Chapter Thirty-Nine: Sefa

Sefa watches from a balcony as a lone rider halts by the ruby obelisk under a crescent moon. She recognizes the rider as Bausit when Sultana Vaida herself approaches him, resplendent in one of Sefa’s gowns. Bausit kneels, signaling that he brings something too urgent to delay or divert.

Sefa reflects on her quiet campaign of spying, having faded into servants’ routines to collect rumors and patterns. She has been recording everything she learns—meetings, favoritism, suspected spies, even the gardeners thrown into the Traitors’ Wells—stitched in hidden script inside Vaida’s gowns. Had Vaida chosen a different dress, Sefa’s subterfuge would have been exposed.

From the staff’s lore, Sefa pieced together the story of Baira’s ring: once able to summon Ruby Hounds when Lukub’s magic thrived, now a relic since the magic waned. She judges Vaida a relic too—obsessed with splendor and tyranny—yet still dangerous, especially with the ring fused to her and her hunger for war with Nizahl.

As Bausit kneels, Sefa understands the implication: he has given Vaida the location of a realm of ancient, untamed magic. Knowing Vaida would walk through Sirauk’s mists for power, Sefa folds a newly finished gown and traces her final hidden message: a plea to find Vaida’s ring and a farewell—“Tell Marek and Sylvia I fought.”