"What right do you have to insert yourself into this?" Valeria turned on Evelyn . "Your optimism blinds you to what is actually right and wrong."
"Why do you not simply die like Andrian did?" Evelyn said. "Why?"
The table stopped.
"Enough." Vangelis's voice landed like a door closing. "Everyone return to their chambers. Now."
Chairs scraped back. The room emptied quickly.
Fiona caught his arm.
"Vangelis I am sorry. I did not mean what I said. I promise you."
He looked at her. "Is that truly how you have felt this entire time?"
"No," she said quickly. "It was a feeling from the very beginning when everything was still uncertain between us. Not now." She reached for his hand. "Look at us now. We are building something real. We have a child coming. When he arrives we will have everything we ever wanted."
Vangelis was quiet for a long moment.
"You saw what I did," he said finally. "I walked away from Liora. Years of my life with her. I caused us both pain and I did not complain because I chose you. I chose to believe we could build something worth that sacrifice." His voice remained steady but carried weight beneath it. "How could you disrespect that decision?"
"That went exactly as we planned," Corrine said quietly.
"Yes," Roxanne said. "I am going to see her now."
"The Royal Duchess has arrived," the announcer called.
The doors opened. Roxanne entered carrying a bowl of porridge, the steam rising from it gently.
"I came to apologise for this evening," she said.
"You have nothing to apologise for," Valeria said, her voice quieter than usual. "What I did was wrong. Selfish. I knew it before I said it and I said it anyway."
Roxanne set the porridge on the table beside her.
"Your favourite. Please eat something."
She bowed and turned to leave.
"Roxanne dear." Valeria's voice stopped her at the door. "Would you like to join me at the library tomorrow?"
Roxanne turned slowly.
"I would love nothing more," she said.
"You have made extraordinary progress," Lord Zephyron said, walking slowly around her. "Channeling your power through the dagger. Converting it into a sword. Generating barriers." He stopped in front of her. "You have surpassed what I anticipated in a fraction of the time."
"I only follow your instructions," Roxanne said.
"You do more than follow," he said. "You absorb and then you exceed." He stepped back. "I am ending today's session early. You have earned it."
Roxanne bowed and left the cultivation room.
Several minutes passed. Her lady in waiting appeared at the door.
"Lord Zephyron, Your Grace forgot her learning tool. She asked me to collect it for her."
"Her dagger," he said, reaching for it. "Take it directly to her."
"Thank you my lord," the lady in waiting bowed and stepped out.
Lord Zephyron followed shortly after.
The moment he cleared the doorway he saw it. A man struck the lady in waiting from behind with a club, the blow dropping her instantly. He snatched the dagger from her hand before she hit the ground and broke into a run.
Zephyron moved immediately.
"Guards!" His voice carried through the corridor as he gave chase. The man disappeared like a shadow, there one moment and gone the next, leaving nothing behind him that could be followed.
"How is she?" Roxanne asked as the physician worked.
"We will stitch the wound and she will need rest," he said. "She will recover well."
Vangelis appeared in the doorway, his expression tight.
"Roxanne. Are you alright?"
"I am fine," she said. "It is my lady in waiting who was hurt. Whoever it was moved like a shadow. No one saw where he went after he took the dagger."
Vangelis looked at her steadily.
"Your lady in waiting being the target means you are the actual one they are after," he said. "We will tighten security throughout the palace. You need to be careful from this point forward."
A man stood at the door, noticeably taller than everyone in the room. He slowly removed his dark cloak, revealing long, raven-black hair that fell past his shoulders in smooth, loose strands.
Azrien.
His face was dangerously beautiful—sharp, refined features, a strong jaw, and high cheekbones that gave him an almost aristocratic appearance. His eyes were a deep, molten gold, narrow and predatory, carrying the cold gaze of a serpent watching its prey. A faint, knowing smile curved his lips, revealing just the slightest hint of elongated canines.
There was something seductive about him, but it was not soft or inviting. It was the kind of beauty that warned you to stay away while making you want to come closer.
Azrien's gaze swept across the room before settling on them.
For a moment, nobody spoke.
Then his lips curved into a faint smile.
A beer," he said, settling onto the stool with the ease of someone who belonged everywhere. "And a room for the night. Do you have any available?"
"We don't give rooms to strangers," the bartender said, eyeing him. "You're clearly not from around here."
The man smiled slowly.
Then his tongue moved. Long and swift, it grazed the bartender's neck before the man could flinch. The bartender's eyes went blank and he dropped behind the counter, the noise of the tavern swallowing the sound of it completely.
Azrien straightened and looked at his two accomplices with quiet calm.
"Find the room keys."
They moved through the bartender's belongings efficiently and found them. The body was dragged to the back room without ceremony.
Azrien looked at Kaelith.
"Shift into him. Get behind that counter and serve. While you pour add small traces of the poison to their drinks. Just enough. They will answer anything you ask them truthfully and without resistance."
Kaelith's form rippled and settled into the bartender's shape perfectly, down to the stained apron and the slight hunch of his shoulders. He walked out and took his place behind the counter as though he had been there all evening.
The tavern continued without missing a breath.
"How many days are we staying?" Kaelith asked quietly before he left the room.