Moments earlier, the Flint Patriarch stood below Atheron's dais with the Gate charter waiting beside the throne.
'A missing daughter makes mineral rights easier to discuss, provided the search keeps its riders outside.'
"Once my house retrieves the rift core, Your Majesty, I trust the eastern jurisdiction transfers as agreed."
"Retrieve it, and the jurisdiction is yours," Atheron said, his hand tightening on the throne arm, "but two parties still wait outside, the escort report reached me at dawn, and nobody has brought my daughter home."
"My knights can widen the search tomorrow, Your Majesty, losing Her Highness would leave every house poorer."
'Some losses invite a succession crisis, which offers other houses more than they ever confess at prayer.'
The herald's announcement cut him off, and the Patriarch turned toward the doors, expecting yet another exhausted searcher with excuses. Didi entered first, and her return ended the convenient hope that a missing heir might stay missing a little longer.
---
Hajin kept his second step inside short while Atheron came down from the throne and caught Didi in both arms.
Her father pulled back just far enough to find the bruise above her temple, "You are here, thank the gods, let me look at you."
"I'm home, Father," she whispered into his shoulder, the blanket crushed between them, "there's more to explain, but I'm home."
'Her father first and his throne second, an order courts forget every time they write a ceremony.'
"And these two, who look as though the road kept half their clothing?"
"My saviors, Hajin and his companion Juna," she said, stepping aside to present them, "they dragged me out of that forest alive."
"Who taught you to stand in a royal hall like that?" her father asked, eyeing his uneven stance.
Hajin bowed only as far as his fractured ribs allowed, "People who hit harder than they taught, Your Majesty, the posture survived them better than the manners."
Juna's fingers stayed hooked on his belt, and the bow tugged at the bandage under her clothes.
"He carried me two miles on broken ribs," Didi snapped, lifting the blanket as her father studied the dried blood, "any mud on him got there for my sake."
"The physician will see all of you, but first," he said quietly, his hand finding her shoulder, "Gazel, I know what the report said."
The blanket sank as that name reached the one place her composure could not guard, and she gripped her clasp. Hajin kept his own hands still and gave her the same quiet she needed before anyone asked who came back.
"He was one of the finest men this kingdom ever trusted with a life, and we will honor his oath."
"He died protecting me after I gave him every reason to leave," she choked out, "I could have taken the horse when he told me to, I could have just taken the stupid horse..."
"He chose his oath, we do not make that choice small by calling it the price of yours."
She scrubbed beneath one eye and turned toward the ministers, "Eleven names beside his on the memorial, every single one, that stone won't remember less than the road took."
"Twelve names," her father agreed, nodding to the nearest scribe, "and their families hear it from us before the city turns their loss into entertainment."
'No joke belongs here, so shut your stupid mouth before surviving makes you sound pleased about it.'
Pressure rolled across the floor without a single weapon leaving its sheath, and every minister found his own hands fascinating. It closed around Hajin's shoulders and dug into his cracked ribs, squeezing every breath down into a thin little wheeze.
'Fuck, is this a greeting, a warning, or him checking whether the story brought someone who survives it?'
Atheron stepped closer with one hand open, and Hajin moved back before those fingers reached his shoulder, never touching steel. Juna followed that step as the nearest halberd shifted, and nobody could pretend they missed which instinct answered him first.
"Forgive me, Your Majesty," he blurted, whipping both hands behind his back, "the dried blood has no respect for good clothing, and I'd hate for gratitude to cost you a bath."
The pressure vanished, and Atheron waved the halberds back before laughing loud enough that Didi looked up.
"Quick instincts, and concern for my laundry, the tutors need better examples if this is what their pupils keep missing."
"They got more years practicing instruction than I got practicing standing still," Hajin said.
"After enough unwanted hands, you learn which way buys a breath, but I'll stay put if the room stops helping."
"Do that, then, before gratitude teaches you another escape route ahead of the physician's visit."
[ ashley(mod): he moved before the king touched him, everyone breathe before typing ]
[ CringeSlayer91: survival first, apologize with the nearest household problem afterward ]
[ NewViewer_02: dodged a monarch and made it about a bath, that is a remarkable recovery ]
'Laugh later, chat, the man offering that hand can still wreck my morning without raising his voice.'
Atheron touched his chin, studying the space his hand found empty, "A good heart, too, but someone so determined to look ordinary should pick less interesting currents beneath the surface."
"Father, he carried me out of a slaughter and kept us warm all night," Didi cut in, "let him see the physician before you measure anything else."
"Curiosity, not malice," he said, lowering his hand, "an old warrior just wants to know what kind of hands brought my daughter home."
'He noticed something, and I'm not improving his question by handing him free answers.'
---
The Flint Patriarch pushed mana into his eyes while the royal pressure tested the son before the throne.
He read his son's channels directly, and paths that failed in every family trial now carried mana without a break. Royal favor settled around that repaired circulation, and one royal question could suddenly make the old decree very inconvenient indeed.
'Three years in the streets, and he awakened what the estate never forced through him with tutors watching.'
Carina's currents crossed his memory, the quiet power his servants always mistook for nothing more than calming songs.
'Her songs, his channels, familiar currents in a body the scholars swore could never manage an elemental spark.'
Sending a man to remove him now meant explaining why a king lost a guest right after granting him protection. So he let his gaze settle quietly on his son's wrist instead, while Atheron turned back toward his grieving daughter.
'First learn what changed, then decide which doors keep it where the family can count its value.'
---
Hajin caught the settled donation at the edge of the feed once the royal conversation let him breathe.
[ Donation settled: ashley(mod) | +500 Credits | Wallet: 100,915 Credits ]
[ ashley(mod): that room went quiet around him, the king earned his title before anybody explained it ]
He swallowed his thanks into a small smile, since talking to invisible people in court sounded suicidal.
[ Stream: Active | Viewers: 187 | Soul Energy: 94 | Fragment Recovery: 0.012% ]
[ Ring progress | 64,995 / 500,000 ]
[ Juna Wing progress | 15,000 / 300,000 ]
'Same earned progress, more people watching, and that recovery number finally moved, hell yes, about time.'
Juna unhooked her fingers and leaned against his elbow, one ear still turned toward Atheron, "That face again, the distant thing found you something new to worry about?"
"A gift, and somebody saying His Majesty looks formidable," he muttered, "and I'll agree without debating it in front of everyone."
"Opinions and money, at least that crowd arrives usefully, even if none of them brings meat."
"Your king smells like the forest before lightning," she grumbled, nose wrinkling, "I'd rather discuss his generosity somewhere it can't strike."
Hajin followed her glance and found his father watching them from beside the lower step of the dais.
"Stay close, this room has plenty of people deciding where we ought to stand."
"Obviously," she huffed, tail swishing once.
The Patriarch's stare offered no welcome, while Atheron watched the space between them with growing interest.
'He remembers me, naturally, so let him wonder why that bothers him before I say a single word.'
Hajin kept his hands steady as Atheron returned toward the throne without ending the audience.