Chapter Twenty-Five

Sylvia arrives at Orban’s Champions’ Pavilion under heavy guard after Soraya’s attack. Sefa privately shares rumors of Arin’s lifelong injuries and early assassination attempts, implying a coerced upbringing. Arin visits, apologizes for the Meridian Pass ambush, thanks Sylvia for helping him, and reveals a musrira’s interrupted curse left him able to sense and temporarily drain magic—perhaps fatally if he touched Sylvia at her full power.

At midday, the first Alcalah trial begins: cross Ayume Forest and scale the cliff before nightfall. With only a dagger and a cloth mask, Sylvia wades into the lake-void, forces down panic, and uses cuff-limited magic to regain sensation and escape its pull. In the forest’s warped hazards—bladed leaves, predatory birds, and eddies—she pushes toward the bluff as daylight dwindles.

Near the cliff, Timur confronts her, confessing Sultana Vaida coerced him with a promise to save his dying sister if Sylvia is eliminated. He unleashes three Ayume-twisted hounds, protected himself by a masking scent. Sylvia flees toward a lake offshoot, freezes the hounds with a snap, and, refusing to leave him to be mauled, knocks Timur unconscious and releases him into the voided water, which swallows him.

Poisonous sap burns Sylvia’s lacerated hand as she begins the rope climb. Battling fatigue and toxins, she hallucinates a younger self—Essiya—who challenges her reluctance to fight for Jasad and demands she choose what she is willing to lose. Sylvia endures the pain, hauls herself over the ledge, and collapses amid a roaring crowd.

The announcer declares the Nizahl Champion joins the Orban and Omal Champions in the second trial. Arin reaches Sylvia, identifies the sap poisoning, and orders aid as she finally succumbs to Ayume’s air and exhaustion.