"If I choose the Trial of Domain," Jake said slowly, "when does it begin?"

"One month after you formally enter the contest," Vaskan said. "Enough time for you to prepare, to understand what you’re walking into, to train, and to gather resources and build your foundation."

"And the other candidates? How many of them would choose Domain over Blood?"

"Most of them," Vaskan said.

"Combat specialists like Karut prefer the Trial of Blood, but they’re a minority. The majority would choose Domain because they know they can’t defeat the strongest fighters in direct confrontation. Domain gives them alternative paths to power."

Jake nodded slowly, the picture becoming clearer.

A year of competition spread across multiple territories, candidates proving themselves through achievement rather than violence, the political landscape of Clan Raikarndel playing out in miniature across whatever domains the main house assigned. Complicated. Vulnerable. Survivable.

And it gave him time.

Time to train. Time to grow stronger. Time to close the gap between his newly awakened Class Two abilities and Karut’s terrifying mastery.

"I need to think about this," Jake said.

"Of course," Vaskan said immediately.

"Take the time you need. When you’re ready to decide, inform Raani, and she’ll bring you back here. There’s no deadline beyond the pressure; the other candidates will begin applying once they know you’re a potential competitor."

"How long before they know?"

"They already know," Vaskan said.

"Your arrival was noticed. The villa bearing your mother’s name has been waiting empty for years. Your presence here is not a secret that can be kept, nor should it be."

He stood, and Jake rose with him. "Rest and learn what you can about the clan and the contest. When you’re ready to give me your answer, I’ll be here."

He embraced Jake again at the door, the same warm complete gesture as before, and Jake found himself returning it with more ease this time.

"Your mother would be proud," Vaskan said again, quietly.

"Remember that when the weight gets heavy."

Raani came to Jake after his Uncle left. She had most serious face all this time through their talk.

She stood beside him and said, "Young master, you shouldn’t trust him so easily."

Jake looked at the place where Vaskan sat. He listened to what she said, but he didn’t look at her. There was a faint suspicion in his mind about the man who just came to meet him. Though he sounded really well, there was a hidden malice in his eyes that not everybody could see.

Jake, who was used to people who hide their real intentions, could see it clearly. Jake was aware that tha man didn’t even mean a single he said. It was all just an act.

One could tell when someone was speaking with hidden intentions. They can lie but they cannot hide their body movements, facial changes and the way they spoke.

He turned to Raani and asked her, "Why do you say that?"

"It’s because he had never met any of the children directly on his own at that. And he is known to have no interest in making any children patriarch. The elders among the clan say that he is just pretending to elect one."

Jake frowned, as he couldn’t really believe that man had this cunning side. If he had, he would have hidden it really well. Jake fell into thought, thinking about the man who might become his enemy in the near future.

Raani was leading Jake back through the covered walkway toward Raaya Villa, the four maidens flanking him in silence, and Jake’s mind was already racing ahead through possibilities and plans and the hundred decisions that would follow whatever choice he made in this receiving hall.

*

Throughout the morning and afternoon, he had familiarized himself with the clan building and its people. It took more than half a day to roam around the halls. He returned to his room to freshen up.

The evening bath had become a ritual Jake was still adjusting to, the way four maids moved through the process with choreographed efficiency while he sat in water that smelled of cedar and something floral he couldn’t identify.

They had just finished toweling him dry and were beginning the process of selecting evening clothes when Raani appeared in the chamber doorway, her face carrying its usual composed expression, though something in the set of her shoulders suggested she had information to deliver that required careful handling.

Jake noticed her eyes track across him briefly before fixing somewhere safely above his left shoulder, and he wrapped the towel more securely around his waist before speaking.

"What is it?" he asked.

Raani’s composure held, though a faint color touched her cheeks that hadn’t been there a moment before.

"Someone has come to meet you, young master. She’s waiting in the courtyard."

"Who?"

"A lady from Clan Phoenix," Raani said, and something in how she said the clan name carried weight that Jake didn’t have context to interpret yet.

"She says she wanted to meet the new young master and pay her respects," she said but she couldn’t keep her eyes off Jake’s body. All these years spending inside the villa, she hadn’t met much men and the men she met never made an impression on her.

Even though Jake was half her age, she couldn’t help but feel attracted to him.

Jake gestured for the maids to continue dressing him, and they moved in with fresh clothes while he processed this information.

"Clan Phoenix," he repeated. "Should I know them?"

"One of the great clans of Roakan," Raani said, and her voice had taken on the careful quality of someone delivering a briefing while simultaneously being distracted by something they were trying not to look at directly.

"They control significant trade routes through the southern territories and maintain the largest mercenary guild network in the three realms. Their influence in the city is—" she paused, searching for the right word, "—considerable."

The maids finished with his shirt and moved to his trousers, and Jake noticed Raani’s eyes flicker downward before snapping back up with the determination of someone who had decided looking was inappropriate and was going to maintain that decision through sheer force of will.

The faint blush on her cheeks deepened slightly.

Jake pulled on the dark grey trousers the maids offered and fastened them before looking at Raani more directly. "You’re blushing," he observed.

"I am not," Raani said immediately, which would have been more convincing if the color in her face hadn’t darkened further at the accusation.

"You are," Jake said, though he kept his tone light rather than teasing.

"It’s fine. I’m not offended."

"Young master—"

"Is there anything else I need to know about Clan Phoenix before I meet their member?"

Raani gathered herself visibly, pulling her focus back to the briefing with the discipline of someone who had been trained to maintain professional composure under difficult circumstances and was applying that training now with mixed results.

"They’ve remained neutral in the succession contest so far," she said.

"Neither supporting any candidate openly nor making moves that would suggest private allegiances. The fact that they’ve sent someone to meet you this quickly after your arrival is—" she paused again, "—notable."

"Politically significant," Jake said.

"Yes."

The maids finished with his clothes and stepped back, and Jake checked his reflection briefly in the polished mirror near the washroom.

The dark grey suited him better than he expected, the subtle embroidery at the collar and cuffs giving the outfit enough formality to signal status without looking like he was trying too hard. He looked, he had to admit, like someone who belonged in a villa named after his mother on a mountain in Roakan.

He turned to Raani. "All right. Take me to her."

They walked through Raaya Villa’s corridors toward the main courtyard, and Jake noticed Raani’s attention kept drifting sideways toward him before correcting itself forward with visible effort.

The admiration wasn’t new—he’d seen it building in the Dragon Maidens since the awakening, the way they looked at him differently now that his bloodline had manifested fully—but Raani was expressing it more openly than the others, her usual composure cracking at the edges in ways that suggested feelings she was trying and failing to keep completely professional.

"Tell me about Clan Phoenix," Jake said as they walked, partly because he needed the information and partly because giving Raani something to focus on seemed kinder than letting her struggle with wherever her thoughts were currently occupied.

Raani seized the distraction gratefully. "They’re descended from an ancient bloodline that claims direct connection to the mythical phoenix," she said, her voice steadying as she moved into familiar territory.

"Whether that claim is literally true or metaphorical is debated, but their abilities are documented and formidable—fire manipulation, regeneration, life extension that borders on immortality for their most powerful members. The current clan head is a woman named Kasira Phoenix, over three hundred years old, who has held the position longer than most kingdoms have existed in their current forms."

"Three hundred years," Jake said.

"The phoenix bloodline grants extraordinary longevity to those who awaken it fully," Raani confirmed.