Contents
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Overview
On festival night before the second trial, Sylvia, Sefa, and Marek infiltrate Sultana Vaida’s chambers to steal Baira’s seal. Arin arrives first, subdues Vaida, and secretly takes a mold of the hidden ring. When Sylvia attempts the theft, a ward and a spirit bound to the seal repel her, forcing a retreat and preserving Vaida’s leverage.
Summary
On the eve of the second trial, Sylvia slips away from the festival with Sefa and Marek to steal Sultana Vaida’s signet-seal. Amid crowded celebrations and tightened royal security, Marek plans to distract Vaida’s guard while Sylvia and Sefa search the chambers. Along the way, Sylvia buys a fig pendant and wrestles privately with her growing, conflicted feelings for Arin, which she reluctantly admits to Sefa.
Inside the palace, Marek seduces the Lukubi guard and removes her from the doorway, letting Sylvia and Sefa ransack Vaida’s room. Their search stalls until Vaida, drunk, returns with Arin. Arin coolly renders Vaida unconscious, locates the hidden ring behind a dresser, presses it into a molding compound, and replaces it, then departs, nearly detecting the intruders.
After Arin leaves, Sylvia and Sefa try to take the seal but discover it is warded; direct contact sears their skin and even cloth singes. Sylvia theorizes her cuffs might dampen the magic and precariously balances the ring on them to move it.
Vaida suddenly sits up possessed by a spirit fused to Baira’s seal. The entity denies being Baira, asserts the seal is for Sultanas alone, and drowns Sylvia in a terrifying vision of primordial, ancient magic. It commands her to desist. Overwhelmed, Sylvia kicks the ring back under the dresser so Vaida will assume it fell, and escapes while Marek again distracts the guard.
Rejoining Sefa, Sylvia claims the ring simply burned her. The attempt fails, Arin now holds a mold of the seal, and the entity’s warning preserves Vaida’s advantage heading into the second trial.
Who Appears
- Sylvia (Essiya)Protagonist; leads the attempt to steal Vaida’s seal, admits conflicted feelings for Arin, is repelled by the warded ring and spirit.
- Arin NizahlHeir of Nizahl; escorts drunk Vaida, incapacitates her, finds the hidden seal, takes a mold, nearly detects intruders.
- SefaAlly; helps plan the theft and a binding spell, searches Vaida’s room, clears the path, witnesses the ring’s warding.
- MarekAlly; seduces and distracts the Lukubi guard twice to enable entry and exit from Vaida’s chambers.
- Sultana VaidaTarget of the theft; returns drunk, is rendered unconscious by Arin, later possessed by a spirit guarding the seal.
- Spirit bound to Baira’s sealEntity possessing Vaida; enforces Baira’s commandment, unleashes overwhelming ancient magic, and warns Sylvia away.
- Lukubi guardVaida’s door guard; distracted and lured off-post by Marek during the infiltration.
- HanimVoice/advisor in Sylvia’s mind; offers brief warnings during the infiltration.