Chapter 248: Miss Augus

"How long have you all been here?"

"Since the auction began, more or less."

"What? Where were you sitting? I looked behind me more than once and didn’t see any of you."

Evelyne raised a hand and pointed upstairs.

"We were in one of the elite rooms."

A brief silence followed. Darius’s eyes moved to Ravian’s clothes, then to the box in his hand, before settling on Evelyne again.

"Of course," he said, sounding like a man who had found the answer he wanted. "I should have known you had something to do with it."

Darius looked toward the stairs again, trying to see past the passing guests. "How much did they charge you?"

"Thirty gold coins for the room," Evelyne replied.

He stared at her, then glanced at the others as though waiting for someone to admit she was joking. Claria shook her head, smiling, which seemed to offend him more than the price itself.

"Thirty gold just to sit upstairs? At that price, I’d expect them to carry me home afterward."

"The chairs were comfortable," Claria offered.

Darius opened his mouth, thought better of arguing with her, and turned back to Evelyne. "Next time, tell us before you go up. We could have found a larger room."

"And who would pay for it?"

"We’d discuss that once we were inside."

Elias chuckled. Darius ignored him, apparently satisfied that this was a reasonable arrangement, while Kael shook his head and looked away.

Ravian bit back a laugh. Darius hadn’t even bothered to pretend he would contribute. ’Damn, and here I thought I was the only one shameless enough to let her pay for everything.’

Evelyne smiled without attempting to deny it, while Malrik stepped closer. He was looking at Lysandra rather than the box.

"I thought you didn’t want to come to the auction."

"That’s right," Lysandra replied without looking at them.

"Then you changed your mind?"

"As you can see."

She offered nothing more. Her expression remained calm, and she looked toward the entrance rather than at Ravian, as though his presence had nothing to do with her decision.

Ravian remembered how she had stopped Evelyne with her sword before she could finish explaining why they had stayed at the camp. He also remembered that they had only left after he woke up and accompanied them himself.

’I suppose she wanted someone to stay near my tent?’

He was not sure whether she had meant to prevent someone else from entering it, as had happened during the attempt on his life, or to spare them the headache of searching for him again. Perhaps she preferred to accomplish both and save herself the trouble of finding him a second time.

’Wait. Why do I feel like they’re treating me as though I’m irresponsible?’

In any case, he did not ask. He suspected that raising the question in front of everyone would earn him another look he had no desire to receive right now.

Malrik finally noticed the box.

"Did you buy something?"

Darius looked at its handle, then abruptly frowned as he remembered the final item.

"Wait. Don’t tell me you’re the one who bought that stone!"

Ravian did not answer immediately. That moment of silence was enough to make even the lazy Elias lift his head and Kael regard the box with wary interest.

"I thought some rich lunatic was bidding on it from upstairs," Darius added.

"Looks like you were wrong about half of that," Kael said, his expression incredulous and his eyes still fixed on the box.

Ravian smiled, but he had no chance to respond; Malrik’s attention suddenly shifted to something behind him, and Kael followed his gaze, straightening slightly.

Ravian heard quiet footsteps, then noticed the change in Evelyne’s eyes before turning around.

A young woman was approaching along the corridor leading to the settlement rooms, followed by two men who looked nothing like the guards he usually saw outside shops. One carried a sword at his waist, while the other’s hands were empty, but the way they watched their surroundings was enough to make an employee step out of their path without being asked.

The young woman was rather tall, only slightly shorter than Ravian was now. Dark hair rested over her shoulders and flowed down her back, and her beautiful black eyes did not wander curiously from face to face. They settled on Ravian first, then lowered to the box in his hand.

Her beauty was captivating and difficult to ignore, but the coldness of her features and her composure lent it something unsettling, as though she could stand among people screaming around her without finding any reason to change her expression.

"Miss Augus?" Evelyne said, all humor gone from her voice.

The young woman’s eyes moved to her.

"Evelyne Arden," she said, then looked at Lysandra. "And Lysandra Veyla. I didn’t expect to see you both here. Together."

Lysandra nodded in greeting but did not approach, nor did she seem interested enough to join the conversation yet. Evelyne stepped half a pace closer.

"We didn’t know you were visiting the City of Light."

"I arrived from the capital recently."

It was a brief answer, with no attempt to exchange news afterward. The young woman turned back to Ravian, and he understood that she had not approached to greet her acquaintances. She had come specifically for him.

Evelyne leaned toward him, lowering her voice until it was barely loud enough for anyone else to hear.

"Duke Frank Augus’s daughter."

Ravian’s expression did not change, but the title sharpened his attention.

"She has a Mythic-Rank Soul, like Lysandra. And you, of course," Evelyne continued. "She’s one of the most outstanding talents of our generation in the capital. She’s reached the Eighth Rank, uses aura, and is said to be on the verge of breaking through to the Seventh."

Ravian looked at her again. Before him stood someone who possessed not only a rare talent but the advancement to make use of it, backed by a family powerful enough to send two Sixth-Rank guards with her, as Evelyne confirmed in her next words.

"According to what’s known about them, both men behind her are Sixth Rank."

Her guards had accompanied her from the capital, and their presence in this corridor made any thought of fighting over an auction item absurd.

In fact, barring any surprises, no one in the entire city should have been capable of confronting them except its marquis, Karius Dmitri himself.

’Well, it seems the stone attracted someone more troublesome than I expected,’ Ravian thought.

Miss Augus stopped at a suitable distance, neither close enough to seem intrusive nor so far away that she would need to raise her voice.

"You’re the one who bought the final item."

It was not a question, so Ravian nodded.

"That’s right."

"I would like to buy it from you."

She kept her eyes on his face as she spoke. There was neither threat nor hesitation in her tone, only the composure of someone who had come to propose a deal and see whether the other party would accept.

Darius stopped looking at the box, and the silence among the squad grew a little heavier. Lysandra did not intervene, but Ravian noticed that her gaze remained on the young woman rather than drifting away again.

"You were bidding on it a moment ago," he said.

"Yes."

"And you could have raised the price again."

"I could have," she replied without irritation. "Now I’m asking whether you’d like to sell it."

’What the hell is this? So she could have bid higher. Why didn’t she?’

That had been obvious since he learned who she was, but he did not understand why she had let him win, only to approach after he had paid. Perhaps she preferred speaking directly to the buyer, or perhaps she wanted to learn something from his reaction that she could not discover from behind a curtain.

He allowed none of those possibilities to show on his face, not after what had happened with Lysandra’s grandfather.

Learning from his mistakes was one of the things Ravian did well.

"How much would you offer?" he asked.

She glanced at the box, then returned her black eyes to him.

"Whatever price you ask."

Ravian slowly raised an eyebrow, while the young woman remained just as composed, as though she had said nothing worth finding surprising.

He had paid twenty-five hundred gold coins to discover what drew him to that stone, and now a duke’s daughter from the capital, with a Mythic-Rank Soul and two Sixth-Rank guards, had approached and invited him to name his price.

’Either she knows far more than that auctioneer told us, or she’s just a lunatic with more money than me.’

His fingers settled around the box’s handle, and his familiar smile appeared, suggesting that a plan was already taking shape in his mind.

"Before we discuss the price, Miss Augus..." he said calmly. "What interests you about a stone that might kill anyone who touches it?"