The skin was numb. The room was quiet. The Elf Masters stared. The one known as Pandora had tears in her eyes. She shook to see the Servitor Lukon. The Servitor Lukon remembered tasting her lips even as it forgot what it meant to taste anything.

The Elf Master Antinaz sat in his throne at the white triangle. The Elf Master Nerimante sat in her throne at the white triangle. The others were empty. The one known as Pandora stood.

She still stared.

“Eisolaz has—reset him,” the one known as Pandora said. “He should be more cooperative now.”

“And his memory is still intact?” the Elf Master Nerimante said.

“Yes,” the one known as Pandora said. “Yes. He should remember everything.”

The Elf Master Antinaz leaned forward on the white triangle. “Why did the girl leave you alive?” The Servitor Lukon stared ahead. “Are you listening? Answer me, Servitor.”

The Servitor Lukon stared ahead.

“You must use his name,” the Elf Master Nerimante said. “Lukon. Why did the human girl send you back to the Tower?”

The Servitor Lukon turned its head toward her. It blinked. “I do not know who this refers to.”

“He’s as useless now as he was as Seeker,” the Elf Master Antinaz said. “Some traits are immutable.”

“Eris,” the Elf Master Nerimante said. “The one you retrieved from Chionos. The girl who gave you your Rites.”

The Servitor Lukon remembered. It remembered what it was like to feel. It had no desires or regrets to return to feeling now. It had no desires or regrets at all. “She instructed me to destroy her phylacteries.”

“And then what?” the Elf Master Antinaz said.

“I destroyed her phylacteries.”

“We found him in Arcane Storage,” the one known as Pandora said. “He—he was surrounded by manaserum. Standing there, doing nothing. His blood still allowed him access and the Protectors weren’t intelligent enough to stop him—”

“Enough,” the Elf Master Antinaz said. “I remember the disturbance.” He tapped his fingers on the white triangle. “I would ask him where the girl fled to, but we have our answer now. Are you ready to depart?”

The one known as Pandora nodded. “I’ll need Custodians. Ten, at least. And I don’t intend to bring her back alive—”

“Emotions are charged,” the Elf Master Nerimante said, “but this human girl, this Eris, has killed many Cult Custodians these past six months. The Cult of the Aether grows angry with our misuse of their resources.”

“She’s proved wily,” the Elf Master Antinaz said.

“They will not donate more men to our pursuit of this girl. For what reason is there to think you will succeed where Lukon failed?” the Elf Master Nerimante said.

The one known as Pandora clenched her jaw. “Lukon underestimated her. Now I know what manner of…” she looked to the Servitor Lukon, “evil we’re facing down.”

“Performing the Rites of Servitude on the defeated Seeker was an inspired feat,” the Elf Master Nerimante said. “As was her escape from the Dungeons. This Eris is talented.”

“She relies on the skill of the Hypaspist,” the Elf Master Antinaz said. “And the Hypaspist hasn’t been seen in months.”

“Even so,” the Elf Master Nerimante said. “You know as I do, Antinaz, that time is on the side of the Gray Council. Eris will return to us. All magicians do. Or she will be killed before she can; either way we will win in the end.”

The Elf Master Antinaz laughed. “You’d let her go.”

“For crimes such as hers? Yes. I would.”

“Your Eminence!” the one known as Pandora shouted. “You—you cannot be serious. Look—look what she did to Lukon! This is an affront to the authority of the Seekers! To the Chamber of the Magisters, and the Council itself!”

“Your haste to anger reveals your attachment to the old Lukon,” the Elf Master Antinaz said.

“Even beyond my feelings, Your Eminence. It is a grave offense to all of us.”

“Lukon was a fool. When he heard intruders were spotted on the upper reaches of the Tower he knew they would be going to rescue Eris; had he told the other Seekers, the jailbreakers would have been apprehended and he would still have his soul. For going rogue as he did—for trying to prove himself after his embarrassment in Chionos—he deserves the fate Eris gave him. He deserves worse."

The Elf Master Antinaz looked into the Servitor Lukon’s eyes.

“So,” he continued. He leaned back in his throne. “Let the runaway go.”

“She may yet become an ally,” the Elf Master Nerimante said.

“Your Eminence!” the one known as Pandora said again. “She killed Lupaz! And a dozen Custodians, and let the prisoners free, including among them the—”

“When you live as long as I have,” the Elf Master Anintaz interrupted, “you come to see these as mere setbacks. But there is a problem, Nerimante.”

“The new Strategos,” the Elf Master Nerimante said. “Her lover. A reason to stay away. We would be committing a grave crime to intrude in his business. You would risk our access to new initiates by offending the Archon.”

“No. You’ve forgotten about the Chamber,” the Elf Master Antinaz said. “They demand the head of the Magister-slayer.” The room became quiet. Antinaz continued after silence, “The child Aletheia has been kidnapped, again. Antigone has been murdered in her own tower. Chionos is without the guidance of a Magister for the first time in a millennium, although it hardly matters; the town of Snaiga has been wiped off the map by the Everblizzard, and most of the people who called that frost-stricken place have been killed or forced to flee. Those are the crimes of Korax Korakos.”

“I forget nothing,” the Elf Master Nerimante said.

“Really?”

“The priorities of the Chamber are fleeting with the ravages of time. They will abandon their anger as decades pass. Korax will be made a corpse without our intervention."

The Elf Master Antinaz smiled. “Your foresight puts me to shame, Nerimante. But leave politics to me. I cared little for Antigone, but her murder is too large to overlook…politically. Thousands are dead in Chionos. If this Korax, this ‘Rook,’ isn’t put to death—it makes us look weak. And I’m too old to look weak before a Chamber of gray-haired Magisters.”

“Then I’ll find Rook,” the one known as Pandora said. “I will bring him back to Pyrthos in an auritium cage. With or without Eris.”

“No,” said a woman’s voice. “You will not.”

The Revenant Master Hesychia appeared in the entryway to the Divination Room. She wore a gray robe. Her eyes burned with violet fire. The skin between her features was darkened. In places it had flicked away. Open wounds revealed mana like the aether outside the Divination Room’s windows beneath her skin. Shining through. Trying to break free.

She carried a crooked staff.

Her mouth was sewn shut.

The one known as Pandora reeled to see the Revenant Master Hesychia. She retreated to a wall of the Divination Room. The Elf Master Antinaz glanced upward.

“Hesychia,” he said. “You’ve seen fit to finally arrive.”

Hesychia’s voice echoed through the Divination Room. Her mouth did not move when she spoke. “The Seekers cannot go to Katharos for Korax. He will soon be Duke of Korakos. He has the support of the people of the city.”

“Damn it!” the one known as Pandora said. “I don’t answer to you! I am going to Katharos, and you can’t stop me—”

“Watch your language,” the Elf Master Antinaz said. “Aion isn’t here to keep you safe, hound. Find yourself too enamored with avenging your mate and I might feel inclined to spay you at his neutered side.”

“Don’t threaten her,” the Elf Master Nerimante said. “She has a right to be angry. But she will obey our directives.”

The one known as Pandora fell silent.

“So,” the Elf Master Antinaz said. “We have our predicament. What say you, revenant?”

“There is no way to apprehend Korax legally,” the Revenant Master Hesychia said. “He must be assassinated. The Chamber will have their corpse.”

“Then I’ll kill him myself. And Eris, too,” the one known as Pandora said.

“The Seekers are not suited for this task,” the Revenant Master Hesychia said. “Our participation must be deniable to the Archon. You must not be captured. There is only one choice.”

The Elf Masters looked to each other. The one known as Pandora frowned. The Servitor Lukon stared forward. The color in the air shifted toward the white triangle between the Masters.

“You would Mark them for Death,” the Elf Master Nerimante said.

The Revenant Master Hesychia nodded.

The Elf Master Antinaz shook his head. “Clever. But impossible. We no longer have her phylactery, or any artifact belonging to Korax or Alethia. There is no way to bind the Kynigos to their souls.”

“You cannot be seriously using a Kynigos!” the one known as Pandora said. “The Seekers have been your enforcers—forever! You cannot outsource our sacred duty to a demon! It isn't done!

“Nor should it be,” Nerimante said. “A Mark of Death is a dangerous tool."

“The Mark of Death was left to us for just this purpose,” the Revenant Master Hesychia said. “Antinaz is correct. Our phylacteries for the young magicians have been destroyed, and we do not have an item bound to Korakos’ soul. But Eris was the first to attach this Lukon to her Essence. She performed his Rites. He is soulbound to her, until he is killed.”

The Servitor Lukon turned its head to the Revenant Master Hesychia. It blinked.

The Elf Master Antinaz smiled. “So you offer Lukon as a sacrifice to conjure the Kynigos and place the Mark of Death on Eris.”

“And slay the one I would seek to spare,” the Elf Master Nerimante said, “while sparing the one we must slay.”

“You can’t kill Lukon!” the one known as Pandora said. “I won’t let you! When Aion hears of this—you miserable bastards! The Chamber will be disgusted to hear that you’re willing to carry out assass—assassin—assassinations—with a—with a—demon…”

The one known as Pandora stuttered into silence. Her face contorted. She raised her arms in protest. She collapsed to her knees. She fell limp to the ground.

“That’s better,” the Elf Master Antinaz said.

“Antinaz!” the Elf Master Nerimante said. “You know better than to molest Aion’s Seekers!”

“When you’re as old as I am, Nerimante…she’ll wake up next week. Continue, Hesychia.”

The Revenant Master Hesychia took a seat at the table. She blinked. Her eyes still burned violet behind her lids even when closed.

“I have used the Winds of the Omens. I have seen the two lovers together, inseparable. Korakos will not let his lover be slain. He will die protecting her, and she will die thereafter. The Kynigos will slay them both.”

Antinaz stopped smiling and leaned forward. “I put little stock in your prophesies. Their record is worse than Lukon’s.”

“The aether has shown me Korakos’ death clearly at the hands of the Kynigos,” she said. Her mouth remained closed. “If he is summoned.”

The Elf Master Antinaz looked to the Elf Master Nerimante. The Elf Master Nerimante shook her head.

“You invite trouble, consorting with demons. The Mark of Death is challenging to control. If he is let off his leash, chaos will be let loose on the streets of Katharos.”

“Then the Cult will have something fun to do,” the Elf Master Antinaz said. “A Kynigos is untraceable. No one will know our involvement, for certain. He is more powerful than a Seeker. No more Custodians will be put to the threshing. Rook and Eris will be slain. And if they aren’t, you’re closer than ever to your merciful fantasies, dear Nerimante.”

The Elf Master Nerimante shook her head. “You have the final say, Grandmaster Antinaz.”

“Very well.” The Elf Master Antinaz grabbed the Servitor Lukon by its shoulder. “Let it work. Perform the ritual. I grow tired of this ornament already; he reminds me too much of old failings. Do you hear that, Lukon? You might come to some use after all.”