The Emperors Soul

release. Together, that was meant to make her pliable, willing to agree to anything in the hope that she’d be freed.
    An opportunity indeed . . .
    It was time to take control of this conversation.
    “You want something from me,” Shai said. “I’m ready to discuss my payment.”
    “Your payment ?” Frava asked. “Girl, you are to be executed on the morrow! If we did wish something of you, the payment would be your life.”
    “My life is my own,” Shai said. “And it has been for days now.”
    “Please,” Frava said. “You were locked in the Forger’s cell, with thirty different kinds of stone in the wall.”
    “Forty-four kinds, actually.”
    Gaotona raised an appreciative eyebrow.
    Nights! I’m glad I got that right . . .
    Shai glanced at Gaotona. “You thought I wouldn’t recognize the grindstone, didn’t you? Please. I’m a Forger. I learned stone classification during my first year of training. That block was obviously from the Laio quarry.”
    Frava opened her mouth to speak, a slight smile to her lips.
    “Yes, I know about the plates of ralkalest, the unForgeable metal, hidden behind the rock wall of my cell,” Shai guessed. “The wall was a puzzle, meant to distract me. You wouldn’t actually make a cell out of rocks like limestone, just in case a prisoner gave up on Forgery and tried to chip their way free. You built the wall, but secured it with a plate of ralkalest at the back to cut off escape.”
    Frava snapped her mouth shut.
    “The problem with ralkalest,” Shai said, “is that it’s not a very strong metal. Oh, the grate at the top of my cell was solid enough, and I couldn’t have gotten through that. But a thin plate? Really. Have you heard of anthracite?”
    Frava frowned.
    “It is a rock that burns,” Gaotona said.
    “You gave me a candle,” Shai said, reaching into the small of her back. She tossed her makeshift wooden soulstamp onto the desk. “All I had to do was Forge the wall and persuade the stones that they’re anthracite—not a difficult task, once I knew the forty-four types of rock. I could burn them, and they’d melt that plate behind the wall.”
    Shai pulled over a chair, seating herself before the desk. She leaned back. Behind her, the captain of the Strikers growled softly, but Frava drew her lips to a line and said nothing. Shai let her muscles relax, and she breathed a quiet prayer to the Unknown God.
    Nights! It looked like they’d actually bought it. She’d worried they’d know enough of Forgery to see through her lie.
    “I was going to escape tonight,” Shai said, “but whatever it is you want me to do must be important, as you’re willing to involve a miscreant like myself. And so we come to my payment.”
    “I could still have you executed,” Frava said. “Right now. Here.”
    “But you won’t, will you?”
    Frava set her jaw.
    “I warned you that she would be difficult to manipulate,” Gaotona said to Frava. Shai could tell she’d impressed him, but at the same time, his eyes seemed . . . sorrowful? Was that the right emotion? She found this aged man as difficult to read as a book in Svordish.
    Frava raised a finger, then swiped it to the side. A servant approached with a small, cloth-wrapped box. Shai’s heart leaped upon seeing it.
    The man clicked the latches open on the front and raised the top. The case was lined with soft cloth and inset with five depressions made to hold soulstamps. Each cylindrical stone stamp was as long as a finger and as wide as a large man’s thumb. The leatherbound notebook set in the case atop them was worn by long use; Shai breathed in a hint of its familiar scent.
    They were called Essence Marks, the most powerful kind of soulstamp. Each Essence Mark had to be attuned to a specific individual, and was intended to rewrite their history, personality, and soul for a short time. These five were attuned to Shai.
    “Five stamps to rewrite a soul,” Frava said. “Each is an abomination, illegal to possess. These Essence Marks were to be destroyed this afternoon. Even if you had escaped, you’d have lost these. How long does it take to create one?”
    “Years,” Shai whispered.
    There were no other copies. Notes and diagrams were too dangerous to leave, even in secret, as such things gave others too much insight to one’s soul. She never let these Essence Marks out of her sight, except on the rare occasion they were taken from her.
    “You will accept these as payment?” Frava asked, lips