The Insane Regressor: Throne of Pride

Ravian ran his thumb along one of the lines engraved into its surface.

"A Seal Box?" Ravian repeated the name, fixing it in his memory.

Shmichael nodded.

"It’s used to store things that still contain soul power. As long as the box remains closed and its seal intact, it preserves whatever is inside at exactly the same level of power and in exactly the same condition as when it was placed there."

Then he gestured to the interlocking lines running around the lid.

"It also prevents soul power from leaking out. A heart of this rank might give off pressure or emanations harmful to anyone who came near it, and it could attract those with spiritual sense from a great distance. A Seal Box prevents all of that."

"And this box is capable of containing Eighth-Rank power?" Ravian asked with a slight note of surprise.

"Yes. It was inspected before I brought it out of the vault, and the seal is completely stable. The heart won’t lose any of its power as long as it remains inside, and nothing that could harm those around it will leak out," Shmichael explained.

Ravian fixed his eyes on the box for several seconds.

He had come close to dying more than once just to get his hands on one a full rank below this, and now THIS heart was finally in his hands.

The final requirement for his ascension to the rank of Walker.

’Finally,’ Ravian whispered inwardly, without making a sound.

No smile appeared on his face, but something within the calm of his eyes shifted and brightened slightly, and Larette noticed it.

"I told you we’d keep our promise," she said, pleased to have helped him.

Ravian raised his eyes to her.

"And I came back because I trusted that you would," he said with a smile.

It was a simple sentence, but it cleared a great deal of the irritation from Larette’s face.

Lysandra looked at the box, then at Ravian.

"An Eighth-Rank heart?" she asked.

"Part of the agreement between him and House Viola," Larette answered before Ravian could.

"It isn’t a gift," Ravian said. "It’s payment that was agreed upon."

"I didn’t say it was a gift," Larette said with a frown.

"I only wanted to prevent a misunderstanding," Ravian said.

It had originally been meant as a gift, going by Shmichael’s earlier promise, but since the Earl had folded it into the agreement, it was no longer a gift at all.

Lysandra looked at him in silence, though she didn’t ask what he intended to do with the heart.

Not here.

Ravian returned his gaze to the box, then held it out to Shmichael again.

The old retainer hesitated before taking it.

"Is there something wrong with it?" Shmichael asked with concern.

"No," Ravian said. "Send it to whichever room the Earl designates for my temporary stay. Put it inside yourself, and don’t hand it over to anyone else."

Shmichael was slightly taken aback to learn that Ravian would be staying in the manor, but he quickly understood what must have happened inside that room while he was absent and carefully took the box from him.

"Of course. I’ll see to it that it reaches your room, and the seal will remain closed until you arrive," Shmichael said, bowing with disciplined precision; by now, he was already treating Ravian as someone of high standing within the manor.

Larette turned to Ravian with wide eyes.

"You’re staying here?" she asked.

"For two days, for now. Until the maps are ready and the contract is written out in full," Ravian explained with a nod.

"Good."

The word left Larette’s mouth a little faster than she’d intended.

Lysandra noticed, and her amber eyes shifted to Larette for a brief moment.

"I mean that your being here will make starting the project easier, and we won’t have to send someone out looking for you every time we need you," Larette added, correcting herself.

"That’s what your father said as well."

"And you could stay longer than that if the work calls for it," Larette went on.

"We’ll see," Ravian replied, giving nothing away.

Ravian’s answer wasn’t a refusal, but it wasn’t an agreement either.

And when he turned his gaze back to Lysandra, he found her staring at him in silence.

Then her eyes moved toward the end of the corridor, where the staircase led down to the main hall and the manor’s outer door.

She said nothing. She didn’t need to.

The look alone was clear enough.

’Outside. Now.’

Ravian could read it plainly in her eyes.

Ravian looked at Shmichael.

"Tell the Earl I’m going out for a short while, and then I’ll be back," Ravian said.

"Of course, but don’t you need an escort?" Shmichael asked, slightly concerned about the capital’s current state.

"No," Lysandra said before Ravian could answer.

"He’ll be with me."

Larette turned to her, while Ravian merely gave a small nod.

"We won’t go far from the manor," Ravian explained.

"The two of you could talk in one of the reception rooms. Or I can have the garden cleared if you want privacy," Larette said hurriedly.

"I’d rather the conversation took place outside the manor grounds," Lysandra said, calm once again as she stared at Larette.

Her phrasing contained no accusation that House Viola’s men listened at doors, but her meaning was perfectly clear.

She wanted a place where no one from this house could reach them.

Larette felt that tightness return to her chest.

"As you wish," she said, holding on to a polite smile with difficulty.

Ravian paid no attention to any of it and simply waited calmly for Lysandra.

Lysandra moved toward the staircase without waiting.

And Ravian didn’t ask where she was taking him or what she wanted to know; he simply followed her.

And that, precisely, was what bothered Larette most of all.

Because ever since she’d met him, every single step she wanted him to take had required a discussion, an argument, or a deal.

As for Lysandra, she had only looked at the door...

And he moved with her.

And Larette didn’t need long at all to identify the feeling that had been left behind inside her.

Jealousy.

She didn’t like the word.

And she liked it even less because it happened to be the right one.

"Rayan," Larette called out suddenly.

Ravian stopped at the head of the staircase and looked back at her over his shoulder.

Larette fixed her dark-blue eyes on him.

"Don’t disappear again," she said in a tone that, for some reason, was heavier than the moment warranted.

Ravian looked at her for a moment, then nodded.

"I won’t. It only happened the one time," he said.

After that, he went down the stairs behind Lysandra and crossed the hall with her until the two of them had left the manor.

And when the great door closed behind them, Lysandra finally stopped and turned to face him.

There was nothing left of the confusion in her eyes this time.

And outside the walls of the Viola manor, there was no longer anyone between them who needed to hear the name Rayan.

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