POV: el
Summary
El — the singer ruler with no title — walks up to the Kholinar palace vault and orders the four Regal guards posted there to open it for him. They do, without question. He is mildly disappointed: the Nine should have warned them not to obey him. They are too distracted by the war.
Heshual — once *Govi*, now an envoyform Regal — follows him in as required. El picks through the aluminum-lined chamber, ignoring chests of gemstones, asking after her old name and her promotion. He understands her timidity: a single Fused noticed her passion and elevated her; the rest have since punished her for it. *My kind wear thin*, he tells her gently — his own honour was stripped in part for warning that they could not rule much longer.
He finds what he came for on a back shelf: the dagger with the gemstone in its crossguard that holds what remains of Jezrien. He sets it on the bench, takes one of Raboniel's anti-Light spheres from his pocket, and touches the gemstone of the prison with it. The captured anti-Light runs into the prison, and what was left of the Herald flashes out forever. The crack barely fractures the stone — there had been very little of him left to destroy. *Goodbye, old friend*, El whispers.
Heshual panics. El gently suggests she run to the Nine before they can punish her for not having stopped him; the fault is theirs for not warning her, and his for being himself. She bolts, calling for the other guards to seal him in. He sits on a bench and waits.
Before the guards reach the door, the new Odium overshadows him — and El answers, *to no rhythm*, that he sees this god for what he is and what he is not. *Who are you?* the god asks, then sees it. He appears in the vault as an elderly human, slams the door shut on the approaching guards, and asks El to help solve a problem — a test, and a real one.
The god lays it out: Thaylenah is secure. The army diverted from Lasting Integrity toward Azir should be enough to claim it. But the Shattered Plains worry him; he has sent vast numbers of Fused there. El deduces what the god wants: a way to push reinforcements through. Without a corrupted Elsecaller or a proper Honorblade of that order, the only option is Dai-Gonarthis — the Black Fisher — to cut a portal anchored at Natanatan from the Horneater Peaks.
Odium takes him at his word and names him ruler — no title, by request — placing him over the Nine and giving him the assault. El negotiates a reward: human lands to govern when it is done. The god agrees, then promises that even failure here will not be wasted; the work is on many worlds, not one. El bows, tucks the spent prison back onto its shelf, tosses the anti-Light sphere into the air, and walks out composing in his head the first lines of a poem to celebrate his new god — and savouring how the Nine are about to take the news.