Chapter 6: Four Crowns and a Jester

For the first hour of his new life, Liam did what any sensible person from Junk Pit would do when left alone in a room bigger and more valuable than their entire former existence: he explored. Cautiously. He treated every object with the suspicion of a bomb disposal expert. He gave the blue vase Jin had warned him about a wide berth, circling it as if it were a sleeping predator.

He discovered a bedroom with a bed so large and soft it seemed like a geographical feature. He found a bathing chamber where water, clean and warm, flowed from a silver spout at the twist of a knob—a miracle that nearly brought him to tears. He found a wardrobe filled with clothes made of fabrics so fine they felt like solid mist against his rough fingers. It was a world of impossible comfort, and it made him deeply, profoundly uneasy. This wasn't his life. It was a costume, and he was just waiting for the real actor to show up and demand it back.

The silence was the strangest part. In Junk Pit, silence meant danger. It meant a Prowler was near, or a scrap-heap was about to collapse. Here, it was just… empty. He found himself missing the familiar sounds of grinding metal and distant shouting.

He was staring out the grand balcony window, watching the tiny figures of people moving in the plaza below, when the silver-inlaid doors to the suite opened without a sound. Liam spun around, his heart leaping into his throat, his hand instinctively reaching for a non-existent knife.

Prince Jin glided back into the room, looking as unruffled as when he'd left. If he had just been in a shouting match with the four most powerful people in the known world, he showed no sign of it.

"Well," Jin announced to the empty room, "that went about as well as could be expected. Queen Aria is cautiously intrigued, Lord Darius wants to write a seven-hundred-page treatise on you, and High Queen Sylvara has agreed to reserve judgment, which is her version of wild enthusiasm."

"And Lord Kael?" Liam asked, remembering the fiery, furious man who had wanted him dead.

"Oh, Lord Kael has been placated," Jin said with a dismissive wave. "I reminded him of a certain… indiscretion involving a Zephyrion ambassador's prize-winning racing bird and a poorly aimed celebratory fireball. He's agreed that a period of 'quiet observation' is in order." Jin's smile was laced with venomous silk. "Blackmail is such an ugly word. I prefer to think of it as 'leveraging shared history for a harmonious outcome.'"

Liam, who had used the knowledge of who stole Weasel's favorite wrench to secure an extra ration bar, understood this perfectly. "Got it. You know where the bodies are buried."

Jin's laugh was a sharp, appreciative bark. "Precisely. You're a quick study." He gestured toward a small, ornate table in the center of the room. "Now, they are on their way here. They wish to 'observe' you for themselves."

The bottom dropped out of Liam's stomach. "Here? Now? The four rulers are coming *here*?"

"Don't panic," Jin said soothingly, though his eyes danced with amusement. "It's not an execution, it's an interview. A very, very high-stakes interview where if you say the wrong thing, one of the interviewers might try to set you on fire. But an interview nonetheless."

"I don't know what to say!" Liam whispered, his voice cracking. "I don't know anything about politics or kingdoms! I know about rust, and which kind of metal gives you a rash!"

"Excellent," Jin said, clapping his hands together. "That's your strategy, then. Honesty. Not the whole truth, of course—never the whole truth—but your truth. They are expecting a demon, a monster, a void-spawned sorcerer plotting their doom. They are not expecting a goofball from the slums who is confused by soft furniture. We will give them the latter. It will be far more disarming."

Before Liam could protest further, a formal knock echoed at the door. Jin's demeanor shifted instantly. The casual, amused mentor vanished, replaced by the serene, untouchable Prince of Glaciera. The temperature in the room seemed to drop a few degrees.

"Enter," Jin called out, his voice a melodic command.

The doors swung open to reveal the four rulers of the Pentarchy. They entered the room like a physical manifestation of the world's power, each carrying the weight and aura of their element. Queen Aria's silver hair seemed to catch an unfelt wind. Lord Kael's presence radiated a dry heat. Lord Darius moved with a fluid grace, while High Queen Sylvara's steps were as measured and heavy as a shifting mountain.

They were a terrifying sight. Liam felt an almost overwhelming urge to dive under the couch.

"Prince Jin," Queen Aria said, her voice crisp and clear. "We have agreed to your terms. We will observe the boy. But make no mistake, if we sense any demonic taint or threat to the Compact, our agreement is void."

"But of course, Your Majesty," Jin replied with a slight, formal bow. "I would expect nothing less."

The four monarchs turned their collective, world-shaking attention to Liam. He felt like a bug under four different magnifying glasses. He stood awkwardly, his hands clasped behind his back to keep them from shaking, acutely aware of the grime still lodged under his fingernails.

Lord Kael of Pyraxis spoke first, his voice a low growl. "So. This is the creature that drained the Aether Diamond. It looks… unimpressive."

Liam wasn't sure if he was supposed to respond. He glanced at Jin, who gave him a tiny, almost imperceptible nod.

"I didn't mean to," Liam blurted out. "Drain it, I mean. I just touched it like everyone else. It just… happened."

High Queen Sylvara's gaze was intense, as if she were trying to determine his geological composition. "The records of your attunement are blank. The Diamond gave no color, no glyph. What is the nature of your magic, boy?"

This was the critical question. Jin had coached him for this on the walk from the dais. *Tell them what you know, not what you are.*

"I don't really have magic," Liam said honestly. "Not like you. I can't make anything. I can't summon fire or wind. It's more like… things with magic just stop working when they get too close to me." He thought of Kaelen's fireball, of the werewolf's claws. "It's like I'm empty, and the magic just… falls in."

Lord Darius, the scholar-king of Aquilane, leaned forward, his eyes alight with academic curiosity. "Fascinating. A nullification field. A personal anti-mana aura. Does it require conscious effort?"

Liam shook his head. "No. I don't even know how to do it. It just happens when I'm scared."

This admission, so simple and childish, hung in the air. It was so profoundly different from the calculated, power-hungry responses they were used to hearing. It was the truth, and its simplicity was a shield.

Lord Kael scoffed. "He claims ignorance. A convenient defense. How do we know this isn't a ploy? A demon wearing a child's face?"

Jin, who had been watching silently, stepped forward. "An excellent point, Lord Kael. Why don't we test it?"

A dangerous light flickered in Kael's eyes. "A test? I would be happy to oblige."

"Nothing so crude as a fireball, my lord," Jin said smoothly, cutting him off before he could incinerate the priceless rug. "Something more subtle." He turned to Queen Aria. "Your Majesty, if you would be so kind? A simple wind, perhaps?"

Queen Aria looked from Jin to Liam, her expression calculating. She raised a slender hand, and a gentle whirlwind, no bigger than her fist, formed in her palm. It was a perfect, contained vortex of green-tinged mana, spinning silently.

"Approach, boy," she commanded.

Liam's heart hammered. He took a hesitant step forward, then another, until he was standing before the Queen of Zephyrion.

"Hold out your hand," she instructed.

Trembling, Liam extended his palm. Aria moved the miniature whirlwind over his hand. The moment the structured mana of her spell entered the immediate vicinity of Liam's skin, it wavered. The perfect vortex lost its shape, the spinning slowed, and with a faint, sighing sound, the wind simply… ceased to be. The mana that formed it was gone, leaving nothing behind. Liam felt the familiar, fleeting warmth of the void being fed a tiny morsel.

Aria's eyes widened. She looked at her empty palm, then at Liam, with a newfound, unnerving intensity.

"Incredible," Lord Darius murmured, scribbling furiously on a small wax tablet he'd produced from his robes. "The nullification is absolute, even against a Crown-level caster's structured mana. The implications are staggering."

"The implication," Lord Kael snarled, "is that he could walk up to any one of us, and our magic would be useless. He is the ultimate assassin."

"He is also a fifteen-year-old boy who is currently terrified of my furniture," Jin countered calmly. "An assassin does not tremble when a queen asks to see his hand. A demon does not admit he is scared. Look at him. He is not a weapon. He is a child who happens to be a walking anomaly."

The four rulers looked at Liam, truly looked at him. They saw the ill-fitting clothes, the nervous posture, the genuine confusion in his eyes. He wasn't playing a political game; he didn't even know the rules. He was just a kid, caught in the gears of a world far too big for him.

"He is a blank slate," High Queen Sylvara stated, her voice resonating with finality. "Untrained. Unaligned. And currently, under the protection of the Crown of Glaciera." She looked directly at Jin. "You have claimed him, Prince Jin. His actions are now your responsibility. His development, his loyalty… it all rests on your shoulders. Should he become the threat Kael fears, it will be your house that pays the price."

"A responsibility I accept gladly," Jin said with a serene smile.

The audience was over. The rulers had seen what they came to see. They had not found a monster, but a mystery. And a mystery, under the watchful eye of Prince Jin, was something they could tolerate. For now.

They departed as they had arrived, a silent, elemental storm of power, leaving a stunned Liam in their wake.

The moment the doors closed, Liam's knees gave out for the second time that day, and he sank onto the floor, his head in his hands. "That was the most terrifying thing I have ever done."

Jin laughed, the princely frost melting away to reveal the amused young man beneath. "You were perfect! You were honest, you were scared, and you were completely unimpressive. They came in here expecting to find a dark lord in training, and instead they found a lost puppy. They don't know what to make of you, and that confusion is your shield."

He walked over and offered Liam a hand, pulling him to his feet. "You see, Liam? Politics is just theater. And today, you played the part of the fool brilliantly."

Liam, still shaking, finally looked up at Jin. "The fool? I thought I was being a 'blank slate.'"

"The fool, the jester, the child," Jin said with a wave of his hand. "In the courts of power, they are the only ones permitted to speak the simple truth. And your truth—that you are just a scared kid who doesn't understand his own power—is the one thing that will keep you alive."

He guided Liam toward the balcony, into the warm afternoon sun. "The first test is over. You have been seen, measured, and for now, accepted. Now the real work begins."

"Real work?" Liam asked, his voice filled with dread.

"Of course," Jin said, a predatory gleam in his golden eyes. "We have to figure out what happens when your void isn't just eating scraps of wind and cantrips. We need to see what happens when it's fed a real meal." He grinned, a flash of white teeth. "And I have a feeling it's going to be spectacular."

Liam looked out at the sprawling city, then back at the terrifying, beautiful prince who now controlled his fate. He was a jester in a king's court, a shadow claimed by the light. He didn't understand the game, but he had survived another round. And for a boy from Junk Pit, that was the only victory that mattered.