Weakest Beast Tamer Gets All SSS Dragons

"And Orion?" he asked finally, needing to know despite suspecting the answer would make him angrier. "Why did he do all that?"

"Don't think about it too much, the world has all types of people..." Selphira responded with contempt, badly disguised. "The vermin came out days later when the beasts finally dispersed enough for him to move with safety. He'd been hidden in the black barrier the entire time while people died above, protected by his wife's essence while time served his ambitions."

"And when coming out he confessed something to Sirius that I only learned about later. Maybe seeking some type of redemption for guilt that wouldn't let him sleep... Maybe just being stupid in ways only Orion could manage." She shook her head in disgust. "He told him that he'd tried approaching Sirius's side of the potions, the side protected by white barrier after Sirius had left..."

"...Because the farther Sirius moved from the pedestal where the white heart rested, the more tenuous the barrier became. Apparently the distance weakened protection in measurable ways."

Ren's eyes widened as he understood the implications immediately.

"But he could never cross completely," Selphira clarified quickly. "Could never enter 'Sirius's side' to take his potions or 'his' artifact without being rejected by light, however small, that recognized he didn't belong there. But nonetheless, he noticed that the barrier intensity depended on distance from the heart's keeper."

"Why would he tell Sirius that?" Ren asked, confusion mixing with suspicion. "If it was potentially useful information for future exploitation..."

"Maybe he hoped Sirius would understand something that would allow them to advance further together, obtain more treasures through cooperation rather than competition, "hitting while the iron is hot". Perhaps to keep cooperation alive through the fear of Sirius's rage attacking him without thinking about any consequences..."

Selphira shrugged. "Since consequences are the only thing stopping ME now too… Or maybe it was just stupidity, giving away relevant information that someone more intelligent would have kept for themselves as leverage or advantage."

"I helped Sirius verify it after the crisis passed," she continued, moving past judgment to practical matters. "We needed to understand how the barriers functioned completely. If they could be maintained long-term. If they were permanent protection or temporary effects that would fade."

"And we discovered something interesting about the mechanics involved."

She leaned forward with an intensity that suggested this was crucial information.

"While Sirius didn't leave the city limits, while he remained inside the ring that marks the urban territory of our former king Dragarion... the barrier didn't disappear or weaken beyond a baseline."

"We tested distances with careful experimentation. It was as if..." she paused, searching for words that could capture the strange metaphysics, "as if the heart could sense the husband's proximity. As if somehow, Lykea's essence trapped inside recognized Sirius and maintained a connection while he remained close enough or connected to some invisible city system we don't fully understand."

"Or perhaps the heart belongs to him in ways that go beyond simple possession. A connection forged through marriage and love that transcends physical distance up to a certain point."

Ren nodded slowly, chewing on the implications that suggested the crystallized hearts retained more awareness than simple objects should possess.

"So Sirius promised," Selphira said with seriousness that made it sound like a sacred oath. "Promised not to leave the city under any circumstances. To stay inside the iron ring no matter what happened beyond it. To maintain his wife's heart safe on that pedestal where it could protect itself without wearing away through use."

"Until he found a way to obtain the other two cores needed to open the final door. Until he could discover what secret it guarded that could, possibly, bring Lykea back from crystallization that shouldn't be permanent if the right knowledge could be found."

There was a pause weighted with everything unsaid. Then Ren asked the obvious question that had been bothering him since learning about the pedestals:

"Why didn't Sirius… or you take the artifact yourself when Sirius left? If you knew Orion could claim it, that his brothers could use it against Luna..."

Selphira smiled slightly with an expression suggesting she'd been waiting for that question. She stood and walked toward a cabinet beside her desk, opening it to reveal five flasks glowing with an internal luminescence.

The double potions from the tenth chamber, resources worth fortunes.

"Sirius took them before leaving on his final mission," she explained while gesturing at the carefully preserved bottles. "The five that corresponded to Luna from his side of the barrier. Gave them to me for safekeeping with explicit instructions. Said they were for Luna when she was an adult", when she'd understand their value. Resources she could use politically for advantage. Power the Day faction wouldn't have recovered until now, leverage against the uncles who'd probably already proven untrustworthy to many soldiers..."

Ren looked at the potions that represented Luna's inheritance from parents who'd sacrificed everything, then back at Selphira with growing confusion.

"Then I understand even less why Orion has Lykea's heart now. If Sirius took his potions, if he knew that leaving the heart there no longer protected it from his brother..."

"Ah, there was a darkness barrier covering the door and I can't cross it..." Selphira closed the cabinet with deliberate care. "But that wasn't the biggest problem preventing its retrieval... That's the part you're still missing about why the situation became impossible."

She returned to her chair with an expression suggesting what came next was crucial.

"In the chamber there's no longer just one core, Ren. Now there are TWO."

Ren blinked as the implication sank in with terrible clarity.

"The Goldcrests and the Starweaver Night faction," Selphira explained with her voice carrying disgust that years hadn't diminished, "had been working on their own ruin for several years after Sirius's tragedy. Years of effort and resources poured into excavation and trials. And with help from Yino and the Goldcrests..."

Her expression darkened further at mentioning that name, at remembering the family that had enabled the atrocity, "they finally overcame all the trials a few years after Sirius's disgrace."