The early hours of the third day, the day the Empress's dissolution deadline was meant to expire, were marked by a deceptive calm.
The Silverblood garrison maintained the pretense of a routine audit, but beneath the surface, the fortress was a coiled spring.
Seraphina had received the coded reports from the Capital before dawn. The Ironwood Market Correction was a success. The immediate, aggressive intervention by House Silverblood's minority creditors had triggered Article 94 of the Royal Merchant Code. Prince Darius's proxies were now locked into a six-month delay and forced public auction, effectively neutralizing his financial coup.
Darius's rage would be a cold thing, but it was currently impotent, trapped in a legal net woven by a supposedly witless Prince in the North.
The victory was exhilarating, but dangerous. It confirmed the terrifying accuracy of Prince Alaric's intelligence, escalating him from a useful informant to an indispensable asset.
The Silverblood contract, the one Seraphina was sent to dissolve, was now the only thing protecting this asset from the Empress's direct wrath. The flimsy, transactional alliance forged under Article 7 was no longer sufficient.
Kaelen was summoned at mid-morning.
He found Seraphina in the quartermaster's hall, not over maps this time, but seated at the head of the oak table, a single, highly decorative document resting before her: the original marriage contract between the Imperial House and House Silverblood. The Mana-Sensitive Shields were fully engaged, creating the familiar, silent bubble of strategic privacy.
"Sit, Prince Alaric," Seraphina instructed. Her voice was devoid of emotion, operating at a level of cold, clear functionality that Kaelen himself could appreciate. She wore the look of a general preparing to sign a treaty with a hostile, respected power.
Kaelen settled himself, leaning heavily on his cane, playing the part of the frail, exhausted invalid forced back into service. He waited, letting her initiate the high-stakes negotiation.
Seraphina tapped the marriage contract with a fingernail. "The dissolution of this union is currently postponed under the terms of Article 7, Sub-clause Gamma, citing your strategic intelligence as a critical asset necessary for Mutual Preservation. The Ironwood maneuver proves your value. However, the Empress's deadline expires today. While we are protected for the moment, the Empress can simply amend the contract from the Capital, nullifying Article 7 and demanding your immediate return for 're-education' and eventual execution."
She met his gaze, sapphire eyes unblinking. "That is unacceptable. My reputation and my fleet are now tied to your survival. If you are discredited, the Empress will use it as pretext to further attack House Silverblood. Therefore, we must make the contract permanent, immediate, and unbreakable."
Kaelen allowed a slow, dry smile to cross his thin lips. "You wish to marry me, Lady Seraphina. Not out of affection, but to acquire a human shield of Imperial law. A shrewd move. The marriage would formally invoke the Silverblood Defense Clause, guaranteeing the full military and financial protection of your house for any action I take."
"Exactly," Seraphina confirmed, cutting straight through the formality. "You are no longer negotiating your terms of collaboration, Prince Alaric. You are negotiating your price for permanence. If we execute this contract, you gain the full, unquestioned, legal protection of House Silverblood. What do you require in exchange for elevating this alliance?"
Kaelen straightened slightly, the movement conveying a flicker of lethal energy. He dropped the rasp and the tremor for a moment, letting the Arch-Mage's pure, cold authority dominate the room.
"My price is not wealth, Lady Seraphina. My price is authority," Kaelen stated, his voice quiet but absolute. "You will gain the Imperial title attached to my name, Prince Alaric, providing House Silverblood the political legitimacy it requires to challenge Prince Darius on the Capital stage. In return, I require control over the greatest non-Imperial asset House Silverblood possesses: your communications network."
Seraphina's expression remained neutral, but the sharpness in her eyes deepened. She was known to be ferociously protective of her family's infrastructure.
"Be specific, Your Highness. Which network?"
"The Tidal Net," Kaelen supplied, naming the legendary, secure communications system that spanned the continent, using encrypted, deep-water Mana currents to relay messages outside the Empress's oversight. "Your father, General Silverblood, constructed it to maintain command stability for the fleet even in the event of Imperial collapse. It is fast, untraceable, and answers only to the Silverblood signet."
He leaned forward, pressing the advantage. "I require the master encryption keys, and the freedom to use the Tidal Net to communicate with one asset, and one asset only: High Commander Lysandra's unit, Winter's Hand. I must be able to deploy them, command them, and resource them immediately and outside the official Silverblood military hierarchy."
Seraphina considered the demand. The Tidal Net was the lifeblood of her house. Giving the keys to an exiled Prince was a risk that bordered on political suicide.
However, the political reality was far harsher: the Empress was stripping her resources, and the only person capable of stopping it was the sick man sitting across from her. Kaelen was asking for a highly focused weapon, not generalized power.
"You are asking for the full autonomy necessary to secure the Arch-Mage's Subterranean Workshop, bypassing all Imperial and Silverblood command structures," she summarized, her gaze unwavering.
"I am asking for the tools required to protect your house from the Empress's next moves, each of which will be faster and more vicious than the last," Kaelen corrected, his voice hardening slightly. "The Market Correction buys us six months. The Glacier Pass strategy buys us three weeks. Securing the Arch-Mage's legacy buys us the power needed to survive the decade. If I use your tools to secure this asset, Silverblood will control it, and by extension, control the strategic future of the North."
Seraphina slowly reached out, moving the original marriage contract aside and pulling a fresh piece of legal parchment towards her.
"We will not formalize the marriage yet," she stated, laying out her counter-terms with brutal efficiency. "A public announcement now would invite immediate scrutiny. Instead, we draft a Supplemental Article of Betrothal, signed only by us, that officially activates the marriage contract, effective immediately, but postpones the public ceremony indefinitely, citing my pressing military duties in the North. This satisfies the Empress's legal requirement without making me politically vulnerable to a weak consort."
Kaelen nodded, entirely agreeable to the public delay. Prince Alaric's public disappearance was essential to the Arch-Mage's success.
"Done. The betrothal is sealed privately, effective immediately. Now, the terms of the Supplemental Article," Kaelen pressed.
Seraphina picked up her stylus, her sapphire eyes gleaming with the thrill of high-stakes legal combat. "The Supplemental Article will legally grant me, Lady Seraphina Silverblood, the right to utilize the title of Imperial Consort for all financial and political negotiations. You will legally empower me to represent the Imperial House in all matters pertaining to the Northern Territories, granting me direct authority over all Imperial assets in this region including Stonehaven and all units attached to it."
She looked up. "In short, I get the political shield. What about the Tidal Net?"
"The Supplemental Article must contain an addendum," Kaelen countered, retrieving a prepared sheet of his own, written in a cramped, precise hand during his pre-summons calculation. "The addendum, titled Operational Necessity Clause, shall grant Prince Alaric temporary, non-transferable Master Key access to the Silverblood Tidal Net for the duration of his 'convalescence.' It will specify that this access is for the singular purpose of coordinating the 'Irregular Assets'—High Commander Lysandra's Winter's Hand—in the interest of Imperial Security and Asset Recovery."
Kaelen pushed his document across the table.
It was flawlessly constructed, referencing obscure Imperial laws regarding temporary military command and the disposition of exiled units. It was a document that only a former Arch-Mage, or the Empress's highest legal council, could have composed.
Seraphina read the addendum twice, her face growing colder with every line. Kaelen was giving her the legal paperwork necessary to act as a Regent in the North, but in return, he was placing her most critical asset, her communications, under his own control.
The risk was immense. But the reward… the ability to keep Kaelen alive and deploy the genius of the Arch-Mage against the Empress was a much greater reward in itself.
"You are asking me to put the communications network of House Silverblood into the hands of a man who is supposed to be treasonous and dying," she observed, her tone flat.
"I am asking you to put the communications network into the hands of a man whose mind has saved your house's primary resource in the last twenty-four hours," Kaelen replied, not a plea, but a statement of fact.
He continued: "If the Empress or Darius discovers the true nature of this alliance, they will target the Tidal Net first. It must be operated by a ghost, not a General. I am that ghost. I require the keys to secure my own survival, which, by your own decree, is now the paramount strategic asset of House Silverblood."
Seraphina stared at the documents, then at the Prince, who was now trembling again, his physical weakness returning to shield the strategic mind. She saw a truth in his eyes that she respected more than any oath of loyalty.
She took Kaelen's addendum, placed it beneath the Supplemental Article, and signed the bottom of the parchment with a clean, powerful flourish of her personal signet, authorizing the immediate, legal activation of the private betrothal and the transfer of the Master Key access.
"Done," she stated, the word echoing in the magically dampened silence. "The Supplemental Article of Betrothal is sealed. By this act, Prince Alaric, you have just legally commandeered a significant portion of House Silverblood's assets. Do not mistake this transaction for trust."
"Nor should you mistake my Imperial name for obedience, Lady Seraphina," Kaelen countered, taking the document to sign with a hand that shook convincingly. He didn't use his full name, only the simple, direct signature of Alaric.
He looked up after the final flourish, the Arch-Mage's terrifying strategic vision briefly eclipsing the sickly Prince.