Page 212 of Eternal Ruin

The room dipped in temperature, plunging into a blood-freezing cold.

“Yes,” Professor Andreyas confirmed, bringing the scythe down on their necks.

Kidan made a choked little noise.

“Just when I thought everything was getting easier,” Yusef swore, running a hand through his hair. Slen was flipping her notes back and forth like this was something she had missed in her readings.

“This is why a Border House master is so desperate to be in the middle of Uxlay. To set a law that’s permanent in the outside world.” Yusef laughed more to himself than anyone else, a sound full of misery. “Did you know?”

It took Kidan a second to realize he was asking Slen, his gaze hard and searching.

Slen’s fingers left her pages. “No.”

The implications of such power… changed everything. The Border Houses—the 13th—would never let Kidan keep her middle position.

And Dean Faris…

“I asked Dean Faris back then about this.” Kidan spoke aloud, working through the fog in her mind. “She told me laws only work inside a house.”

The professor settled back against his desk. “Only those that have been tested by the Lasi bowl earn the privilege of knowing this. This lesson is as precious as the knowledge found inYe Abyssi Tarik, and those who know it understand the consequences of sharing it. Actis have kept this secret from vampires for as long as I can remember. It is why, even today, I’m one of the few dranaics that know the true extent of a house’s ability.”

Which meant Susenyos… didn’t know. Mahlet had never shared this with him.

Kidan’s pulse quickened, her fingers drawing the four edges of a square.

If Susenyos had become the master of the Adane House and broken the law, he wouldn’t have just been human inside the house butpermanently and everywhere—outside the house.

Her mother’s bones curled like a snake in her pocket, almost poisonous. Kidan hadn’t known her mother at all. How deeply she’d calculated, weaving mystery within mystery. Susenyos hadn’t valued humans, so Mahlet had made sure he’d receive the mask artifact only if he truly became one. Inside and out.

Was her mother just cruel or was she making sure no soul could touch the artifact without paying a heavy price?

“You said two things happen, sir,” Slen said, pulling her back to the present. “What else happens when a master breaks a law?”

Kidan swallowed thickly and listened.

Again, that near smile that possessed the professor whenever they pleased him with their inquiries. “The master of the house cannot set a new law to rectify what he broke. Using Umil’s example, it will mean he will be unable to speak forever.”

Blood drained from all of their faces.

“That’s… that’s not fair!” Yusef burst out like it’d happened to him.

“Is it not?” Professor Andreyas cocked his head. “What did I say in the beginning? The house was given to humans to teach them discipline and honor. It is a power to be used carefully and respectfully. If a master is careless enough to set and break laws without consequences, he will plunge the world into mutiny.”

The professor was not wrong and yet…

Being unable to fix what you broke was a terrifying thought. Now Kidan understood why only the Founding Houses were burdened with heavy responsibility.

If you ever set a law you couldn’t risk breaking, you’d be ruined.

You had to make sure to never set a harsh law because when it came time to change it, you would be the first to be caught in its crosshairs.

The professor spoke in a low, dark tone. “If you cannot live with the consequences of your law being broken, you should never have set it in the first place.”

No higher consequences existed than the Adane House law.

“Sir…” Kidan’s vision wavered but she blinked, trying to focus. “What if a law targets another person specifically? To use the previous example, what if I set a law in Adane House saying ‘If Slen Qaros lies, she will lose her ability to speak.’”

Slen muttered something under her breath about this horrible example. The professor regarded her with a frown, but Kidan needed to know.