Morga blinked tired eyes. Over the past few days, he and the other Kurkan sorcerers had been working straight through the nights, and now even when he closed his eyes, he couldn’t sleep.

He knew that he needed to.

Frowning, Morga looked at the black potion boiling in a cauldron, and then checked a nearby hourglass to be sure that every last grain had passed into the bottom. It was time for the next set of ingredients. As he was weighing them out on his scales, he glanced up as the door opened.

“Ishakan!”

“A gift from Leah,” Ishakan said, tossing a small glass bottle to him.

“……!”

Hurriedly, Morga checked the inside of the bottle to find a single lock of short silver hair. There was only one bastard who had hair like that.

Immediately, he dropped the lock of hair into the cauldron, and the bubbling liquid shifted instantly into gold and then back to black.

“Will that be enough?” Ishakan asked, watching the liquid changing color.

“It will be enough.” Morga drew out a dagger and handed it to Ishakan. “Then…”

Ishakan dragged a chair over and sat down, then sliced his forearm with the blade. The sharp edge was already stained with his blood.

Morga set a wide silver basin under his king’s bleeding forearm, the vivid red dripping downward. Ever since Leah was first brought to the desert, Ishakan had ordered a number of measures to be taken. Now, they were nearly complete.

But it had taken a considerable amount of the king’s blood.

Despite the amount of blood he was losing, Ishakan showed no sign of weakness. As his blood trickled into the basin, he extended his other hand to Morga, taking the lit pipe from him.

Blood dripped. Smoke floated upward as Ishakan inhaled. His eyes were dull.

“Then it will be best to use it the moment the spell is broken,” he said, finishing Morga’s earlier sentence.

“Yes,” Morga replied. “Breaking a spell will cause a significant reaction in the sorcerer. It will be most effective if used at that moment.”

Ishakan nodded, and Morga’s lips pursed as he watched him quietly smoking.

They had hoped that Baroness Cinael’s appearance alone might be enough to break the spell on Leah’s ladies-in-waiting. But even though that had failed, the Baroness had not given up, though she knew her life would be forfeit if she was discovered. She felt she had a duty to save them.

Byun himself did not remember writing those letters. That had been enough to shake the spell he was under, and with Morga’s help, he had been able to break it altogether.

After that, Byun and Count Weddleton had both provided aid to the Kurkans, though not entirely willingly. There had been a variety of threats.

And when it was all done, Leah had returned to the palace, the only place she could try to retrieve her lost memories before the wedding. She had asked for Morga’s help, and Morga had done everything he could for his queen.

But nothing was sure. Everything was so uncertain, it was impossible to know if the princess was even capable of retrieving her memories. But she had gone into the storm nevertheless, and Ishakan had decided to follow her, with no guarantees possible.

No matter what, the outcome would be the same. Even if Leah’s memories were lost forever, on the wedding day, Ishakan would take back his bride.

Immersed in these thoughts, Morga came back to reality with a jolt when he saw the blood spilling to the floor, and quickly handed a cloth to Ishakan to staunch the bleeding.

Morga’s hands were shaking.