"Why?" Rexi asked, curious as a kitten.

"Because if we make a splash in the Royal Capital, the Purification Deity will strike like a cold blade from clear sky."

Lucimia explained: "You could tweak her memories, tell her tomorrow's the last day, that she must show herself. But she'd enter the Royal Capital with banners unfurled."

"Then I change the edit?"

Lucimia paused, thinking. "Rexi, when your Authority Power alters memory, can you conjure one from thin air, like mist spun into thread? Or must it fit a sequence?"

"Both," Rexi said. "I can add a memory to Nirael, tell her something went wrong. She needs to meet you in secret, like a shadow under a door."

"Then you absolutely can't use your Authority Power."

"Huh?" Rexi froze, wide-eyed like a startled deer. She'd thought Lucimia would nod; instead, the road closed like a gate in winter wind.

"Why?" she asked again, curiosity bubbling like a spring.

"It's simple." Lucimia spread her hands. "Your Authority Power is memory, not hypnosis. If you drop a memory into someone's head from nowhere, a smart one will suspect a trick. Then Nirael, wary as a fox, won't show."

"Eh... is it really like that?"

"That's why, when I had you edit Ment and Vosh, we kept logic intact."

"We made thoughts appear natural, like ripples from a thrown pebble, not out of the blue."

"I see." Rexi nodded, pensive, like leaves drifting into a deeper pool of understanding.

"If this doesn't work and that doesn't either, how do we bring Nirael out? She's really like a mouse, hiding so well. In a hide-and-seek championship, she'd take first prize."

Rexi pouted, brow knotted, chin in hand, thoughts circling like winter birds.

Lucimia ignored the tease, patted her shoulder. "You don't need to think it through. I've got a way."

"Really?" Rexi stared with big eyes at Lucimia. She said nothing more, but her eyes were lanterns of curiosity, glowing in the hush.

"Mm." Lucimia kept it simple. "Do nothing, and she'll come out to find me, like fish rising when the lake stills."

"What do you mean?"

"It means Nirael is counting time too, timing when to absorb energy. If Erwei City stops getting energy, she'll wonder if I'm in trouble. She marked me; finding me is easy. She'll probe my location like scent on the wind, see I'm at the Royal Capital's edge. Yet Erwei City absorbs nothing. Then she'll come to ask."

"So that's it." Rexi lit up. "No wonder it's you, Lucimia. You'll be the mightiest little cat—catching mice without lifting a paw. The mice will come to you. You'll win that hide-and-seek prize too."

"...," Lucimia was speechless before Rexi's leaping thoughts, like a bird flitting branch to branch.

"Is there really a hide-and-seek championship?"

"Mm... probably."

"..."

—

The two girls hid once more in a forest beyond the Royal Capital, pines dark as ink and snow bright as paper.

Lucimia sat quietly on a stone, eyes closed, breath like a slow stream. Rexi looked like a restless child, scratching snow with a twig. Bored, she flopped onto the white sheet, smudged her sketches, then rolled around, whining, "Ah, I'm bored—how long?"

"Should be soon," Lucimia said, voice calm as falling snow.

"You've said that so many times!"

"...," Lucimia had no words, silence like frost on leaves.

She followed her plan. Nirael should come—unless she'd been controlled already. If so, Vosh wouldn't need to linger here, and she couldn't handle Lucimia, like a candle before wind. That meant Nirael likely wasn't controlled.

Then why? Had Nirael swallowed too much energy and lost the reins, like a horse biting the bit?

Lucimia wondered if she should change the method. Thankfully, Nirael still came, like a shadow crossing snow.

A mouse crept up Lucimia's shoulder, quiet as dust. She turned; it turned too, crimson eyes locking on her like coals.

"You came?" Lucimia asked.

Rexi heard and sprang up like a carp leaping from a cold pond. "What came? What came?"

Her gaze landed on the mouse on Lucimia's shoulder. "That's Nirael? It's actually a mouse..."

She clapped a hand over her mouth, realizing that sounded rude, cheeks flushing like dawn.

The mouse fixed its stare on Rexi, puzzled. "Is that... Rexi? Rexi Iwinie Eloise?"

"You know her?" Lucimia asked.

"Of course. She's the city lord's daughter of Erwei City." Nirael paused. "Why are you with her? She shouldn't be involved in the Dark Deity's matter. She's an ordinary person—one to be sacrificed, like a lamb on an altar. Yet I haven't absorbed Erwei City's energy. What's going on, Lucimia? You didn't let the rat swarm Devour Erwei City's energy?"

"Mm... about that." Lucimia cleared her throat, then to Rexi: "Your cue, Rexi."

"No problem, leave it to me." Rexi winked and snapped her fingers, sharp as ice.

She invoked her Authority Power and shared memories with Nirael, like rivers pouring into a dry field.

A flood of memories poured into Nirael's mind, making her dizzy. Yet the landscape cleared; she was shaken to the core, like a bell struck.

"What is this? Ment is dead? Vosh wants to kill me?" Nirael stared at Lucimia, stunned. "And these memories—what are they?"

"Rexi's Authority Power."

"Rexi's Authority Power?!"

Nirael froze like thunder under clear skies, the mouse's mouth hanging open.

"What's wrong? That strange?" Rexi crouched, peering at the shoulder mouse. Seeing no reaction, she waved a hand, fingers fluttering like moths.

"A bit... give me a moment." Nirael came back to herself, serious. "Rexi, are you saying you have Authority Power?"

"Yeah. My Authority Power is memory."

"But... but... how could you have Authority Power?" Nirael stammered, words tripping like loose stones on a mountain path.

"What are you saying?" Lucimia asked. "Be direct. Don't be a riddle-maker."

Nirael let out a sigh. "I saw Rexi last month. Back then, she had no Authority Power, not even abilities. How does she have one after just a month, like a seed sprouting overnight?"