Wait here.”

Dagian held her hand out. Light streamed from her sun chariot, condensing to form a burning white spear. She drew back her arm and threw.

“Luka!” Veric shouted.

Luka had already moved.

With a burst of aura, he flashed forward and swung his sword in an arc of light-devouring black. Dagian’s spear broke against it like a scattering ray.

Luka landed lightly in the ash, standing between her and Acacius.

Dagian tilted her head.

“Luka, you seem to have forgotten our contract. We are allies until our goal is achieved, no?”

Luka had no intention of going against one of Jules’ contracts.

“The goal has been achieved,” he explained. “Rhoswen is eliminated; their team is separated and defeated. Now this is a battle to determine to whom will go the final spoils.”

“Then eliminate him first. What everyone can claim from their territories after that will depend on their luck and skill.”

He and Dagian had fought before in Combat class. She wasn’t an opponent Luka could defeat easily, but similarly, she couldn’t overpower him, either. Dagian was offering a way forward that wouldn’t involve a direct clash.

Luka imagined what Acacius, with his new temperament, might say.

“Maybe I want everything.”

Behind him, Acacius took a step back.

“You should know how to stop when you’re ahead, Luka,” Dagian said. “Do you truly believe you would win in a clash against me?”

“Can you win against me?” Luka returned.

Dagian was annoyed, but cautious. When he glanced back at Acacius, he saw that Acacius was tired, suspicious, and more than a little angry.

Perhaps Luka’s words earlier had caused a misunderstanding.

He said, “Now that your mind is clearer, do you want to consider an alliance again?”

Acacius narrowed his eyes. He licked away the blood on his lips and said, “Why would you still want one?”

Luka didn’t consider himself someone with many wants, but whenever he was around Acacius, somehow, that changed.

Not for the first time, he wished he could see his own threads.

“I’ll defend while you think it over.”

He turned his back to Acacius and raised his head to the sky. Dagian looked down at them, another spear of light forming in her hand. The other students warily moved away to give them space.

“Dagian,” he said. “If either of us is ejected from the Illusion Stage at this point, the penalty period will take away the remaining time to consolidate our gains before the end of the exam. You cannot defeat me quickly, either. A full-out battle suits neither of us.”

Dagian’s expression didn’t change, but her emotions shifted. [Blade of Unkind Reflections] twinged. He’d hurt her feelings with his observations somehow.

“Then what do you propose?” she said, eyeing him as if still weighing her odds in a fight.

Perhaps it was her pride that took a blow. But didn’t they both have this understanding of each other already?

“Let’s have a duel.”

Using his sword and aura as the brush, he drew a circle around himself in the dirt.

“We’ll exchange three blows. If you can draw my blood, or force me out of this circle, you win.”

Dagian raised her eyebrows, then smiled.

After all, in a wide-open space like this, where she didn’t have to worry about collateral damage to others, her abilities could be fully unleashed.

“Luka… You’re looking down on me, aren’t you? Don’t take it back when you lose.”

Her spear glowed, pulling in light until the sky dimmed in comparison. The air superheated. The moisture pulled in from Veric and Roxana’s prayers dried up from the air.

Luka breathed deeply and circulated his aura. A black glow bloomed over his sword. At his call, [Echo of the World Eater] hummed, dying his aura an even darker black. The will of the wolf stirred once more.

Dagian threw the suryastra. It came for him like a falling star, burning his vision like the sun.

But Luka’s senses could trace its trajectory, and [Blade of Unkind Reflections] showed him exactly where it would hurt most to strike.

His sword arced through the air. The darkness around it swallowed the suryastra’s light. The blade collided with the spear’s shaft, deflecting it to the side.

Even so, the heat seared his hands as it passed by, and the tremor reverberated down his arms, nearly unbalancing him out of the circle. Behind him, the suryastra exploded into golden fire, shaking the ground and leaving a burning pit that dug deep into the ashen landscape.

Dagian’s firepower was rather terrifying when she was given the time to charge.

Luka shook his arms out and fixed his stance to take Dagian’s second blow.

This time, Dagian dismissed her sun chariot and the suryastra in a shower of golden sparks. She spread her golden wings as she hovered in the sky; the gale picked up, stirring ashes into the sky. As her hands flashed through a series of mudras, a savage intent condensed on her body, so dense that it pricked his skin.

With an eagle-like cry, she thrust her palm down at him in a claw strike. The golden phantom of a garuda’s talons struck him fiercer than any blade.

[Blade of Unkind Reflections] guided his hand. Lowering his stance, he drew back his arm and thrust his sword forward. The dark tip pierced through the claw strike’s force. The phantom split around him, digging deep trenches into the ground that kicked up great clouds of ash, as if to cover the sky.

Behind the drifting ash, Dagian’s silhouette changed. In the blink of an eye, the wings of her Garuda path were replaced by four angelic wings of the CI frame.

“Luka, you are a worthy foe. I acknowledge it.” She held her arm out, forming a flaming greatsword in her hand. “You are deserving of my most powerful strike.”

Dagian grabbed the sword hilt with two hands and swung.

Light blazed, forming the shape of a phoenix. Its wings blotted out the sky and incinerated the clouds where it passed. With a soundless roar, it rushed forward to subsume Luka entirely in its purifying light.

If the Nightmare Flower hadn’t drawn the wolf out recently, it would have been difficult for Luka to withstand this attack without injury or retreat.

But the wolf had been roused and subdued, and so, Luka had the capital to use his World Proof.

World Proof: [Lured Sentinel at the Gate of the Abyss]

Form: Shadow

Description: Always called by humanity and inhumanity both, but unable to choose either, the watcher stands on the edge. If the fruit is forbidden, why does it taste so sweet?

Skill: Empowers the user according to their choices. As they repress their human nature, they gain power to resist material attacks; as they repress their inhuman side, they gain the power to resist memetic and conceptual attacks.

• The respective resistances can be stored and charged over time. The two powers are charged separately.
• Power can be spent partially or all at once, against one or multiple attacks.

As far as World Proofs went, its manifestation was an inobtrusive one, nearly indistinguishable from his usual shadow. But if anyone was watching carefully beneath Dagian’s blazing phoenix, they might have seen a doorway swing open over his shadow’s heart, a perfect gap of light.

A cool sensation ran through his body, draining the power that had been stored in [Lured Sentinel]. When Dagian’s strike hit him, it neither cut nor burned.

From the beginning, Luka didn’t intend to win this wager fairly.

When the light faded, it revealed him standing untouched where he had started, lowering his sword to his side.

“You lost.”

[Blade of Unkind Reflections] hummed against his skin. Dagian’s right arm was weak. She was tired. Now would be a good time to strike.

Luka sheathed his sword.

Dagian slowly descended, until she was hovering near eye-level with him. She studied Luka solemnly, and then she laughed.

“I see. I was too prideful. I’m the one who underestimated you.”

Luka glanced at her threads.

Frustrated, yes, but for some reason, excited too. Happy.

“Your last strike was very powerful,” he said.

“Not powerful enough,” she replied with a smile. “No need to comfort me, Luka — a hero can recognize her shortcomings. I lost this time. But I’ll catch up with you before long.”

With a prideful smile, she flapped her wings, stirring up the ash as she rose back into the sky. Another beat, and she shot away, disappearing in the direction of her territory, where Nastaran was surely waiting for her.

Dagian would have to hurry if she wanted to make the most of the time she had left.

Luka turned his gaze to the spectators. Aside from Mehran, Jules, and Roxana, others had gathered to watch the duel as well. He recognized them as students in the alliance who had been eliminated in the initial assault on the Nightmare Flower. The penalty period must have passed if they had returned to the Illusion Stage.

If one of them had intervened in the duel just now, things could have gotten complicated. But they hadn’t. Veric stood before them with her dragon phantom summoned, feet planted as steady as a mountain. Her body language made it clear. Anyone who wanted to intervene would have to pass through her first.

Seeing that Luka’s duel had concluded, she gave him a sharp nod. Luka nodded back and looked over the crowd.

“Who else wishes to challenge me?”

It was silent until Roxana heaved a large sigh and grabbed Jules by the arm.

“Jules, let’s just give this up for a lost cause. We won’t get any more benefits here; we should consolidate our results while we can.”

Jules tapped her fingers on the handle of her cane, but in the end, she acquiesced.

“Now that Rhoswen’s influence has been broken, I suppose there’s no need for me to intervene further,” she said. “Let us be away to count our losses.”

Tapping her cane, she followed Roxana away.

Next to go was Mehran.

“I’ve left my partner behind long enough,” he said. “Not every risky venture bears fruit.”

With the dispersal of the alliance’s core leaders, the rest of the gathered crowd slowly dispersed.

Luka was satisfied. He turned around and walked to where Acacius was waiting. He’d put his wings away.

Acacius said, “So? Did you want my tokens?”

Veric, who’d followed them over, punched him on the shoulder. “I think what you meant is, ‘thank you.’”

Acacius huffed. “How about, ‘thank you for ruining my plans’?”

“Well, excuse us for being worried about your mental state.”

He rolled his eyes. “Don’t tell me that you ganged up on me and Rhoswen with the rest just because of that?”

Luka and Veric both looked at him without saying anything, because that was exactly why.

Acacius must have read something from their expressions, because he fell silent before speaking again.

“I was the one who approached Rhoswen first, and most of our strategies were mine. I was the one who agreed to all her proposals, too. But it’s true that I underestimated the effects her magic would have on me.”

He sighed.

“The Nightmare Flower was completely on impulse, I’ll admit.”

“You were uncharacteristically expressive during this time,” Luka agreed.

[Blade of Unkind Reflections] helpfully informed him that Acacius’ eyes and arms were weak right now.

…He really didn’t mean to make him unhappy.

“In any case,” Veric says, “with all the tokens you and Rhoswen amassed in hand, you should still be able to keep first place, right? Congratulations.”

Acacius was silent, then he shook his head. “I won’t be able to keep them all.”

He tapped his wristband, pulling up his team’s information. Aside from the absurd sprawl of claimed territories and a terrifying token count, there was also a blinking red notification at the top.

A penalty of up to 60% will be imposed on the final score due to damage to the Illusion Stage and disruption of the exam. Final penalty amount to be determined.

“You’ll still have a lot of tokens,” Veric comforted. “No matter how much you lose, your grades won’t be too bad.”

Acacius shook his head slightly and didn’t reply. He was frustrated and disappointed. A green hint of worry snaked through his threads.

Luka combed through the recent memories of him stored by [Incongruent Transcriber of the Heart’s Laws], all the things he hadn’t understood, and he formed a hypothesis.

“Did you want first place, specifically?”

Acacius glanced at him with a pale flash of surprise.

When they’d left to fight the visual disaster, Acacius had said he didn’t like leaving things to chance.

“The first place team is guaranteed to select from the rewards list first,” Luka said. “Was there something you wanted?”

Acacius’ gaze flickered. “What about it?”

“That makes sense,” Veric said. “I thought it was strange for you to be so aggressive about this. Maybe Luka and I can help.”

She tapped her wristband and pulled up the list of teams, ranked by token count and territories governed.

Acacius and Rhoswen were still listed at number one. Luka and Veric’s team was further down, at number twelve. The gap between them and the teams above them wasn’t large, but it would be difficult to overcome in the ten or so minutes left until the end of the exam.

“How about this?” Veric offered. “If you’re willing to entrust us with your tokens, Luka and I can pick out the prize you wanted for you.”

Acacius narrowed his eyes. A hint of suspicion grew in his threads.

It was interesting. Even though Veric’s record of [Light of Guarded Hearts] said she’d earned his trust, his heart was still so closed off.

“If you wanted the tokens, you could have targeted me just now. What’s with all this talking around?”

Veric raised an eyebrow, looked at Acacius’ expression, and rolled her eyes.

“I don’t actually care about ranking higher, Acacius. I’m offering to help because I want to do you a favor. But since you want to know, yeah, there actually is something I want from you.”

“Something more than gifting you first place?”

“That’s right.” She crossed her arms. “I want you to be honest with Luka about why you’re so angry at him.”

Acacius blinked, taken aback. Even Luka couldn’t help glancing at her.

“You’re still on about this,” said Acacius.

“You and Luka are both my friends now. Yes, I am.”

“Since when were we friends?”

“So you’d help out any stranger like you helped me, is that it?”

She met Acacius’ gaze squarely, and he was the first to look away.

“I won’t give you all the tokens,” he said after a moment of thought. “I want to at least make sure Rhoswen won’t come out of this with a zero. If you’re okay with that, then we have an agreement.”

“Good,” said Veric. “Come on, then. Let’s transfer those tokens before time is up.”

A few minutes later, Luka and Veric’s names had taken the number one spot, and Acacius and Rhoswen had dropped into the double digits.

As they waited through the final countdown to the end of the exam, Acacius looked over at Luka.

“Veric, I can understand,” he said. “But why are you trying to make amends with me? What do we have that’s even worth repairing?”

It occurred to Luka that this question was really… quite cruel. Did Acacius know that?

But looking at his scrutinizing expression, Luka thought that maybe Acacius was simply like himself. Someone who, even when he tried, couldn’t understand.

Sometimes, no matter how much someone explained, it wouldn’t help them understand.

So Luka said, “Why is it wrong to find you someone worth knowing?”

Acacius looked away.

[Blade of Unkind Reflections] told him again: it would be easy to hurt him now.

“I think dying too many times has made your head go bad,” Acacius said. “But… if you and Veric keep your end of the bargain, I will too.”

Maybe that was as close to a reconciliation that Luka would get.

When everyone was ejected from the Illusion Stage, they reappeared back in the auditorium. There were some students sitting around, all people who had been eliminated during the exam and were waiting out their penalty periods. Rhoswen was among them, beset by an uncharacteristic and nervous restlessness. When she spotted Acacius, she immediately rose to her feet and came over, without so much a glance to spare for anyone else.

“Acacius…” She bit her lip. “Are you okay?”

The emotions behind the look that Acacius gave her were complicated. There was anger and suspicion, yes, but gratitude, too, and a hint of guilt and sorrow that left Luka at a loss.

“We should have terminated the linkage when I started changing our plans on impulse,” he said.

Rhoswen lowered her eyes.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I thought you would be happier following your desires, but… it seems that both our judgments were compromised.”

Hints of Acacius’ emotional turmoil seeped into his gaze.

“Have you never helped raise anything, Rhoswen? A dog, a bird? What’s good for someone is not the same as what they desire.”

“It is not good for anyone to suppress so much of their true self,” she said, a feeble retort.

“But I am more than just the things I feel.”

Rhoswen fell silent, but the way she looked at Acacius, it was as if she was holding something precious that was about to break.

Acacius exhaled and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, even though his emotions were as messy as ever, the turmoil in his expression was gone, wiped clean in favor of an incomparably clear resolve.

That clarity was like a boundary that separated Acacius from the world, closing the gap in his guard that had, momentarily, been breached.

“Regardless of the outcome, you spent a lot of effort on me this time. I also made decisions that will impact your overall grade. I’m sorry about that. This time, I owe you one.”

Veric stiffened slightly, and Luka understood why, because it was a dangerous thing to say you owed a favor to someone who belonged to one of the Fae Courts.

Rhoswen looked pained. “Acacius… it’s better not to calculate things so clearly. Please don’t say that.”

But Acacius didn’t hesitate. “I don’t take back what I say.”

Rhoswen looked at him for a long moment. Shadows fell over her pale face like a veil. When she finally smiled, somehow, it looked very sad.

“I believe you. Just… don’t dislike me too much after this. Okay?”

Acacius didn’t give an answer, and Rhoswen didn’t push for one, either.

But still, in Luka’s eyes, he could see the apology that Acacius never said.

Soon after, Professor Raoul pulled Acacius and Rhoswen aside to go to the principal’s office. The rest of the student body was dismissed for lunch, with the promise that their scores would be evaluated and released by the end of the day. Questions about the Nightmare Flower incident were placated with a promise that the teaching staff were considering the most appropriate way to handle the matter.

Luka accompanied Veric to buy some food off-campus. As they walked back, they drifted towards the administrative building and sat on a bench outside, waiting as they ate.

Around ten minutes before elective classes began, Acacius exited the front doors. When he saw them, he paused, then walked their way.

“Were you waiting long?”

“Not really,” said Veric. “How did things go?”

“Fifty percent penalty on my final score,” Acacius said, lips curling in what might have been amusement. “You really came to my rescue this time.”

“An artifact like the Illusion Stage is insanely expensive. You’re pretty lucky that you only came away with some points docked.”

“Does it really cost that much?”

Maybe to a noble house, the cost was nothing but pocket change.

“The fire you used,” Luka said. “It’s quite powerful if it can damage both artifacts and rituals.”

“What are you getting at?”

Luka thought about Acacius’ knife.

“You have potent abilities, but sometimes, the more potent they are, the more dangerous it is for them to be exposed. Especially if you can’t yet control them. Be careful.”

Acacius considered him for a long moment. The gold of his eyes was as unreadable as a mirror.

“How much do you understand about the things you summon, Luka?”

Luka always had an instinct, an intuition. But it was hard to understand it without losing himself first.

Into his silence, Acacius cracked a humorless smile. “Then maybe you shouldn’t advise me just yet.”

“Luka has a point, Acacius,” said Veric. “If it’s something that burns illusions, it won’t play well with the Fae Courts. And you owe a favor to Rhoswen now.”

“You say that as if I’m putting my head into a tiger’s jaws.”

“Well… It’s a bad idea to owe the Fae Courts, after all. And Rhoswen’s not a fae, but after spending so long with them, in some ways, she’s a lot more fae than human.”

“Is that more dangerous than the human heart?”

When Veric hesitated, he laughed.

“There are things you should do, even if they’re dangerous.”

“Shouldn’t you try thinking more like Roxana sometimes? You know, ‘Just because I can do it, it doesn’t mean I have to.’”

“If I always thought like that,” said Acacius, “we wouldn’t have come out of KP-04.”

After they chatted a bit longer, Acacius bid farewell, saying he wanted to eat at the cafeteria before the lunch period ended. Veric waved to him as he left.

Then she turned to Luka. “What do you think he wants a 5E escape talisman for?”

Luka offered, “It’s a versatile, life-saving tool.”

“That’s true. If we had one in KP-04… Some things would’ve been easier, that’s for sure.” She furrowed her eyebrows. “Still, the way he was chasing after first place, doesn’t it feel like he’s got his sights set on something bigger? If it was just a life-saving measure he wanted, he got one from the Dragon Shrine already.”

In the past, Luka would have said that Acacius was not the type to overplay his hand and offend so many of his classmates for something like this.

Now, he wasn’t sure.

“What do you think he wants to do?”

“Judging by the prize, something dangerous.” Veric gazed out at the direction he’d left in. “I don’t think he’ll share it with us; it’s one thing for him to trust us, and another to actively involve us. I just hope that he’ll say something before something too crazy can happen.”

It would be unfortunate if he got himself in over his head.

“We should keep a watch on him in the coming days,” he said.

It wouldn’t be difficult for Luka to do so. He was always watching Acacius.

Since Acacius was someone he understood least of all.

Chapter 54 Back to Index