Chapter 23 - My Name on the Sacrifice List
The first bell tested strength.
The second tested memory.
The third tested fear.
I passed the first by getting punched through a wall and standing back up.
I passed the second by refusing an illusion where my mother was alive.
The third showed me my own corpse.
That one felt lazy.
At the fourth bell, the mountain revealed truth.
A list appeared in the air.
Every harvested disciple for the last twenty years.
My name was on it.
So was my mother's.
MARA RENN — HARVEST FAILED.
I stared.
Veyr tried to destroy the list.
The mountain froze him in place.
Fen stood among the spectators.
I looked at him.
He nodded once.
My mother had escaped this same ritual.
Then someone had hunted her afterward.
The fifth bell rang.
Candidates had to choose one person to sacrifice from the trial to gain power.
Veyr chose an elder without hesitation.
The elder vanished in red light.
Veyr advanced.
The system offered me the same choice.
[Select sacrifice.]
Names appeared.
Mira.
Jace.
Fen.
Myself.
I selected none.
[Invalid.]
"Then fail me."
The bell rang again.
[DEFY TRIAL LAW]
[Defiance +100]
The mountain cracked.
A tenth bell rang.
There were only supposed to be nine.
Fen's face went pale.
May you like
"Kai," he whispered, "run."
