Nine Sorrows Lotus.
The name came to him before he even pulled out the tag.
He had never seen one. But he had heard it described so many times that he could have drawn it with his eyes closed.
The Poison Empress had found one only once in her life, after years of searching, and she had kept it sealed away where nobody could see it, not even him. But whenever she spoke of her ultimate creation, she spoke of this flower. Nine black petals edged with silver. Curled shut like a fist. A grey mist that clung to it and never drifted away, no matter how strong the wind was.
"It mourns," she had told him once. "Nine times. Once for each thing it kills."
He had laughed at her back then.
He wasn't laughing now.
Simon drew out the tag.
{Nine Sorrows Lotus. Found only twice in the history of my family. Highly poisonous. A single petal can kill a Greater Demon before it finishes nine breaths.
