Klix had an entire tower to herself.

  It wasn’t the central tower like I expected. That tower was for guests and meetings. Probably the one that was supposed to awe the people who came to visit her.

  The goddess’ tower was the one at the north east corner, which also put it the furthest away from the front gate. I would have assumed that Klix would have wanted somewhere with a view of the main yard, but it seemed like the Goddess preferred somewhere more private.

  We walked past the decorations in silence. I had a feeling that Aelin had pointed out all of the paintings, tapestries, and sculptures and asked plenty of questions about them. I sighed as I thought about the energetic blonde.

  Ether had a hold of my left arm and hadn't let go since before we entered the palace. Her mother was one of the Scarlets and I had a feeling that we were going to run into the older woman at some point. I had no idea how the interaction was going to play out. I was certain that Klix had told Miel that her daughter was alive and coming to the palace, which was probably why my love was so nervous. I squeezed her hand and smiled at her. She smiled back weakly, but she did smile back, so I took that as a win.

  Rix was on high alert the entire time, but had been good and not gone invisible or attacked anyone. She also hadn’t moved from behind me, bringing up the rear as we walked through the palace.

  Once we got off the elevator, the room we went into was nothing like what I’d expected.

  Tres had kept trophies in his personal room, as well as the guest rooms. This was anything but that.

  There was nothing on the walls, unless you counted what looked like rubber. The lighting was good, but there were no windows. The entire floor was also a mat, with a couple benches and three cots scattered around the room.

  Klix and Pixie were also there, and both of them looked upset.

  “So…” I looked around as Gesai and Kara put their burdens on the cots. “These are your chambers?”

  “It’s one of the places where I train the young ones.” Klix gestured at the walls. “The whole thing has at least Tier Seven materials, so it’s essentially indestructible.”

  Each Tier of items that could be gotten from the Dungeon was sturdier than the lower Tier. It also became increasingly more difficult for something to break an item that was a higher Tier. For instance, Rix was level seven, which is Tier Zero, and she could break a Tier One pine wooden board and maybe a Tier Two one. But a Tier Two sheet of steel was outside of what she could do.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Gesai, on the other hand, was level fifty, which was Tier Five. She might be able to break a Tier Five pine wooden board, but definitely wouldn’t be able to break a Tier Six one. The durability gap would be just too high.

  If this room was built out of Tier Seven materials, then only Klix or Trent would be able to break anything in here.

  “Now what?” I looked around the room.

  “Now we get to work.” Klix grabbed one of the benches and carried it over to where Astrid was laying. She walked over to me and grabbed my shirt and tugged on it a little. “Off.”

  “What?” I looked the other direction when I realized that Pixie was taking her shirt off.

  “I need to see your seal.” The Goddess looked at Ether, then Rix. “Yours too. Come on!”

  I turned my back to Pixie as the other two complied. I assumed that Rix would have resisted, but she didn’t offer any argument.

  “What are you..!”

  Klix’s hands were as cold as ice and her nails were like claws. The shock of cold when she put her hand on my chest was enough to silence my question for a moment.

  “Don’t we need to talk first?” I swallowed as she moved on to Ether.

  The faint blue mark barely shone above Ether’s heart. Trent had given her the start of a seal, but never finished it.

  “An outline?!” Klix sounded annoyed as she turned to Rix. “What about?”

  I cleared my throat. “Pixie said she was our Healer and…” I started to turn around to look at her, but remembered why I had my back to her and turned back around. “That she’s my sister.”

  “This won’t do.” Klix moved back in front of me. “Two anchors and an outline.” She sighed. “I need an actual seal that I can copy or we’re going to have to wait until Tres can get here.”

  “Tres?” Things were getting more and more complicated. “Why?”

  “It’s a Tizion seal.” Klix nodded at Ether, then back at Astrid. “The imprint that my granddaughter has is enough to bind the three of you…” She nodded at Rix. “Together. But it’s not going to be enough to overwrite the seal on the girl.”

  She must have seen the confusion on my face because she shook her head. “Okay, think about it this way. The seal that the demons put on that girl is like a painting on a piece of paper. When we beat them, the painting has been smeared into a black canvas.” Klix nodded at Ether. “I can copy her seal, which would normally bind someone to you who doesn’t have a seal already, but that won’t be enough here. In this case we have to put your seal on top of the smear, then wash away the excess. If all we have is the outline, then…” She shrugged. “There will be no canvas to color on.”

  “And you can’t fill in the details because?”

  “It’s not my seal! If I had one to see, then I could copy it, but if I put my seal inside that outline…” She mimicked an explosion in her hands.

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