Ping.
The black drop hit the floor of the tent.
Silent.
Ping.
Another.
The dark liquid slowly ran from the cuts scattered across Kaizer's body.
Arms.
Chest.
Shoulders.
Small incisions marked the already-blackened skin.
The metallic smell of blood mixed with the bitter scent of burned herbs filling the inside of the tent.
Neither could overpower the other.
Kaizer remained bound to the wooden structure raised at the center of the tent.
Arms and legs tied.
Torso covered in dark bandages soaked with blood.
His breathing came unevenly.
Heavy.
Each breath seemed to demand more effort than the last.
Roven watched in silence.
Eyes fixed on the blood gathered beneath the structure.
The blood did not remain still.
It moved.
Small black filaments surfaced before disappearing again.
Like roots searching for something beneath the earth.
Or fingers trying to find a crack.
Wind blew against the fabric of the tent.
The lamp shadows swayed.
Ping.
Another black drop struck the floor.
Sèsinmè approached the wooden structure.
Unhurried.
Her fingers slid along the ropes tied around Kaizer's wrists and legs.
Testing every knot.
Soon, she picked up a strip of cloth folded several times.
Roven watched the movement.
His eyes narrowed.
"A gag?"
Sèsinmè did not answer immediately.
She only lifted Kaizer's head.
Enough to tie the cloth behind it.
"Yes."
Roven looked at the restraints.
Then at the cuts spread across his arms and chest.
"And the ropes?"
Sèsinmè slowly lowered his head back.
"When it begins…"
Her eyes remained on Kaizer.
"he'll try to free himself."
Silence swallowed the tent.
Roven turned his eyes back to Kaizer.
Unconscious.
On the edge of death.
"He doesn't seem to have the strength for that."
"It won't be his movements that concern me."
The answer came calm.
Cold.
"There is a moment…"
"when men stop distinguishing choices from surrender."
Roven remained silent.
"When that happens…"
Sèsinmè finally turned her eyes to Roven.
Her expression unchanged.
As if speaking of something inevitable.
"they accept anything."
Silence lingered for a few seconds.
Only the crackling of the oil lamps echoed.
Sèsinmè raised one hand.
Her fingers slowly opened.
Palm turned upward.
Her lips moved.
"Ọna tí a ti pa…"
The voice came low.
Ancient.
Not like a prayer.
Nor like an invocation.
But like someone remembering words that existed before her.
"ṣí sílẹ̀."
The lamps flickered.
One.
Then another.
Roven lifted his eyes.
The flames began to move.
At first slowly.
Then all at once.
As if they had sensed something.
Threads of fire abandoned the wicks.
Pulling away from the lamps.
Sliding through the air.
Silent.
Alive.
Roven watched the flames cross the tent.
One after another.
All converging toward Sèsinmè's raised hand.
The fire spun above her palm.
Growing.
Compressing.
Taking shape.
Until it became a luminous sphere the size of a human heart.
The shadows of the tent recoiled.
Golden light reflected across the cuts scattered over Kaizer's body.
On the black blood.
On the ropes.
On the blood-soaked bandages.
Sèsinmè remained motionless.
The sphere rotated above her hand.
Slow.
Controlled.
As if obeying her every thought.
Her eyes moved to Roven.
"Are you ready?"
Roven did not answer immediately.
His eyes remained on the sphere.
On the fire.
Soon, he closed his own eyes.
When he opened them again—
the pupil had changed.
Vertical.
Elongated.
Like that of an ancient creature.
The world before him transformed.
Lines.
Flows.
Channels.
Everything came back into existence.
Beneath Kaizer's skin.
Inside the flesh.
Inside the blood.
The Cordis.
Beating.
Slow.
Irregular.
Black veins spread from it like rotting roots.
Two currents collided around the Cordis.
One red.
Violent.
Chaotic.
The other glowed in weakened shades of gold.
Fragmented.
Like a wall on the verge of collapse.
Without rest.
Without truce.
Roven felt his jaw tighten.
The two forces tore into one another without end.
"I'm ready."
Sèsinmè nodded.
Only once.
Her eyes turned back to Kaizer.
The sphere of fire began to descend.
Very slowly.
Until it hovered a few centimeters above his chest.
Her lips moved again.
"Ina…"
The flame answered.
"Ṣí ọ̀nà tuntun."
The fire touched the skin.
Kaizer woke.
"AAAAARGHHHHHHH!"
His body arched violently.
The ropes tightened all at once.
The entire structure shook.
The black blood spread through the cuts exploded into dark filaments.
Like serpents trying to flee their own flesh.
Kaizer's eyes snapped open.
Bloodshot.
Desperate.
Without a trace of understanding.
Only pain.
Absolute pain.
Enough to erase everything else.
The flame slowly began to penetrate through the skin.
"AAAARGHHHHHHH!"
The ropes tightened again.
Wood groaned.
Kaizer's entire body arched against the structure.
His muscles contracted chaotically.
Violently.
As though something inside him were trying to escape through the flesh itself.
Roven kept his eyes fixed on the Cordis.
He did not waver.
He saw the flame pass through the skin.
Through the muscles.
Descending.
Slowly.
Until it reached the channels through which power flowed.
The fire did not burn.
It carved a path.
Threads of flame advanced through the already-corrupted flows.
Separating.
Pushing.
Creating space where no space should exist.
Kaizer screamed again.
The sound tore through the tent.
Muffled only by the cloth bound over his mouth.
"MMMMMMPHHHHH!"
Blood ran from the corners of the gag.
His fingers clenched so violently the joints cracked.
Sèsinmè did not look away.
Nor hesitate.
One hand remained extended above his chest.
The other moved slowly through the air.
Guiding the flame.
Directing every fragment of fire.
Like someone drawing an invisible path.
Her lips kept moving.
Ancient words.
Steady rhythm.
Unchanging.
Roven looked back inside the body.
The flows began to react.
The currents of energy abandoned their conflict with each other.
Turning instead against the new presence.
Against the third path.
Like an organism attacking an intruder.
Small red lightning flashes appeared beneath Kaizer's skin.
Running through his arms.
Neck.
Chest.
Vanishing almost as quickly as they appeared.
His entire body convulsed.
The wooden structure shook again.
"MMMMMMMMMMGHHHHHHH!"
The black blood spread through the cuts began to rise.
Against gravity.
First in drops.
Then in threads.
Roven narrowed his eyes.
That thing was reacting.
Trying to resist.
Trying to remain.
Trying to find a path back to the Cordis.
"Now."
Sèsinmè's voice crossed the tent.
Calm.
Cold.
As if the screams did not exist.
"I need it exposed."
Roven nodded.
His fingers slowly rose.
His hand closed around the empty air.
As though gripping something only he could see.
Immediately, the Cordis reacted.
Its irregular beat faltered.
Once.
Then again.
Kaizer arched against the structure.
"MMMMMMMMMMGHHHHHHH!"
The ropes stretched violently.
Roven did not look away.
His fingers tightened further.
Compressing.
Forcing.
The red and golden currents trembled around the core.
Like roots being torn from the earth.
Black veins spread across Kaizer's chest.
Climbing his neck.
His jaw.
The blood floating above the cuts began to vibrate.
Unstable.
As though something were trying to keep the Cordis intact.
"It's resisting."
Roven's voice came controlled.
But there was tension in it.
"Continue."
Sèsinmè did not lift her gaze.
The flame advanced deeper through the channels.
Relentless.
Opening space.
Separating what for years had existed as a single existence.
"The path had reached its twilight."
The voice emerged.
Low.
Ancient.
Not like sound.
But like a memory carved into reality itself.
"And yet the bearer extends her shadow beyond sunset."
Another answered.
More distant.
As though coming from an age forgotten by the world itself.
"Like those who came before."
"Like those who saw the end…"
"and still altered the path."
The air inside the tent grew heavier.
The lamp flames flickered.
For a brief instant, they no longer obeyed Sèsinmè's will.
They tilted.
One by one.
As though recognizing the presence of something older than fire itself.
Sèsinmè's eyes moved for the first time.
Without fear.
Without surprise.
Only recognition.
At the edges of the light.
Between fire and shadow.
There were shapes.
Ancient veils.
Faceless female silhouettes.
Echoes of women whose names had already been carried away by time.
Sèsinmè's hand slowly closed.
Kaizer screamed.
"MMMMMMMMMMMPHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
The Cordis trembled again.
A crack appeared across its surface.
Small.
Almost imperceptible.
But it was there.
The voices continued.
"The final breath was witnessed."
"The final door was found."
"Silence had already opened its arms."
Sèsinmè's fingers moved.
Guiding the flame.
Without hesitation.
Without doubt.
The women continued.
"And even before written fate."
"She draws a new line over the old one."
Roven closed his fingers harder.
The Cordis sank inward.
As though an invisible pressure crushed it from every side.
Another crack appeared.
Then another.
The black veins spread across Kaizer's chest trembled.
The suspended blood above the cuts vibrated violently.
"MMMMMMMMMMGHHHHHHHHH!"
His body arched against the structure.
Wood cracked.
Roven noticed it.
Around them.
The flows.
The invisible currents filling the world.
For an instant, they seemed to waver.
Like a lake touched by a stone cast into the depths.
His eyes moved.
Instinctively.
Searching for the source.
He found nothing.
But the sensation remained.
A distortion.
Subtle.
Distant.
And approaching.
"This…"
Roven's voice came low.
"Continue."
Sèsinmè's answer came immediately.
Firm.
"Do not abandon your sight."
The voices returned.
Closer.
Older.
More present.
"He perceives."
"For the eyes always perceive."
"They were created to witness."
"Not to alter."
The golden flame pushed deeper through the opened channels.
Pushing.
Separating.
Purifying.
The black threads began to retreat.
For the first time.
Like something being dragged from a grave it refused to leave.
Roven saw it.
Everything converged toward the Cordis.
All resistance.
All corruption.
All the violence accumulated inside that body.
Like an army defending a condemned kingdom.
The voices became almost a whisper.
"The path should have ended."
"The journey should have been completed."
"The river should have reached the sea."
"And yet…"
A pause.
A silence heavier than any sound.
"The Eye defied what it beheld."
The crack in the Cordis widened.
The very flow around the tent trembled with it.
"As it happened before."
"As it happens when compassion overcomes acceptance."
"As it happens when a guardian decides to become a guide."
The voices fell silent for a moment.
The suspended blood exploded into dozens of droplets.
Kaizer arched violently.
"MMMMMMMMMMGHHHHHHHHH!"
Sèsinmè did not answer the figures.
Her lips kept moving.
Steady.
Unchanging.
"Òpin ìdè."
The Cordis trembled.
One last time.
"Ọ̀nà tuntun ti dá."
The cracks spread across its surface widened.
One.
Then another.
Until there was nothing left capable of holding it together.
Roven closed his fingers.
The world inside Kaizer's body seemed compressed into a single instant.
The Cordis shattered.
The sound did not exist in the outer world.
But within the flows…
it was like a mountain collapsing.
The black currents trembled.
They tried to return.
Tried to merge again.
But there was no longer a core to guide them.
The golden fire advanced.
Consuming the last fragments of corruption.
Separating what for years had been fused to that flesh.
Kaizer arched one final time.
"MMMMMMMMMMMMMMHHHHHHHH!"
The black blood floating above the cuts lost its shape.
It came apart.
Like smoke carried away by the wind.
The dark veins spread across his body began to fade.
Chest.
Neck.
Arms.
Until nothing remained but skin marked by the scars of war.
The flame above his chest diminished.
The golden sphere fragmented into tiny particles of light.
One by one.
The fire returned to the wicks.
Silent.
As if it had never left.
Sèsinmè's hand slowly lowered.
Her lips ceased their chants.
Kaizer remained motionless.
Breathing.
Weakly.
The voices whispered one final time.
"The balance has already been touched."
"The other side will come to claim its weight."
The lamp flames remained still.
The air inside the tent became heavy.
Roven did not look away.
The vertical pupil remained open.
The flows before him still existed.
But something within them had changed.
The lines began to tremble.
As though something were crossing what should never be crossed.
The distortion intensified.
One layer.
Then another.
Until the very flow before him began to bend.
"Lady Sès—"
Roven's voice was interrupted.
The floor of the tent trembled.
The lamps shook violently.
Sèsinmè was ripped from the ground.
Her feet lost contact with the floor.
Her fingers immediately moved to her own throat.
As if invisible hands were tightening around it.
Roven turned his eyes.
His vision pierced through the distortion.
Deeper.
Until it found something.
Only part of a face.
Skin where life and death existed at the same time.
A single eye opened.
And met his.
For one instant—
the very flow seemed to forget to exist.
"Insolent."
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
The pain came before he could look away.
Roven's right eye was seized.
Blood ran down his face.
The vertical pupil in his remaining eye disappeared.
Returning to normal.
He fell to his knees.
His hand pressed against the emptiness where his eye had once existed.
Outside—
"WHAT IS HAPPENING?!"
Cassian's voice echoed.
"DON'T COME IN!"
Roven's voice cut through the pain.
Cassian hesitated.
Sèsinmè remained suspended.
Blood ran from the corners of her eyes.
From her nose.
The voice returned.
This time, not for Roven.
Only for her.
"What was already making its way to me was taken."
The pressure tightened.
"The thread destined for the end was prolonged."
The marks slowly began to appear across Sèsinmè's skin.
Dark.
Ancient.
Like a signature left by the abyss itself.
"Every balance demands return."
The marks began to deepen.
"Ngh…"
For the first time, Sèsinmè's breathing failed.
Silence weighed over the tent.
"When your offering reaches my domain…"
"I will remember the name of the one who denied my right."
The voice pronounced the sentence.
Soon after, the presence vanished.
The fabric of the tent was abruptly thrown aside.
Cassian entered.
Sèsinmè's body dropped.
Her knees struck the tent floor.
She bent forward.
"Cough!"
Blood spilled from her lips.
Air finally returned to her lungs.
But the black mark remained on her neck.
Opposite her—
Roven was on his knees.
His hand pressed against the right side of his face.
Blood ran between his fingers.
"What happened?"
Cassian's voice came low.
Sèsinmè remained silent for a few seconds.
Her silver-gray eyes lowered.
She brought a hand to her chest.
Pulling air back into her lungs.
Soon, she looked at Cassian.
"Every path demands offerings."
Her voice came low.
Tired.
"And for a kingdom to survive, someone must always walk to the altar first."