“My Ring does not just guard the location of the Babel Fragment… it is said to have another capacity, though I confess I’m not sure how it works…”
“What?”
“It, well, it supposedlyawakensthe West’s Babel Fragment itself.”
“Awakens?” repeated Laila slowly. “What, so a Babel Fragment is something slumbering beneath the ground? I thought it was a rock.”
“That’s what most people think, but the truth is no one knows what it looks like.” Hypnos shrugged. “It’s also why every hundred years, the knowledge of the Fragment’s location changes, moving to another group of Houses within the West. The Order uses a special mind-affinity tool where those who know the knowledge forget it instantly after one hundred years. They even use it upon themselves. It’s not supposed to be beheld.”
All of them fell silent, and then Enrique spoke. “But you don’t know if awakening the West’s Fragment requires, say, both Babel Rings or just one?’
Hypnos shook his head. “The Order has never specified. Sometimes the stories say it’s three Rings. Sometimes it takes just one. Who can say? The Babel Fragments haven’t been disturbed in thousands of years. No one would dare.”
“What happened the last time someone succeeded in disturbing a country’s Fragment?” asked Laila.
“Ever heard of Atlantis?”
“No,” said Zofia.
“Exactly.”
“It’s a mythical city,” said Enrique.
“Well,nowit is.”
“But we still don’t understand what Roux-Joubert wants with the West’s Fragment,” said Séverin. “The last group that tried to disturb the Fragment was the Fallen House, and they sought to join all the Fragments together. Maybe Roux-Joubert wants to emulate them, but we don’t even know why the Fallen House tried what they did in the first place. Do you?”
“I do,” sighed Hypnos, looking around the room. “But first, where’s the wine? I can’t discuss the end of civilization without wine.”
“You can have it after,” said Séverin.
Hypnos grumbled. “The Fallen House believed that Forging was a subset of alchemy. You know, transforming matter and turning things to gold and such. But that was only one part of mastering their secrets. The most important aspect was theurgy.”
“Which is?” asked Zofia.
Enrique pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes. “Theurgymeans ‘the working of the gods.’”
Zofia frowned. “So, the Fallen House wanted to understand how gods work?”
“No,” said Séverin. A terrible smile bent his mouth. “They wanted to become gods.”
Laila shuddered. Silence fell over them, broken only by the metallic chime of Séverin opening his tin of cloves.
“We’re not going to find Tristan without figuring out who Roux-Joubert is,” he said. “We know he’s not with either House Nyx or House Kore. When he was at the dinner, the matriarch didn’t acknowledge him, and he didn’t sit with the other House members. So, we presume that he’s functioning outside the Order, or that someone in the Order is acting through him. We also know he has access to the Exposition Universelle because that’s where he first laid a trap for Enrique and Zofia, and it’s where he’s demanded that we do an exchange.”
“In three days,” said Enrique. “Perfectly timed for the opening of the Exposition Universelle.”
“So?” asked Zofia.
“So, it means he’s waiting for a built-in audience,” said Séverin. “There’s something he’s planning on that date. You heard him. All his talk of ‘revolution’? What better stage to launch one than the world fair?”
Hypnos deflated. “That tells us nothing.”
“We also know that Roux-Joubert wears a honeybee pin,” said Enrique.
“So? Today I’m wearing underwear. It’s hardly monumental.”
Zofia frowned. “Why did you specifytoday—”
