Arthur stood in front of the chair.
The back of it faced him. The window beyond it. The Patriarch somewhere in between.
He hadn't moved since he walked in.
Okay. Don't eat marble again. You just healed. You literally just healed.
'Don't meet his eyes,' Vexis said from somewhere behind his left shoulder. 'He reads it as a challenge. Don't.'
Arthur kept his eyes at the back of the chair.
The room was quiet the way this man's rooms were always quiet. Not peaceful. Just waiting.
"The assassin has been dealt with." The Patriarch's voice came from the chair without turning. Cold and even. "The healer cleared you this morning. So talk."
Arthur cleared his throat.
"Someone has been actively trying to kill me. I have initial suspects but nothing confirmed yet." He shifted his weight. "This wasn't the first attempt either."
"Why didn't you report it."
"I didn't think it was that serious."
Silence.
Vexis made a sound behind him.
'I don't know if that was right. I GENUINELY DON'T KNOW.'
The chair turned.
The Patriarch looked at him. No expression. Just that face, gold eyes, the specific stillness of someone who had heard many things and reacted to very few of them.
"Who," he said, "in their right mind would move against a Lestilaut."
"I have a suspicion." Arthur kept his voice even. "The Vernon family. Specifically Vak Vernon."
The Patriarch tilted his head slightly. "Vernon." He stood. Moved toward the bookshelf to his right. "What reason would a Vernon have to come after you."
'Arthur.' Vexis appeared directly in front of him. Arms up. 'Don't. Don't you dare. I'm warning you right now don't you—'
"I collaborated with Vak Vernon in illegal operations." Arthur said it clean and fast. "Forced labor. Black market supply chains. Scholarship students from the academy." He kept his chin up. "I've already removed myself from it. I'm not proud of it."
Vexis put his face in both hands.
"After I stepped back, the Allright council received an anonymous tip and moved on Vak. He assumed it came from me." Arthur's voice dropped slightly. "So he tried to have me killed."
The room went completely still.
The Patriarch stood at the bookshelf with one hand resting on the spine of a book and said nothing.
Arthur waited.
Then a short sound came from the Patriarch. Low. Almost quiet enough to miss.
A laugh.
Not warm. Not cold. Just the sound of someone who had just received information they found genuinely interesting.
He turned to the window.
"Vernon." He said it to the glass. Let it sit there for a second. "Tomorrow is the banquet. Three families. You're familiar with the guest list."
He looked at Arthur over his shoulder.
Something in his eyes that Arthur didn't have a word for yet. Focused in a direction that had nothing to do with the room they were standing in.
"The Vernons will be there." A pause. "You will attend."
"Yes Patriarch."
Arthur bowed his head.
"Copy."
He stopped.
The Patriarch looked at him.
"Copy?"
"I mean— yes. Patriarch. Of course."
The Patriarch held his gaze for one more second.
Then he turned back to the window.
Arthur left.
He exhaled the entire walk back to his room.
Both hands on his face by the time he pushed the door open.
Roz was on the table working through a plate of something that smelled like it had been cooked with actual effort. He looked up once. Went back to eating.
'WHAT WAS THAT.' Vexis materialized in the center of the room, arms wide. 'WHAT DID YOU JUST DO. DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU JUST TOLD HIM? I HAVE SPENT A WHOLE YEAR MAKING SURE HE NEVER FOUND OUT ABOUT—'
He already knew something was going on. Arthur dropped onto the bed. He didn't know the details. Now he does and he's pointing it at Vak.
'YOU DON'T KNOW THAT.'
Did you see his face when I said Vernon?
Vexis stopped.
That wasn't anger. Arthur looked at the ceiling. That was a man who just got handed a reason to do something he was already thinking about doing.
Vexis drifted left. Didn't answer.
Exactly. Arthur closed his eyes. So calm down. Tomorrow we walk into a room with Vak Vernon and the Patriarch already knows everything. That's not a bad position.
The room was quiet for a moment.
'I hate that you're right,' Vexis said.
A knock at the door.
"Come in."
Velja leaned through the frame. He had his jacket half off one shoulder, the look of someone passing through rather than arriving. He scanned Arthur once, the way older siblings do when they're checking for damage without wanting to admit they're checking.
"Already filed the absence notice. You're back Monday."
"Thanks, brother."
Velja smirked. Stepped inside. "You're going to tell me how you fought off a professional assassin when three weeks ago you couldn't hold a basic hydroform for ten seconds."
"Honestly I don't fully know either."
Velja looked at him.
Not the smirk now. Something quieter underneath it. He'd registered the non‑answer. Arthur could see it. He let it sit for exactly one second and then moved on, which told Arthur more about Velja than anything he'd said so far.
"Anything happen while I was out?" Arthur asked.
"Culmination prep mostly. Everyone's running around about it." Velja pulled his jacket back up. "I'm expecting to see you in the second format. Don't make me look bad."
"I'll try."
Velja raised one hand on his way out. Didn't look back.
"Don't die again, yeah?"
The door closed.
Arthur sat in the quiet room and thought about that for a second.
Morning came gray and cold.
He heard the estate before he saw it. Voices from the entrance hall, the sound of carriages outside, movement in the corridors that hadn't been there any morning since he arrived.
He went to the window.
The courtyard below was full. Three carriages along the outer wall. Staff moving between them. People in formal clothes on the path to the main door.
He watched.
A carriage near the far gate. Black wood, red edging, a crest on the door he recognized before the memory arrived. Black tree, red leaves. The seal pressed into dark lacquer like something that wanted to be noticed.
Vernon.
The door opened.
A woman stepped out first. Dark red hair, almost the color of old wine. Crimson eyes that moved across the courtyard like she was already cataloguing it. Tall and unhurried, the kind of person who walked into rooms like she'd already decided what she thought of them.
Behind her a man in black with red trim. Dark hair, broad shouldered, face giving nothing.
Then the third one.
Red hair. Red eyes. White suit with gold trim that had no business being that clean. He stepped out of the carriage and looked up at the estate the way you look at something you want and are pretending not to want.
Vak Vernon.
Arthur's jaw tightened.
'That bastard,' Vexis said. Quiet. Not the caps energy. Just the real thing underneath it.
"That the one?" Roz said from the window frame.
"Yes."
Arthur looked at him. The white suit. The easy posture. The man who hired to kill him and come to a banquet tonight like none of it had happened.
A knock at the door.
"Master Vexis. Your wardrobe for this evening."
A maid stepped in with a suit folded across both arms. Black, with gold trim at the shoulder and chest. The Lestilaut crest stitched into the right shoulder in clean gold thread.
Arthur stepped forward and took it by the sleeve.
He looked at the crest.
'Let's meet this fucker.' Vexis appeared beside him. Both of them looking at the suit.
Arthur's mouth pulled up slightly.
"Yeah." He shook the jacket out. "Let's meet this fucker."