Livia returned to the hotel in silence. Only when the door clicked shut behind her did she finally let out a long breath, as if exhaling the weight of the day's standoff and subtle maneuvering all at once. She slid down against the wall, sitting on the floor as her mind began racing, retracing every detail of the encounter.
Jim's appearance had been too sudden—too smooth. His calm dominance, the way he subtly controlled the tempo of the conversation, was unnerving. He asked no direct questions, yet each word had pierced toward their most guarded secrets. He hadn't made any promises, but the more Livia thought about it, the more she felt he wasn't truly offering anything.
No, he was baiting them. Trying to lure the prey from the shadows.
Perhaps he never intended to trade that Holy Grail fragment at all. He was waiting for someone to reveal too much, to make a wrong move—and then he'd strike.
If that was true… then he hadn't come to negotiate.
He'd come to take.
Her fingers clenched reflexively before she forced herself to release them. She didn't have a fragment herself—that, at least, was her one clear defense. But then her gaze flicked toward the phone on the table. A new message from Elias blinked on the screen.
He had one. The other fragment.
Should she convince him to use it—to dangle it in front of Jim and draw him out?
It might give them the upper hand. But the risk… once the bait was out, there would be no taking it back.
Meanwhile, Elias sat on the edge of a hotel bed across the city, his brow furrowed, eyes fixed on a small black box resting on the table. It remained closed—but he knew exactly what lay inside.
The Holy Grail fragment.
His thoughts turned over and over, weighing the possibilities.
If he brought it out, maybe Jim would see him as an ally.
Or maybe he'd be tricked—stripped of the fragment and cast aside.
What if Jim had no intention of offering anything at all?
What if this entire game was a con, a carefully constructed trap?
He stared at the box for a long time.
Finally, he closed his phone and set it aside, resolve settling into his features.
Not this time.
There would be other chances. This one wasn't worth the gamble.
Elsewhere, beneath the veil of night, a sleek black car came to a stop in front of a nondescript building tucked between two alleyways. The door opened. The man who had left the hotel earlier stepped out and moved quickly inside, footsteps steady, eyes sharp with vigilance.
Jim was already waiting, leaning casually against a window as though he'd expected him all along.
"I thought so," Jim said with a soft smile, his tone tinged with certainty. "Lord Eryx sent you, didn't he, Will? No need to be tense—I'll speak to Eryx myself. He trusts me enough for this."
Will stood still, tall and imposing, the muscles beneath his black coat tense and alert. He studied Jim for a long moment before replying slowly, voice deep and measured:
"Lord Eryx instructed me to cooperate fully with you. What do you need me to do?"
Jim's smile widened slightly, a flash of calculation in his eyes.
"Looks like Eryx still has his vision intact."
He turned, walking over to a nearby desk and sketching something quickly on a piece of paper.
"Don't worry—this won't cost you anything. Just follow what I've laid out… exactly."
The room fell silent again. Outside, the wind picked up, sweeping through the dark streets like a whisper of something heavier approaching.
Back in her room, Livia picked up her phone once more. She typed a sentence. Deleted it. Wrote another. Deleted again.
Finally, she and Elias reached an agreement.
No fragments. No bets. Not this time.
They could afford to miss this opportunity—but only if they were still in the game.
To win the next round, they had to stay on the board.