Hadjar could believe that. He had already encountered similar life-saving artifacts during his travels. Once, in the lands of Baroness Cuzio, he had sat for almost a week with a cultivator who’d liked to experiment with black magic using ordinary peasants as test subjects, waiting for his defenses to fail. Such artifacts usually possessed a charge that was only good for one use, however, while here the artifact in question looked to be far more complex.
“And its second function?”
“Please,” the Princess pleaded. “It’s just part of the tradition. I can swear to you on my name and blood that I’ll never use it.”
“The second function, my Princess?” He asked firmly.
Her starry eyes welled with tears, and she whispered softly:
“I command you to be silent.”
“I don’t-”
Hadjar had felt
