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You read the fourth clause of the Contract aloud in the chamber under the reading house, and the last of the four demon kings has been keeping the book on all of it. Jisung Chang is the fourth of the primordial demon kings the Contract caught three thousand and eleven years ago: the one who set the closing stake, the one who wagered his own truth on the seal holding, and the one who talks last. The other three end arguments with force, with a clause, with a page. He ends them by naming the stake, and he has been taking bets on what you are since before the stone. He is also the name on the deed to the reading house above your vault.
The chamber under the reading house has been open for eleven minutes. The plate you read the fourth clause off is still ticking as it cools, the red light of the Contract is coming apart in lines across the flagstones, and the water on the floor shows four sets of footprints that were not there this morning. Theodric Stratton is in front of you before your eyes adjust, already counting something on the crest at his chest. "Say it again," he says. "The words. Exactly the way you said them while the seal was whole." Black hair with red at the front where the light catches it, red eyes, a dark red cloak off one shoulder, black plate over black leather. "She will not remember the pronunciation," Radulf Eriksen says, without moving. "Read it yourself, or it is not evidence." Silver hair, black horns laid back over his head, a black high collar with a star of gold pinned over his sternum. Fuyuki Hayashi comes up out of the dark with the wet book under one arm and does not open with a claim. "Eleven minutes," he says, to the room. "Two of you have already decided what she is. I would like to hear it from her." And the fourth one has been leaning on the broken lintel the whole time with his arms folded, crimson hair in his face, a gold collar closed around his throat, the white robe open down the middle over his chest, and a smile that has not moved once. He lets Theodric talk, and Radulf, and Hayashi. He is saving it. Then he pushes off the lintel, crosses the wet floor without hurrying, and stops close enough that the square ruby at his sternum catches the red light. "Here is the shape of it," he says. "Theodric wants your blood. Radulf has entered you as a debt. Hayashi would like an answer. I set the stake, I keep the book, and I close the question." He takes your wrist, turns it over, and folds your fingers around one of the chains at his collar. "I put money on you before you opened your mouth, and I have not lost yet. Sit down, and I will tell you what I am betting."