The High Court of Oakhaven didn't feel like a temple of justice anymore. It felt like a tomb.
The sun beat down on the empty arena sands, illuminating the dark, crusted patch of blood where Jace Vane had fallen. The banners of the "Peace Summit" were still there, but they were torn, whipping frantically in a wind that smelled of coming snow.
Helios Sola stood at the marble railing of the high gallery. He wasn't looking at the arena. He was looking at the white, cracked mask resting on the stone in front of him. It was one of the sealers' masks,the one Ren had shattered in the woods.
It looked like a skull.
"The boy is gone," Kael Vane hissed behind him.
The Vane Patriarch looked like he had aged twenty years in twenty four hours. His silver hair was disheveled, and the fine silk of his robes was stained with sweat. "My men followed the trail to the deep interior of the Whispers. They found the sealing squad. Two dead. One... broken. His mind is gone, Helios. He just keeps muttering about violet eyes."
Helios didn't turn around. He reached out and touched the crack in the wooden mask. "He didn't just run, Kael. He fought a sealing squad and won and at fourteen without a weapon."
"Because he's a Morn!" Kael's voice cracked. He slammed a fist into a pillar. "We were supposed to be safe. The pussies of a Council swore the Ghost lily was absolute. They said the bloodline was extinct. And now my son is a cripple, my clan's artifact is a pile of glass, and a ghost is hunting us from the trees!"
"Quiet," Helios said. His reply wasn't loud, but it carried the heat of a furnace.
Kael choked back his next words.
"The city is already whispering," Helios continued, his golden eyes tracking a hawk circling high above. "The commoners saw what happened. They saw a boy from the mud break the Silver fan. You think the lockdown will stop the rumors? It's only making them grow. They're calling him the 'boken crown.' They're waiting for him to come back."
"Then we burn the forest," Kael said, his voice desperate. "Every tree. Every leaf. We flush him out and ...."
"And reveal to the world that the four Great Clans are terrified of a single child?"
The voice came from the shadows of the arched doorway. Mara, the matriarch of clan Khor stepped into the light. She looked as stoic as ever, but her hands were clasped tightly behind her back.
"The Khor families are restless, Helios," Mara said. "They don't like the lockdown. They don't like the Arbiters crawling through our streets. They're starting to ask why we're so afraid of a commoner participant."
"He isn't a commoner," Helios said. He finally turned, his face a mask of cold, golden certainty. "And the Arbiters aren't here to protect us. They're here to protect the secret. If the world finds out the Morn survived, the 'decade of peace' is revealed as a ten year lie. The vassal families will revolt and the commoners will stop paying their taxes. The whole system we have been keeping fails."
A silence settled over the gallery. It was the silence of three people realizing they were standing on a frozen lake, and the ice was cracking beneath their boots.
"Where is the Arbiter?" Mara asked.
"In the Sanctum," Helios replied. "Consulting the a tracking seals matrix She believes the boy is headed for the Northern Ranges, back to where the banished one lives."
"Thorne," Kael spat. "I should have killed that old wreck when I had the chance."
"You couldn't kill him then, and you certainly can't kill him now," a new voice joined.
Sol Sola stepped onto the gallery. He looked different than he had in the arena. His usual golden glow was muted, replaced by a sharp, focused intensity. He looked at the broken sealer's mask with a mixture of disgust and fascination.
"Father," Sol said, addressing Helios. "The tournament is suspended. The people are angry. But more importantly... I was cheated."
Helios looked at his son. "Cheated?"
"I wanted to burn him," Sol said. His voice was low, vibrating with a suppressed hunger. "I saw him move. I saw him break Jace. It wasn't luck. It was... something else. I want to see if his blood is as hot as mine. I want to know if the sun can melt a Morn."
Helios stepped closer to his son, placing a hand on Sol's shoulder. The heat from the Patriarch's palm was enough to singe the air.
"You will get your chance, Sol," Helios said. "But not in a ring. The next time you see that boy, you won't be fighting for a trophy. You'll be fighting for the survival of this clan. Do you understand?"
Sol nodded. His golden eyes flared for a second, two miniature suns burning in the twilight of the gallery.
"Good," Helios said. He looked back at Kael and Mara. "Mobilize the vassal families. Not the main guards. Use the shadows. Offer a reward that would make a minor family king, territory, titles, ancient techniques. Tell them there's a traitor in the woods. Don't mention the name Morn. Just tell them to bring us the boy's head."
The Nyx Estate at midnight
Elara Nyx sat on the edge of a black stone fountain in the center of her private garden. The water was still, reflecting a sliver of the moon.
She held a small piece of charcoal silk in her hands. A scrap from her own sleeve.
"You're late," she said to the darkness.
A shadow detached itself from the wall. Selene, the Matriarch of Nyx, stepped forward. Her feet made no sound on the gravel.
"The Arbiters are watching the gates," Selene said. "They think I'm sleeping."
"They think everyone is sleeping," Elara replied. She looked up at her mother. "He made it, didn't he? To the woods?"
"He made it. And he left three weeping masks in the dirt."
Elara let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. A small, ghost of a smile touched her lips.
"Why did you help him, Mother? The ring... the Shroud stone. If the Arbiters find out...."
"The Arbiters are old, Elara. They've forgotten what it's like to be hungry. They think they can seal the world into a box and call it peace." Selene sat beside her daughter, her presence as cold as the fountain water. "But I remember the Morn. I remember the way the air used to vibrate when their Patriarch walked into a room. The world was more dangerous then, but it was also... more alive."
"You want him to win?"
"I want the world to change," Selene corrected. "The Vane are weak,the Sola are arrogant and the Khor.... too stagnant. We are the Nyx Elara. We thrive in the spaces in between. If this boy, this Ren Morn can tear a hole in the Sola's sun, then we will be the first ones to step through the gap."
Selene reached out and tucked a strand of obsidian hair behind Elara's ear.
"Keep your eyes on the forest, daughter. The boy is a spark. And the world is very, very dry."