Duke Morvain laughed again. "And the three houses finally learn they are not gods."
Aerion's jaw tightened. He bowed, but it was shallow. "House Aetherion will send its own riders to the Red Scar. Not to interfere with your Red Cloaks, Your Radiance, but to protect Valerius subjects. As is our duty."
Caelum looked at him for a long moment. "Do so, Duke Aerion. And tell your archduke that his faithful hound still barks loudly in my hall. I take comfort in such loyalty."
It was a dismissal wrapped in a threat.
Aerion turned and left the tier, his blue cloak snapping behind him. The other Valerius-loyal lords followed.
When they were gone, Caelum glanced at Hadrian. "Double the Red Cloak patrols on the western roads. Near Sylveria and Blackwood. I want them watching us, not the east."
Hadrian bowed his head. "And Aetherion?"
"Let them ride," Caelum said quietly. "If they die beside Aleric, Valerius loses a ducal house and gains a martyr. If they live, they will carry back the story of how the throne did nothing. Either way, the ancient families will finally have to speak to me, instead of over me."
Hadrian, who had served three emperors, understood. "A clean knife is still a knife, Your Radiance."
Caelum sat back on the throne, his hand again on the Luminus Sword. "Then keep it sharp, old friend."but he was so stupid that he didn't saw the face of Hadrian , his face was grim . He looked at the door without saying anything.
The doors had not even stopped swinging from Duke Aerion's exit when two more figures stepped into the empty space before the throne.
They did not ask permission.
On the left, Duchess Ilyra Vaelthorne of Moonspire, her silver hair bound with moonstone pins, the sigil of Vaelthrone, a closed eye, stitched in white thread on her sleeve. On the right, Lord Malric Duskryn of Ravencroft, all in black leather, the black tree of Duskryn sigil worked into his collar. They are Vassals, not free dukes. But their houses commanded as many swords and as much gold as Varnholt or Morvain and Aerion.
They looked at each other, then at Caelum, and chuckled. The sound was soft and it carried.
Together, as if rehearsed, they said, "Emperor, you're playing with fire. None of our three archduchies were ever tamed to begin with."
Ilyra tilted her head, her smile sharp. "You send beasts to test Valerius. How quaint. Shall we tell Archduchess Sylveria you would like her to test you next?"
Malric's voice was a drawl. "And do let us know when you plan to be late for Blackwood as well, Your Radiance. My lord does so love surprises."
It was not treason. It was worse. It was dismissal.
The hall froze. Chancellor Selwyn went white. Duke Varnholt opened his mouth and then closed it. Even Morvain, who had been laughing a minute before, stared at the floor.
Caelum Aurelian Lux did not answer at first. A dull throb started behind his eyes, the kind of headache that came from holding too much light inside.
For thirty years he had sat on the Solar Throne. Level 90. Aurelian Lux. The strongest man in the Imperium by law and by blade. And in his own court, two ducal vassals spoke to him like a child playing with a lit torch.
He felt it then, the truth he never said aloud. He was emperor by name only. The free duchies obeyed because they feared his sword. The three archduchies did not fear anything, and even their dogs did not respect him.
His face turned grim. The light around his shoulders, usually warm, went hard and white.
His right hand, resting on the armrest of the throne, tightened.
Crack.
The solid sunsteel armrest, forged to survive siege fire, snapped under his fingers. A shard of gold hit the marble and rang like a bell.
Everyone flinched.
The Luminus Sword beside the throne hummed once, low, as if it felt its master's fury.
Caelum stood slowly. He did not raise his voice. He did not need to. When he spoke, the air itself seemed brighter and hotter.
"You will carry a message back to your masters," he said, and his eyes were fixed on Ilyra and Malric. "Tell Sylveria that her eye has been closed too long. Tell Blackwood that his roots have grown too deep in my garden. Tell them both that I am done asking."
Ilyra's smile faltered for half a second. Malric's hand twitched toward his dagger, then stopped.
Caelum took one step down from the dais. The light followed him. "You walk out of my hall today because I allow it. Remember that the next time you chuckle in front of my throne."
Neither of them bowed. They turned together, cloaks sweeping, and walked out the same doors Aerion had used. Their boots were loud in the silence.
When the doors shut, no one cheered. The free ducal families, Varnholt, Morvain, Caerys, all stared at the broken armrest on the floor, then at the man standing above it.
Commander Hadrian Voss stepped out of shadow and placed a fresh gauntlet on the throne's side table without a word.
Caelum sat back down, slowly, his jaw tight. The headache was worse now, but the humiliation was burning hotter.
He looked at Hadrian. "Note their names."
Hadrian nodded once. "Already done, Your Radiance."
They did not leave alone.
The moment the doors closed behind Duchess Ilyra and Lord Malric, the rest stood.
First the Valerius bloc. Lord Brennor Greywind of the Grey Hawk, Lady Elara Thorne of Ironford, three barons in blue and silver who had said nothing the entire audience. They rose as one, touched their fists to their chests not to Caelum but to the empty space where Aerion had stood, and walked.
Then the Sylveria bloc. Two counts in moon-white, a mage-lord with a staff that never touched the ground, the old matriarch of House Vaelthorne's sister house. They did not look at the throne at all.
Then Blackwood. Quiet men in dark green and black, no sigils showing, faces you forgot the moment you saw them. They slipped out like smoke.
One by one, then three by three, then in a steady stream. More than half the hall. The nobles affiliated to the three archduchies left the Solar Throne Hall in full view of everyone who stayed.
No one ran. That was the insult. They walked. Unhurried. Their boots echoed on the marble and each step said the same thing, you do not command us.
Chancellor Selwyn watched his own voting bloc walk out and gripped his staff until his knuckles went white. Duke Varnholt stared straight ahead, refusing to meet anyone's eyes. Duke Morvain muttered a curse under his breath.
Caelum did not move. He sat on the broken throne, the snapped armrest still on the floor beside his boot, his golden robe catching the light and throwing it back too harshly. The headache was now a hammer behind his temples.
He was Level 90. He held the class Aurelian Lux. He could split a castle wall with one swing of the Luminus Sword.
And in his own court, vassals of vassals had just turned their backs on him and left.
The last of them, a young baron of Blackwood no more than twenty, paused at the doors and looked back over his shoulder at the emperor. He smiled, just a little, then left.
The great doors boomed shut.
The hall that had been packed was suddenly hollow. Only the free duchies remained, and the officials, and the Red Cloaks along the walls.
Hadrian Voss stepped forward again, his red cloak making the only color in the white hall. He did not offer comfort. He offered fact.
"Thirty-seven houses, Your Radiance," he said quietly. "Valerius nine, Sylveria fourteen, Blackwood fourteen. All gone."
Caelum stared at the empty space where they had stood. His hand was still clenched around the broken sunsteel. Slowly, deliberately, he opened it. Blood welled where the metal had cut his palm, and the light in his blood hissed as it hit the air and burned away.
"Good," he said, his voice low and even. Every remaining noble heard it. "Let them go. Let them tell their masters that the emperor sat and watched. Let them get comfortable."
He stood again, and this time the light did not just gather, it flared. The crystals in the ceiling caught it and threw spears of white across the floor.
"For a hundred years my ancestors begged those three houses to stay," Caelum said. "I am done begging. If they want to walk out of my hall, they can walk out of my Imperium next."
He turned his bleeding hand palm up, and the wound sealed itself in a flash of light.
"Commander," he said to Hadrian, "begin the quiet levy. Not the legions. The ones who owe me personally. And send a sealed letter to Margrave Aleric Valerius on the Red Scar. Not from the throne. From me."
Hadrian bowed his head. "What shall it say?"
Caelum's grim face finally broke into something colder than his earlier smile.
"Tell him the beasts are coming, and his emperor will be late."
The emperor continued, "and tell him if he submits to me, I will give him a position of duke. But he needs to be utmost loyal to me. He needs to betray Valerius to prove his loyalty."
Yes, he wants the Valerius family to fall apart. The only people he feared in these ancient families are those old powerhouses still lingering in the world, but the old archduke, now known as King Valerius, is missing for many days and he knows about it. At the same time he has not heard any news about the old Queen Sylveria or King Blackwood either. So he thought he has a chance right now to take control of these three families.
No one saw it.
When Hadrian Voss bowed to the throne, his face was blank as polished steel. But for half a heartbeat, his eyes were cold, not with loyalty, but with judgment. He dipped his head, murmured, "As you command, Your Radiance," and left the hall like a shadow.
He did not walk. He vanished. The Red Cloaks moved like swift wind when they chose to, and Hadrian was their commander for a reason.
Deep inside the castle, in the headquarters of the Red Cloaks, Hadrian appeared. He paced back and forth. His eyes were red with anger. He shouted, "How dare he, how dare he want to kill Lord Aleric? Huh! Does he think that House Valerius is dead?"
Below him five captains of the Red Cloaks sat waiting for orders. The Red Cloaks are one of the personal armies of Emperor Caelum. But here they only hear the command of Hadrian.
Yes, Hadrian is a spy. He is one of the shadows under Selene, one of the 12 Shadows of Silas. And the whole Red Cloaks are just a simple pawn of his. Selene infiltrated the castle long ago. Not just the Red Cloaks but there are other forces also hiding in the Imperium, waiting for the order from the shadows.