After the trial, Lissa disappeared from her rooms. The palace avoided that word and said the princess had withdrawn, was resting or had asked not to be disturbed. Two hours later, Shani came to Elian and told him the truth:
"She isn't in her rooms."
Miran had already searched the southern gallery, Tavel the old chapel. Vestra sent a note containing a single word: 'Garden.'
Elian found Lissa in the garden of bloodline apple trees, where Orm had lost years of his life.
The garden was unnaturally quiet. The red cords on the branches had darkened. The fruit had stopped falling, but some of the heavy, almost black apples were barely clinging to their branches.
Lissa stood beneath a fruitless tree.
"I knew you would come," she said.
"Vestra told me."
"Then she knew too."
Elian stopped beside her, but not too close.
She noticed.
"Thank you."
"For what?"
"For not grabbing my hand every time the world becomes frightening."
Elian realised how often he had taken her hand without asking permission.
Lissa watched the black apples.
"All my life, I have been someone else's argument. Savern bound me with an oath so he could control you. Father set his lawful daughter against his unrecognised son. The Throne threatens to erase me to make you more obedient. Even you…"
She did not finish.
Elian did not ask her to.
"Even me," he said.
Lissa nodded.
"You love me. I know. But sometimes your love looks like a trial I was never summoned to."
Elian said nothing.
Lissa turned to him.
"If my name matters so much, erase it."
"No."
Too quickly.
She gave a humourless smile.
"There. You didn't even ask why."
Elian forced himself to breathe in.
"Why?"
"Because I saw the back of the throne. I saw the name of the Lissa I never was. I saw a dream where I executed you, and a dream where you stood in the ashes of my family. I don't know which of us is real. But every version of Lissa becomes a threat to you. Erase me and choose the others."
Shani appeared at the far end of the garden and stopped, not daring to approach. Miran stood behind her, and farther back was Tavel with his empty book. They could not hear the words, but they stood motionless, as people do in the presence of another's grief.
The system responded:
"Lissa Vern voluntarily offers her name. If the offer is accepted, the name will be lost and world stability partially restored."
Elian closed his eyes.
Lissa herself was offering this sacrifice. Tavel might have called it a free choice, Vestra a profitable bargain, and Savern the only reasonable solution.
Elian opened his eyes.
"I will not spend you."
Lissa pressed her lips together.
"Then you're deciding for me again."
"No."
He raised a hand. After the Draft of Debt, his fingers moved with more difficulty, his joints ached in the mornings, and his voice sometimes sounded older than his face.
"You are asking to make a choice you will never be able to take back. I will not surrender your name while the Throne holds you under threat. First I will pay for your right to choose without its pressure."
The system was silent.
Elian stepped towards the tree and laid his palm on the warm red cord.
Stability had fallen so low that the laws of different Drafts had begun to operate at once. They were in the Draft of Memory, but Elian could still invoke the unpaid debt of the previous world.
"Debt of the Draft of Debt. Ten years remaining. Transfer to Lissa Vern's choice."
"You can't!" Tavel cried, but the system had already accepted the formula.
The red cord flared.
Elian felt his body age still further in the space of a few moments. He fell to one knee. The earth smelt of wet bark and iron. Lissa was calling his name, but he could not answer.
The system responded:
"Prescribed outcome breached."
Lissa stood before him, whole. She had neither been erased nor saved against her will. Her name remained, but the black thread of the Empty Throne still ran to her throat.
Elian had removed the pressure from her choice, but had not protected her body from the Corrector.
Nim Arg appeared beside the fruitless tree.
"Prescribed outcome breached," he said. "Lissa's body remains my target."
Miran moved first. Shani shouted Lissa's name. Tavel opened the empty book. Everything happened at once.
Lissa looked only at Elian.
"Now," she said, "I believe you can hear me."
The black thread tightened.
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