Chapter Three: The Flameless Makes the Stele Bow

【Pay one treasured affection to deduce Mordred’s connection to the host’s mother?】 “No.” The answer came faster this time. He could examine the future later. The enemy’s fear already offered a free answer. He faced the marquis. “You recognize this phenomenon.” “I do not.” Black fire surged again. Lain smiled. That was the first imprint he received today, and it had not come from the stele. Mordred had given him leverage. A transparent scale drifted from the golden crack and settled into Lain’s palm. It possessed neither the heat of a red imprint nor the cold of a frost one. Its weight was almost nothing. Mordred recovered quickly. “A heretical bloodline absent from the royal genealogy. Guards, detain Lain pending council examination.”