Chapter 597: The Lamp Was Already Lit

Korreth arrived the way Korreth always arrived.

Without warning.

One moment the road was still threading through the pass, stone walls rising on either side, the world narrowed to switchbacks and wind.

Then the path turned.

And the whole city existed at once.

Korreth spread across the mountain’s base in layered roofs and pale roads. Above it sat the cultivation compound, built into the slope with the same severe geometry Vane remembered.

And above that—

The mountain.

Its upper reaches disappeared into cloud.

Ashe stopped walking.

Nobody asked why.

Vane had seen her come home before.

There was always a moment like this.

No announcement.

No visible sentimentality.

She simply stopped, and some part of her seemed to settle back into place before the rest of her continued forward.

Her eyes lifted toward the compound.

"The lamp’s lit."

Vane followed her gaze.

High above the lower buildings, one narrow window held a single point of warm light.

It burned despite the daylight.

Exactly as it always had.

Ryuken’s lamp.

A ridiculous thing to use as a landmark, considering it was almost never off.

"It’s always lit," Vane said.

Ashe nodded.

"Yes."

She kept looking at it.

"That’s how I know he’s been awake for a while."

Nyx glanced between them.

"That sentence makes less sense the longer I think about it."

"It makes perfect sense," Ashe said.

"It objectively does not."

Ashe started walking again.

"Then think less."

Nyx sighed.

"Home really does bring out your charm."

They reached the lower gate at the sixth hour.

The compound received them with the same quiet discipline Vane remembered.

No one rushed.

No one stared openly.

But word traveled faster than footsteps here.

Ashe was recognized first.

A servant at the gate bowed slightly deeper than necessary.

Another paused just long enough for Vane to notice before disappearing toward the inner courtyards.

There was an entire language of eastern household etiquette that Ashe seemed fluent in and the rest of them mostly experienced as being politely observed.

"They’re judging us," Nyx murmured.

"They’re judging you," Valerica said.

"Why me?"

"You look suspicious."

"I always look suspicious."

"Exactly."

Ashe ignored them.

Kaito met them in the inner courtyard.

Vane knew something was wrong before he spoke.

Kaito looked exactly the way he always did.

Which, in Kaito’s case, meant the problem had to be substantial.

"You have exceptional timing," he said.

Ashe stopped.

"That sounded like an insult."

"It may become one."

Kaito looked over the group.

"Or catastrophic timing. I have not yet decided."

"Meaning?" Ashe asked.

Kaito’s attention settled briefly on Vane.

"You are the second group to arrive here this month looking for the same person."

The air changed.

Nyx straightened.

"Lancelot."

"Yes."

Vane felt the Usurper stir faintly.

"Who was first?"

Kaito’s expression remained flat.

"The Princess."

Nobody spoke.

Ashe’s eyes narrowed.

"Anastasia?"

"The Princess has occupied the eastern guest wing for three weeks."

Kaito said it in the tone of someone reporting a prolonged natural disaster.

"She has asked my father where Lancelot is eleven times."

Nyx blinked.

"You counted?"

"My father counted."

"That is somehow worse."

"He gave her the same answer each time."

Vane already knew what it was going to be.

"He doesn’t know."

Kaito nodded.

"He does not know where Lancelot is."

Nyx studied him.

"Is that actually true?"

"Yes."

Kaito did not hesitate.

"Which has had very little effect on the frequency with which she asks."

Ashe exhaled through her nose.

"Three weeks."

"Three weeks."

"With no escort?"

Kaito looked at her.

"That particular detail has caused several people here significant discomfort."

"Ryuken?"

"No."

Kaito paused.

"Everyone who has to explain to visiting officials why an Imperial princess is living in our guest wing."

That sounded much more plausible.

They found Anastasia in the eastern wing.

Vane’s first thought, before the Usurper ran, before rank or mana or politics registered—

was that he had never seen Anastasia Aurelia look like someone who had lost.

Not a battle.

Not an argument.

Not control of a room.

She stood at the window instead of sitting.

Her travel coat was Imperial in cut but stripped of ceremonial detail. No house colors. No visible insignia beyond what could not be hidden without becoming absurd.

No escort.

No attendants.

Three weeks in Korreth with none of the machinery that usually arrived ahead of someone like her.

She heard them enter.

For half a second, Vane saw the exhaustion plainly.

Then the composure returned.

Fast enough that anyone who didn’t know her would have assumed it had never left.

"Vane."

"Your Highness."

"Don’t."

The word came sharper than she intended.

Everyone noticed.

Anastasia noticed that everyone noticed.

She closed her eyes briefly.

"Apologies."

Her voice was quieter when she continued.

"Three weeks of being addressed formally by people who would clearly rather I leave has removed whatever pleasure the title once provided."

From somewhere behind Vane, Nyx made a tiny sound.

Ashe crossed her arms.

"You came alone."

Anastasia looked at her.

"I came correctly."

"That wasn’t the question."

"It is the answer."

She turned back toward the window.

"If this were a state matter, I would have needed an escort."

Her hands folded in front of her.

"A declaration of purpose."

"The Emperor’s knowledge."

"His seal."

She paused.

"I have none of those."

Valerica watched her carefully.

"You left without sanction."

"I left without making this political."

Anastasia’s voice was controlled again.

"I would rather you understood that immediately than spent the next hour discovering it piece by piece."

No one responded.

Outside the window, wind moved through the courtyard trees.

Valerica spoke first.

"Then what is this?"

Anastasia did not turn around.

For long enough that Vane thought she might refuse to answer.

Then:

"My sword is missing."

The words were precise.

Too precise.

Ashe’s expression tightened.

Anastasia continued before anyone could interrupt.

"That is the phrase I have used for three weeks."

Her hands remained perfectly still.

"It is useful."

Nyx’s gaze sharpened.

"It lets me ask where he is."

A pause.

"It lets me justify crossing a continent."

Another.

"It lets me stand in front of Ryuken eleven times and ask the same question after being told he does not know."

Now she turned.

Something in her expression had changed.

The composure was still there.

But it no longer hid the strain completely.

"It also lets me avoid examining why I am the one asking."

Nobody moved.

Anastasia looked at Vane.

Then Ashe.

Then away again.

"It has stopped working."

Her voice dropped.

"I would appreciate it if none of you made me find a better phrase today."

The silence after that was different.

Not awkward.

Protective, almost.

As though everyone had independently decided not to push against the one part of her honesty she had not yet learned how to defend.

Ashe uncrossed her arms.

That was all.

But Vane noticed.

They left Anastasia at the window.

Nobody spoke until the eastern wing was behind them.

Nyx stopped beneath the covered walkway.

"She isn’t looking for a weapon."

Vane glanced at her.

"I noticed."

"No."

Nyx looked back toward the guest wing.

"I mean specifically."

Her opal eyes had gone distant.

"I read her the entire time."

Ashe leaned against one of the pillars.

"And?"

Nyx folded her arms.

"People carry ownership in a particular way."

Valerica frowned.

"Meaning?"

"If something belongs to you and goes missing, you’re angry."

Nyx considered.

"Offended, sometimes. Possessive. You start thinking in terms of recovery."

Her eyes moved toward the wing.

"That’s not what she’s carrying."

Ashe’s expression remained unreadable.

Nyx continued.

"She crossed an entire continent."

"Alone," Isole said.

"Without using her name properly."

Valerica nodded slowly.

"No escort. No official authority."

"No protection from the state if something goes wrong," Nyx said.

"She has spent three weeks being told no by Ryuken."

Vane almost smiled.

"That part alone is impressive."

Nyx ignored him.

"And she has not once seriously considered leaving."

Ashe looked at her.

"You got all of that from one conversation?"

Nyx met her eyes.

"It’s one conclusion."

The humor left her voice.

"She’s frightened."

No one spoke.

Nyx’s gaze stayed on Ashe.

"Not for the Empire’s sword."

A beat.

"For him."

Ashe looked away.

Valerica’s expression changed slightly.

Isole said nothing.

Vane thought back to Anastasia’s words.

My sword is missing.

Such a careful phrase.

Such an obviously insufficient one.

Above them, high in the inner sanctum, Ryuken’s lamp still burned.

Daylight did nothing to diminish it.

Thirty years, Ashe had once told him.

The lamp had been lit for thirty years.

A man who almost never hurried.

A man who had reached that eastern boundary two decades ago and turned back.

A man who had apparently been waiting ever since for some timeline that did not belong to him to finally arrive.

Vane looked up at the light.

They had crossed three worlds searching for Lancelot’s past.

Anastasia had crossed one continent searching for Lancelot himself.

And Ryuken—

Ryuken had apparently been waiting for both roads to reach the same place.

The lamp had already been lit long before any of them understood they were coming home.