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All of the accumulated fragments, having been in the possession of Lluc and Marcelo Redwater at the time of their deaths, were lost to the conquering Mohssians.

A loss that doubtless changed the course of history. With that in mind, Zeff could certainly understand the lingering resentment that some of the reapers had for the Redwater Twins. Their egos truly had cost the Rainlords almost everything, hadn’t they?

After that, the fragments had been almost entirely absent from history. Cassius was known to have been in possession of one, early in his life, which helped him punch above his weight and make a name for himself as a younger servant, but it was again lost in a battle at sea with the infamous Red Tiger of Abolish. Decades later, Cassius would go on to finally kill the Red Tiger after many encounters, but his fragment remained unrecovered.

So as Zeff stared at the fragment in his hand--a sizable slab that might just barely fit into his coat--he was made to wonder if this woman before him, this Phantom, was fully aware of what she had just done.

Clearly, she knew it was a precious relic to the Rainlords. That was why she was using her second one as a bargaining chip.

But did she know precisely how precious?

The history of the Fountain and its fragments was a long-held secret, even among his own kin. And if other, non-Rainlord servants acquired them, there was very little to be gleaned from the fragments themselves. They were useless to anyone but the divine inheritor.

So there was a very real possibility that she had no idea how powerful these artifacts actually were--or perhaps that she harbored some misconceptions about them.

This other person, though. The Pale Hawk. By now, it was clear that Graves had historical ties to the Rainlords, even if the man had yet to elaborate on them. Zeff had still not gotten that story out of him about his adventures with Agam Elroy and Bernardino Blackburn.

And there was also the fact that Melchor had been familiar with Graves’ old moniker. Archangel, he’d called him. Zeff had mulled over that piece of information quite a bit in recent days.

As far as he’d been able to tell, Melchor was being affected by Graves’ trickery just like everyone else, so why had the man been able to remember the name Archangel before? Had Graves not tried to erase all traces of his previous identity? It seemed as if that should have been a trivial task for the Pale Hawk.