Chapter Two: Arin

Arin summons Vaun and Jeru to discreetly remove High Counselor Rodan’s corpse, instructing them to stage a benign sleep-tonic accident and to seize any hidden belongings before the widow searches. He orders the damaged furnishings replaced and keeps Jeru back for further directives.

Arin unlocks his fortified inner rooms, revealing a map-crammed war room and a meticulously organized private armory—evidence of sleepless fixation. Cutting off Jeru’s concern, Arin demands updates on Sefa and Marek. When Jeru has none, Arin condemns the delay, warning that the council may end the lower villages’ conscription pardon within days, which would force Jeru to suppress possible resistance in his former home.

Amid news of Lukub closing borders, Orban executing suspected Jasadis, and Felix’s reckless raids killing dozens, Arin orders Jeru to escalate the hunt: “Stop turning stones. Start throwing them.” Jeru accepts the charge, vowing not to fail again.

Later, in the Citadel library, Arin’s search for records on Jasad and magic-madness proves fruitless until he finds a Resar text, The Slow Death of Rovial. The book outlines a five-millennia pattern: about once per century a Jasadi succumbs to overwhelming magic-madness, often young and unnoticed until lethal, with two vanishing into the Mirayah, a dangerous magical void in Essam.

Contemplating Essam Woods and the Mirayah’s predatory persistence, Arin battles his obsession with the Jasad Queen, resenting her deception yet unable to dismiss her. Resolute, he returns to the text, seeking answers before war and madness outpace his control.