Gilded Ashes: When Shadows Reign

The Ukai Ruler's smile didn't fade when he spoke - calm as ever, calm like in every single photo, like he hadn't just said the words "summoned you" from a bed.

But before he could continue, Atman cleared his throat.

It wasn't necessarily rude, or loud at all. It was the kind of sound you made when you respected someone too much to let them embarrass themselves.

"But, my Ruler" Atman started, still with a warm tone, still smiling - but careful now. "With all due respect… This meeting shouldn't include outsiders."

His eyes flicked to Raizen. Not necessarily hostile… More like worried. Like he was trying to protect Raizen from whatever would be told next.

Raizen's spine straightened without him noticing. Another habit.

He didn't like being called an outsider when he was standing two steps away from a dying man's bed. He liked it even less because he couldn't argue.

Elin answered before the Ruler could.

"He can stay" she said with a flat tone.

Atman blinked. "Elin, this isn't -"

"He killed the lizard beast in Sector C a few hours ago" Elin added, louder, like she was announcing a fact to a small crowd. "The one your students couldn't control. He took care of your problem.

"Alright, but that doesn't-"

"He'll keep his mouth shut."

Raizen's head snapped toward her.

He killed it?

He'd fought it, that much was true. He'd nearly gotten burnt by it. But Elin was the one that killed – well, modified its Eon structure, so it died...

And now, for whatever reason, she was giving him credit.

Raizen felt his chest tighten in a way that wasn't pride. It was Confusion. A bit of guilt, too. The kind that made you want to speak, to correct everything before it settled wrong in everyone's minds.

Atman's eyes widened, a bit. Then they shifted like he'd walked into the middle of an inside joke he didn't understand. But he had to admit, she was right. As far as he knew, Raizen was the one that killed the lizard.

The Ukai Ruler, meanwhile, raised one brow. Just one. The motion was small, but the weight behind it was heavy. His gaze rested on Raizen a second longer than before.

Not suspicious. More like… Interested.

"A foreign student…" the Ruler said softly. "You killed it…"

Raizen opened his mouth.

Before he could try to say anything, Elin's hand landed on his shoulder.

Gentle. Almost friendly. Almost.

Then, underneath his skin, he felt it.

The subtle tightening. The quiet, surgical squeeze that reminded his muscles they could be crushed any moment.

Not pain like before, or quite a full-body clamp.

Just enough to make his breath catch and his tongue stiffen.

Raizen kept the explanation in his mind.

He hated himself for keeping it hidden. He hated her for making him hide it.

What was her game? Why is Elin lying?

But somewhere deeper, he kind of understood a part of why she was doing it.

If he spoke too much, he would become a problem. A loose thread in a room that was clearly woven out of secrets.

The Ruler shifted against his pillows and tried - genuinely tried - to push himself up in the bed.

It wasn't dramatic. No shaking hands, no trembling weakness.

Just raw effort.

The kind that makes you realize the body is failing not because it's fragile, but because it's running out of time.

Atman's warmth cracked.

"Ruler, what are you doing!? You don't need to -"

But the Ruler ignored him completely.

He managed a small, respectful bow anyway, as if stubbornness alone could make etiquette real.

Then he looked at Raizen again, and his voice turned personal in a way that felt more dangerous than anger.

"I am humbled" he said, calm as a prayer, "that a foreigner had to solve one of Ukai's problems."

Raizen's first instinct was to deny it.

To say that he didn't - to say that she did - to say it wasn't like that.

Elin's fingers tightened on his shoulder.

Just a fraction.

Raizen felt his muscles twitch in warning, like a leash tugging without being seen.

So he did the only thing he could do without setting the room on fire.

He bowed his head.

"...It was necessary" he said, voice careful. "I'm glad no one else got hurt."

The Ruler's eyes softened, and for a heartbeat Raizen saw something there that didn't belong to a fancy title.

Relief.

Pride, maybe. Not in Raizen - in the fact that the world still had people who acted when others froze.

Atman stared at Raizen like he was watching his student become a myth in real time, and he didn't really seem to enjoy it.

Alan, who'd stayed quiet near the door like a shadow with manners, finally spoke.

"If that's settled" he said, "I should inspect the repairs. The burnt patch is healing nicely."

The Ruler nodded once, the motion smooth despite the weakness hiding behind it.

Raizen remembered the burnt part of trunk he saw when he first arrived in Ukai.

Alan's eyes flicked toward Raizen, then away. Then he turned to leave, and as he passed the threshold he muttered - not quite under his breath, not quite loud enough to be a speech.

"Those stupid summoner students… They can't even control their own beasts."

Then he was gone, and the small room felt… Smaller, without him. Even though he didn't speak or intervene. His presence was enough.

Atman watched the door shut, then looked back at the Ruler with a protective frustration that felt almost familial.

The Ruler didn't give him time.

He exhaled slowly, eyes moving across the room - Atman, Elin, Raizen - and the smile returned, faint but real, like he was about to tell a story he'd been holding for too long.

"Right" he started, "the reason I summoned you."

Atman's posture straightened. Elin unconsciously did the same, too.

Raizen felt it too.

The Ruler's gaze settled on Elin first.

"Ukai is alive" he said, "because of a deal I made long ago."

Atman repeated the words like he didn't understand them.

"A deal… that kept Ukai alive?"

The Ruler nodded, slow.

"Yes."

A deal. Raizen's mind flashed, to the lichen and lanterns-lit cavern - to Elin's hand extended, her smiling faintly in that ominous way. To the softness of her grip, when shaking hands. His promise not to tell anyone anything about what he saw.

To the red remnants that had clung to his skin like embers, sinking into the skin without pain, without warmth, without sensation… And yet somehow leaving him certain it mattered.

A promise, sealed in a handshake.

Not symbolic.

Real. As real as an deal can be.

He hadn't told anyone about the cave. He actually didn't even want to think about breaking that deal.

Because something in him believed that if he did, the consequences wouldn't be small.

The Ruler's voice stayed calm, almost gentle, but the words carried weight.

"Ukai doesn't survive because it is strong" he continued. "It survives because someone is always willing to do what others cannot."

Atman's expression shifted. The warmth stayed, but something darker moved underneath it - recognition, or dread.

Raizen whispered without meaning to.

"The Sovereigns?"

He hadn't realized he'd spoken until the Ruler's eyes turned to him.

Amused, almost. Like he liked that Raizen was thinking.

"Yes" the Ruler said, catching the whisper like it was meant for him. "The Sovereigns. Once, that was the Beast Sovereign."

Elin's head lifted a fraction.

The Ruler's gaze slid to her, and he pointed, not rudely, not accusingly - simply indicating the reality of her existence.

"And now it is you, our Sky Sovereign."

For a moment, Elin didn't move. Then her voice came, quieter than before.

"The Beast Sovereign?" she asked. "What about her?"

Raizen's eyes flicked to her, in a quick motion. Like he suddenly remembered the photo on the wall. Like he suddenly remembered how Elin had paused at that frame with the prettier border, the one he couldn't get out of his head.

Elin didn't look at Atman.

She didn't look at Raizen, either.

She looked only at the Ruler.

The Ruler returned her gaze, and the calm in his face didn't change, but the tension in the air did.

"I have never blamed you for it" he said softly.

Elin went still.

Atman's smile vanished like someone had wiped it off with a sleeve.

Raizen's stomach tightened, instincts flaring without permission. He didn't know why. He just knew the room had stepped onto a ledge.

The Ruler continued, voice steady.

"But you shouldn't insult me by pretending I'm clueless."

Silence.

Not long.

But long enough.

Raizen felt Elin's hand still resting on his shoulder, light but absolute, like she'd forgotten it was there.

The Ruler didn't raise his voice.

He didn't dramatize it.

He simply looked Elin dead in the eyes and spoke the sentence like it was a fact carved into his mind for a long time. "Elin, my dear…"

"I know you killed the Beast Sovereign."