Chapter 190: Soul Implantation

Nyxie was threatening to bite Elyes when Misha entered the sitting room. The threat would have carried more authority if he had not been holding her beneath the arms like a very small and badly behaved guest, but she was making a determined effort to compensate. Her greet hair had been arranged in a short, uneven crop by someone who understood scissors better than styling, and one blue glass eye sat a fraction higher than the other.

"Put me down." Nyxie kicked a little wooden boot against his sleeve. "I know you can hear me. You only look asleep."

Elyes adjusted his grip to stop her kicking the brass clasp on his cliff. "You fell off the table twice. The third attempt was sufficiently deliberate to become my problem."

Misha stopped in the doorway. For several seconds she could only watch the tiny woman trying to glare upward at the man carrying her. A late meal had been laid out on a low table. Beyond the tall windows, Asmoor’s transit lights moved through the pale haze above the roofs.

"Why are you carrying her like that?" she asked, closing the door behind her. "Actually, start with why she’s wearing boots."

"The first pair made her fall." He replied. He looked down at Nyxie with the patience of a man reviewing a problem he had already explained in writing. "She disliked being barefoot too while everybody else had shoes."

"You put felt on the soles." Nyxie twisted until she could point at him. "Who puts felt on the bottom of a warrior’s boots? I nearly died approaching a biscuit."

"You were already dead." Elyes said it in the same mild tone he used for the weather, then his fingers tightened almost imperceptibly against the small body. "The biscuit did not change your circumstances."

The silence afterward was brief. Nyxie stopped kicking and looked at his hand, and Misha found a sudden interest in the clasp of her cloak.

Days earlier, Elyes had watched a doll open its eyes and speak with the voice of a woman he recognized. Since then, even his worst jokes had sometimes arrived with something fragile held underneath them.

Nyxie occupied the prepared doll herself.

「 〔 CONTRACTOR AUTHORITY 〕

«Soul Implantation»

Contracted Soul: Nyxie Bluerim

Constellation Chamber: Aries

Maximum Soul Implantation Duration: 5 Days

Time Remaining: 72:16:40 」

The little doll on Elyes lap was a visit that could be measured, not a restoration he had been trying to imagine since Genesis.

Misha knew he understood the answer. She could tell because he never asked it again, although she had caught him checking the five-day hourglass he had prepared.

She approached the nearest chair and sat there. "You can put her on the cushion. She can threaten us from there."

Elyes placed the doll on a folded cushion beside his knee. Nyxie immediately stood, wobbled, and sat down again.

"We should shorten the skirt," Nyxie announced. She tugged the fabric away from one ankle and looked toward Misha. "It catches when I climb. Whoever made this expected me to spend the entire five days sitting politely beside a flower vase."

"That would have been a lovely change." Misha accepted the cup a maid offered and wrapped both hands around it. "You could try it for an afternoon. Just see what happens."

Nyxie gave her a look that would have been more intimidating without the mismatched eyes. Then she leaned forward, studying Misha’s face with a concentration that made the familiar joke disappear. "Did something happen?"

"Somebody recognized Gravekeeper." Misha took a swallow of tea before continuing, "The second mask fooled the shape of my face. Apparently, I also needed to buy a new cloak, new weapons, and a completely different child."

Elyes rubbed one finger against the side of his cup. "What did that person want?"

"He said he was a fan." Misha set the cup down because the warmth had stopped helping. "He said he liked Floor Seventeen."

Nyxie’s small hands closed over her knees.

Elyes did not offer the usual reassuring phrase. He knew too much about surviving the parts other people later turned into a story. He also knew that Misha had come home instead of continuing the conversation.

"The projections we watched are incomplete," he said. His gaze went toward the window rather than toward her scars. "People make the missing parts convenient. It saves them having to imagine being there."

"Apparently I look very decisive." Misha let her head rest against the chair.

Sebastian arrived with a tray before the room could become too thoughtful. He placed it on the table. A folded envelope rested beside the plates, the seal showed the mark of a guild Misha did not recognize.

"For you," the butler said, moving it away from the butter dish. "There are others. I thought it best to let you eat first."

Misha looked at Elyes. He looked at the seal, closed his eyes for a moment, and opened them with the resignation of someone recognizing a relative at the far end of a queue. "We can discuss this later."

Misha looked at the envelope again. Its seal had been pressed into dark blue wax, and whoever had delivered it had wrapped the corners in thin metal guards to prevent them from bending.

"That sounds expensive," she said. She reached for the plate Sebastian had placed nearest her. "Whatever it is, I probably can’t afford it."

"It’s an invitation," Elyes replied. He moved the envelope farther from Nyxie, who had begun leaning toward it. "They’re hoping to afford you."

Misha paused with a piece of bread halfway to her mouth. She put the bread down again. "I dislike that sentence. Try another."

"Several guilds have asked to meet Gravekeeper." Elyes rested his cup against its saucer, carefully enough that the porcelain barely made a sound. "Sebastian has been keeping their representatives away from the house."

"Most have accepted sending letters instead," Sebastian said, straightening the edge of the tray. "One gentleman returned three times."

Nyxie tilted her head. The movement pulled a little of her green hair across the higher eye, and she brushed it away with both hands. "Did you threaten him?"

She sounded interested rather than concerned.

"I informed him that the household would contact him if a meeting became convenient." Sebastian’s gaze moved briefly toward Elyes. "The guards received a less elaborate instruction."

"Do I want to know how many there are?" Misha asked. It was a good thing she had Elyes’ backing. Because of his family name, those people couldn’t demand things from him so easily.

"Eleven letters," Sebastian answered. He hesitated, perhaps considering whether the rest would improve matters. "Four requests delivered in person."

Misha stared at him. "..."

Nyxie gave a low whistle, then looked irritated when the doll’s mouth failed to produce much sound.

"Fourteen, then." Misha sighed.

"Fifteen," Elyes corrected, handing her the letter instead.

"One of those men came back three times." She pulled it open with more force than necessary. "He counts once."

Sebastian bowed his head slightly, trying to hide a smile.