Talia stared at the document in front of her, silent, unmoving.

  She finally got his document. But she couldn’t help feeling a bit apprehensive about the whole thing.

  She had made a mistake. She shouldn’t have agreed to let him pass the trials. She should have stood her ground and refused his request. It wasn’t like he could do anything about it without her approval.

  She sighed. She put the paper down and leaned back on her chair.

  “What’s wrong? Didn’t you finally get what you wanted?” Aseel asked with a raised eyebrow.

  “I don’t know. Something is missing.”

  Aseel sighed. “You’re neither happy when you get your way nor when you don’t.” He fixed her with a stare. “Which is it?”

  “I don’t know,” she repeated.

  “Where is he anyway? Shouldn’t he be here?”

  “I told him to go prepare for the trials.”

  “You know the soul can’t—”

  “To prepare his mind to better withstand the illusions.” She cut him off.

  Aseel snorted. “Cheating, are we?”

  “It’s not cheating!” she protested. “I merely gave him a heads-up. I don’t want another failure on my hands.”

  “Sure.”

  She glared at Aseel’s dubious look. What did he understand about wounded pride? It wasn't like he was that one scrutinized after the last trials!

  Aseel gave her a look. “You finally have what you wanted after hundreds of years of boredom. Still, here you are, reading his file without a single input from the man himself.” He tutted. “Never thought I would see such a day.”

  She ignored him and picked up Weylin’s file. Born and raised in a humble village on the outskirts of the kingdom. Firstborn with a younger sister. Father was drafted into the war effort and died soon after. Thus, Weylin had to assume his late father’s role in providing for his family at the tender age of eight. His mother’s weak health didn’t help matters either. Years later, his remaining family dies in a monster attack on their village. After, he joined the knight’s order under the high temple’s command.

  Quite the generic story, Talia hummed. She had seen numbers of people with similar fates. Perhaps not now—what with the mundane, ridiculous accidents that led souls to her domain. Magic was no longer such a prominent existence in many worlds. It had either started fading or was only a faint remnant that persisted or was long gone with anything pertaining to it turned into legends and fables.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Mere tales of old times.

  Then, everything changed. What exactly happened wasn’t written on the page, only what transpired after. He defected from the order and turned on the temple that had sheltered him after the destruction of his home.

  As her gaze finally roamed over the letters written on the document, she paused, her eyes widening in disbelief. Only one sentence caught her attention.

  Cause of near death: Seal of life.

  He had a seal put on him. This was the reason for his presence in this realm. Someone had sealed his life away. It wasn’t death—none of the souls in her domain were really dead—but it was as close as any soul could get to the afterlife.

  She hummed. If it was so, then why was he so adamant about staying here instead of going back to his world and getting rid of whatever danger had sent him here?

  She leaned back on her chair, closed her eyes, and sighed.

  “Not what you were expecting?” Aseel asked.

  She looked at him, thoughtful. Aseel stared back at her. Though, after a while, he fidgeted on his feet.

  “What? I don’t like this look. It never ends well.”

  Talia huffed. What look?

  “Perhaps you would like to enjoy a small break?” he asked. “I still have some of the bubble tea. I believe you still haven’t tried it. Would you like a cup?”

  She scowled at him. Her? To take something Layt had gotten to bribe her own assistant for information?

  But as she opened her mouth to decline, she paused, frowning. Why would she waste what must have cost him a gracious amount of money?

  “Sure. Bring it to the garden outside.”

  It was time she witnessed Weylin’s progress. She didn’t know what his training was. He had grabbed Ilya and dragged the pale, unfortunate soul away.

  She would have to speak to him. She had so much to tell him about the trials. So many deceptions and trickery that she worried he would fall for.

  If only she hadn’t made it an unchanging rule not to diverge information about the trials themselves, lest the candidates would be declared forfeit.

  She was still young and inexperienced. She only cared about the entertainment the event would bring. She was also sure her carefully picked souls would pass them with colorful crayons.

  Oh, how wrong she was.

  At first, everything went smoothly. Many won the trials and were declared winners. And those who couldn’t reach the end were still able to soldier through to the middle of the event. Then, the souls she thought would follow their predecessor’s footsteps started failing at the first trials. Then, they failed to even get to the first trial. They all fell, one after the other before the event even started.

  It was humiliating.

  Talia walked through the garden, her heels clicking against the marble floor, lost in thought. How would she get about to warn him without breaking the rules? She wasn’t even the Trials’ foreseer this time. That role had fallen to Lamin. Talia bristled. The shrewd Idirian had somehow known that the events would be held again. Talia hadn’t given it a second thought as she sighed her rights to oversee the trials. She had thought she had gotten somewhat lucky with them being postponed indefinitely.

  So lost in thought, she hadn’t noticed the third guest, who had still yet to leave the premises of her home.

  “—No matter what you see or hear. You can’t trust your senses,” Layt said. “Then again. You weaklings can rarely notice the real nature of things. So that would be a bit hard for you to do…” He trailed off, fingers pinching his chin in thought. “Scratch that. I don’t think you’ll be able to pull it off. After all, you’re just a human. You’re not like us Idirians,” he added, hands on his hips, head held high.

  What was this idiot doing? Was he trying to sabotage her candidate?

  With an annoyed frown, Talia stomped forward, set on chasing the loudmouth away from her domain.