“Yes, if I study it,” he replied. “But the greater problem is how we might obtain the scroll. I must tread carefully. If I jeopardize my position, my mother will be left to the mercy of the other consorts. The Virtuous Consort has grown spiteful with the displacement of her son as heir. She would seek any opportunity to harm us.”

In a family as venomous as his, the safest place was on top. It was why Wenzhi had gone to such lengths to secure his position. Why should he pit himself against his father, risking it all? I, myself, was reluctant to sacrifice anything so precious on my part—whether my mother, my freedom, or my love.

Yet what if there was no choice? Could I let my mother face Wugang alone and defenseless? Could I do nothing as Wugang unleashed his soldiers? No. Never. I was not so heartless, nor reckless enough to risk the fate of the realm. As my resolve wavered, I rebuked myself. There must be another way. If I kept thinking there was none, I would stop searching—and then failure would surely follow.

“What if I steal it?” I offered, as desperate as a fisherman down to his last bait.

“You can’t. My father keeps the Divine Mirror Scroll on him at all times. In here.” Wenzhi tapped his temple.

I stared at him. “How is that possible?”

“It’s not easy,” he conceded. “It consumes a vast amount of energy. Only the most powerful among us are capable of such a thing, and only certain artifacts can be hidden so. But it is the most secure place, as the items can’t be stolen or taken by force, not without killing the vessel and destroying the artifact.”

“Why didn’t you hide the dragons’ pearls that way?” I asked.

“Oh, I considered it. I’m glad I did not. I might be dead, and not by my brother’s hand.”

I lifted my chin. “Do you think I would have killed you?”

“Yes, maybe without even knowing it. The item is tethered within the core of one’s lifeforce, and opening its pathway weakens one immensely.” He paused, before adding, “As you did once.”

I had done it to sever the dragons’ bond with their pearls, to set them free. The agony, the wrenching loss, were not things I was eager to relive.

He continued, “It is a drain on one’s power to keep the artifact intact, shielded from our internal energy. I could not have risked it then, not with the looming confrontation with the Celestials. The slightest slip in my concentration and the pearls would have been destroyed, and me along with them. This is why my father does not venture from our borders, why he is always surrounded by guards.”

“You could have given your father the pearls for safekeeping,” I remarked.