Siege
By the time Karl returned to Black City, several days had passed.
"Uncle."
Inside the stronghold, Aya looked despondent, forcing a smile onto her face.
"You're here."
"I'm sorry about Hausman," Karl said. "But everyone has their day, sooner or later. You need to let it go. The living must go on living well, too."
"Mm." Aya nodded, the grief in her eyes undiminished. Slowly, she said, "Old Lev died too."
"Hm?" Karl looked surprised. "What happened?"
"Eve took the sigil of their family, but Old Lev was too old. As the sigil left his body, his life force drained away with it," Aya said. "He... ultimately couldn't hold on."
"Actually, Old Lev's sigil had already changed hands several times. It wasn't even certain whether it could still be used. Eve was far too impatient!"
Sigils could not be passed on indefinitely. Each transfer tainted them with the host's aura, and after changing hands too many times, they would lose their effect.
However, exactly how many transfers it took for a sigil to fail varied according to the sigil and its hosts. There was no fixed number.
It was obvious that Aya deeply resented Eve.
"What about you?" Karl asked. "Did you successfully fuse with the sigil?"
"No." Aya looked despondent. "Neither did Xiao Nan. Mute was the one who succeeded."
Mute was a member of the team, a taciturn little man. He was not actually mute.
Karl turned his head. Mute gave him a somewhat awkward smile.
It seemed that whether one could fuse with a sigil was like whether one possessed the talent of a wizard—it all depended on luck.
If you were born with it, you had it. If not, then you did not. It had little to do with intelligence, appearance, or physique.
"The sigil