Kire shook her head. “No. Not in this world. Though our worlds have similarities, or we wouldn’t even be having this conversation, literally.” She smirked a little. “I have been trying to tell you. But I guess it’s hard to fathom. I’m surprised Envy figured it out and accepted it so quickly.” She watched the stream, same as Ruli, though after a few moments she began fiddling with a pebble before tossing it into the water. “I have no idea how or why those Seers make the choices they do. They’re supposed to be clairvoyants, seeing different branches of the future. I tried asking, once, and the best They could tell me is they make ‘educated guesses’.” Kire snorted at that. “So many lives at stake, so much bloodshed, because some ethereal beings are tinkering with Time. Poking at the splitting branches of the future and seeing where the next bit goes. Now [i]that[/i] sounds like the work of gods, too.” 

She was silent at his question. She had rehearsed the answers over and over with herself. “You don’t understand,” she began, though not unkindly, “when I say it takes a lot of energy and blood to summon a world gate, I mean imagine a whole town’s worth of blood, [i]at the least[/i]. It is very complicated magic. I suppose, if gods really did exist, that’s precisely why they made opening world-gates taboo. A lot could go wrong just from the spells, the rune-circles, the conduits of power that you’ve chosen. And you need to sacrifice blood to it. You need a small army of sorcerers to complete such a ritual to begin with, and even then you’re not guaranteed success. Most difficult of all, you’re not even sure for how long that gate will stay open. Without the Ring, one ritual equals a one-way portal.” 

Kire’s hand, which had been resting on one knee, dug in as she spoke. “There had been an attempt on a large scale once. Many, many years ago. I was about—forty? The blood-mages cordoned off a whole town and its surrounding land, but something went wrong. Or went right, I don’t know. The consequences of their summoning brought a catastrophe called the Black Storm that destroyed many places in my country, killed many Amrians. The fact that Ikegai might still be here in your world means he hasn’t been able to open another gate just yet. Some good news, if that counts as good news.” She sighed deeply. 

“There are other reasons for him wanting this Ring, though. Before I went to search for him again and came to Ziad, I demanded that the Seers answer that very question. I suspect it might have to do with that obsession with me I told you about before. All they’ll tell me is that he would have been the one to receive the Ring’s power, had he not fallen and become what he is today. Probably it’s a mix of both.” She could see clearly the skies of the Black Storm, the strange red lightning, skies so black it almost became night. Kire huffed, frowning. "Plenty messed-up, isn't it?"