Without another word, Keiser rose to follow the group that had passed them--only for his cloak to be yanked back in two different directions at once.
"What are you doing?!" the princess hissed, her expression one of someone restraining themselves from stabbing him on the spot.
"Muzio?! Where are you going?!" Lenko whisper–yelled, eyes wide with shock.
Keiser, his bandaged hand still throbbing, felt the urge to knock the both of them upside the head.
"I should be the one asking--why did we hide in the first place?" he demanded, fixing his gaze on the princess. She averted her eyes, though her fingers stayed clenched around a fistful of his poor, battered cloak.
"You knew what was happening here."
He slapped her hand away and strode toward the already distant group, their lights now dimming to a glow only as bright as the bugs still drifting around them.
"You knew," he said, his voice sharp, "and you still let them disappear?"
His steps were sluggish, unable to get far--Lenko was still tugging him back with both hands, panic in his face as his gaze darted between Keiser and the princess, whose eyes had gone razor-sharp.
"What is happening here?!"
Keiser scowled at him. "Let go." His glare could have cut stone, but Lenko only gripped the cloak tighter, pulling even harder.
"No! You keep charging in without thinking--can't you see your body is in no state--"
"Let go, Lenko."
This time Keiser yanked the cloak with a strength he hadn't known Muzio's body could muster.
Lenko stumbled back as his hands slipped free.
"Your Highness, please---you can't keep acting like this!"
Keiser frowned, glancing at Lenko before turning to Yona. She stood still, silent, her gaze fixed on the dimming light of the procession's lamp.
He wanted to run after them, but something held him back this time. There was a gap--a piece missing--that he couldn't quite place.
How had the princess managed to sway Lenko, someone who cared so deeply for the tenth prince?
"Why did you choose to remain out here?" Keiser's question cut through the uneasy silence, aimed squarely at Lenko.
Lenko blinked, caught off guard by the sudden shift. He glanced first at the princess before answering, "It's… safer?" The way he said it made it sound like even he wasn't certain.
Keiser pressed on. "When did you fetch your satchel?"
His gaze slid to the bag—stuffed so full it looked like it could burst at the seams. It was far too cumbersome to drag along the road. That was why they'd left it at the inn—the very same inn Lenko had rented for them upon reaching the village.
Back then, Keiser had followed him around as he sold off all their livestock for coin… and at no point did that bag leave the room.
But the bag was here. Which meant… had he gone back to retrieve it?
Lenko looked down at the satchel as though seeing it for the first time. Confusion flickered across his face, though Keiser knew he had already taken things from it--had even used it as a makeshift pillow and bedroll.
Keiser noticed it too. His eyes slid to the princess, who was finally meeting his gaze.
"What did you do?" he asked, teeth gritted.
The princess's glare was cold. "…My best."
Keiser let out a short, disbelieving huff. He had believed she meant no harm--after all, she had said she was tasked with finding them, or at least keeping watch should she cross paths with her fiancé's brother and the red-haired companion beside him.
She had even claimed to be dealing with a matter from Hinnom--which could well be this. The disappearances they had just witnessed.
But now… Keiser began to wonder if he could trust a single word that left her mouth.
Lenko grabbed at his hair, his hood falling back. "How did I bring them? Did I… go back to the village to get them?" His voice wavered, then his eyes widened as they locked on Keiser. "Did I left you…?" He turned his gaze toward the princess. "…With her?"
The princess rose smoothly to her feet, brushing her cloak aside. Keiser's stomach sank--he should have known. Moonlight caught the twin blades as they flashed into view, each aimed unerringly at their throats.
Lenko gasped, leaning back too late. The blade tracked his movement like it was alive. The sudden gust blew through, and the bugs erupted into violet flame before collapsing into drifting ash.
"I told you," she said, her voice like sharpened glass, "the pyris was just a guide bugs." Her eyes gleamed as she shifted the blade nearer to Lenko's skin, the steel trembling faintly in her grip. Keiser noticed the strain in her arms, the way she fought to keep the weapons steady.
"And you…" Her gaze cut to Keiser. He met it with a dark scowl.
"You released the seals."
The tremor in her arms doubled, the blade tip twitching close enough to nearly draw his blood. Her voice dropped, almost rumbling.
"That means… I'm no longer at the mercy of these blades."
Keiser's scowl shifted into a frown--then Lenko yelped and stumbled back.
Keiser had no time to react before his vision exploded into blinding light--no, fire--pouring from the princess's blade. Purple flames roared to life, surging from both swords, then leaping away to swirl together in the center of the clearing.
The blaze twisted and condensed, taking the shape of something small.
The princess scoffed. "Get your disgusting guide bugs out of here. Your target's already on the other side." She tilted her head, irritation flashing in her eyes. "Hey--are you even listening to me?"
Keiser's gaze stayed on her as she slid both blades into their sheaths. In the moonlight, the handles and steel looked dull--drained of their strange vitality, reduced to nothing more than ordinary swords.
"I asked if you've done your part, you sly fox."
The small flame twisted, reshaping into a form. Its snout exhaled a dark violet haze, and its single tail split at the tip into two curling wisps of fire. From it came a deep, resonant sound--heavy enough to press against the mind--yet somehow, Keiser understood the words.
"How did you unseal it?"
Even Lenko flinched at the voice. It was not truly heard by the ear, but in the mind--an inhuman speech made comprehensible only through its will.
A sacred beast.
The core of the Moonlight Twin Short Blades, a fox spirit of fire.
The princess folded her arms. "What, you thought I'd be your perfect puppet forever?" Her gaze burned with open hostility toward the beast, which merely padded in a lazy circle before sitting squarely in the ring of stones where their fire had been earlier.
She strode toward it, boots crunching over the ash. "Where did you take them all? I let you do it because you said it would save them."
Keiser shuddered--not just at the sound, but at the feeling--of the sacred beast's laughter vibrating through his mind.
"Just because you've managed to release yourself doesn't mean you won't need me, silly girl."
Without hesitation, the princess slashed her sword through the fox-shaped fire. The form scattered instantly into sparks, but its voice lingered, echoing inside their skulls.
"Careful now… I don't want you to be led astray."
The suffocating pressure lifted. The princess's blades regained their former luster--the glint along the edge, the faint glow, even the vitality in the hilt--restored as though nothing had happened.
She turned to the boys, both staring wide-eyed. She sighed. "I told you it's not easy to just explain. I have to show you."
Lenko nodded numbly. Keiser, meanwhile, flexed his bandaged hand--now moving better than before--and brushed his hair back with it.
"No," he said sharply. "You've just added more questions. Can't you explain what's happening and what you just did, instead of making this more complicated than it already is?"
He stomped toward her, jabbing a finger at her sheathed swords. "Explain, and we'll try to understand. But if you keep throwing things at us and expecting us to guess the truth on our own--that's beyond stupid."
As if chastised--though the scolding hadn't been aimed at him--Lenko spoke up.
"I honestly don't know what got into me. My mind was on the fact that his highne--Muzio needed the herbal supplies I'd packed for us. I remember going back to the village to get our belongings… and bringing them back here?"
Keiser watched him, listening closely. The gap in events he'd been puzzling over was slowly taking shape in his mind.
Lenko frowned. "I don't believe I left Muzio here… with you." There was a flicker of panic in his eyes now.
Keiser glanced at the princess. She looked almost guilty.
"My swords have a fox beast core," she admitted. "And just like any beast-cored weapons, they can wield the abilities the beast once possessed."
Keiser blinked at that. His thoughts drifted to his dragonbone hilted sword, and to the warmth and familiarity it always carried for him--familiar because it had been forged from the core of the dragon he'd saved---or not.
As painful as that truth was, it only deepened his confusion. His sword had never behaved like hers'.
The princess glance at them "including the beast… trait?"
But Lenko frowned. "And… what does that have to do with anything?"
Keiser shot her a look. "Don't circle around--just answer."
The princess grimaced, tilting her sheathed swords as if weighing her words. "…I guess… with everything?"
Keiser wanted to pull her hair. "That's not explaining anything!" He throws his arms up so violently it was a miracle his bandages didn't unravel on the spot.
The princess only blinked at him, as if he'd just asked her what color the sky was. "It's a perfectly good answer. You're just not smart enough to understand it yet."
Lenko winced, already sensing what was about to happen.