Udoka Sopra’s POV

Perched in my office, I could hear wingbeats and subtle chanting from outside the wall. It was Lariz, my attendant. The vines pulled themselves back and he flew in, landing on the perch opposite of mine. At the moment, I was eating, but knew he would be stopping by with an update on Lady Suma and Sir Jake, who had recently come back to the city from their tour in the army.

“Grand Duke Sopra, I have a report.” Lariz said. He was new, and was still overly formal with me. I’d told him to just call me Sir Sopra, but he was uncomfortable with that. Even though he was a noble as well, he was of a much lower station, and doubted himself too much.

“Go ahead.” I said, swallowing, and turning away from my meal. It was a special treat today too, the first meat I’d had in months.

“Lady Suma and Sir Jake have spent the last two days going around town. So far, they’ve…” He stopped himself, catching his contraction, “I mean, they have visited a few people. Jake has seen two named peasants, one blacksmith, Ceil, and one researcher, Sela-Car.”

“What kind of research?”

“Recently, she began studying the effects of Inversion-Mana on runes. Jake was likely there to sell more to her. However, she put in a request today to change her topic of study to a new runic language.”

“More of Jake’s influence, no doubt. I look forward to hearing more about what she is able to discover. What about this blacksmith?” I asked, glancing over to my borog meat.

“An elderly Neame, close to retirement.”

“Probably the one who the nobles harassed last year. He was the Neame who made Jake’s weapons, if I remember right.”

“It seems he brought his weapons to the blacksmith for repairs.”

“And what of Suma?”

“She visited her parent. Nothing abnormal there, however Jake later also visited her, and now the mother is going to appear before you to declare her name.” Lariz said.

“That sounds right.” I chuckled. I’d kept tabs on Jake and Suma, even while they were in the army, so I knew that even in basic training, Jake was still naming Neame, though for some reason he’d started to go by his familiar’s name for a while. However, once they joined the Drakes, having them watched became impossible. Thinking about what had happened with Ceil and how I had to fight back the nobles’ constant protests at him being named by a familiar, suddenly my appetite began to fade. No Neame would look forward to going through that again, and surely it would be a hundred-fold worse the second time. Nobles love to do two things, whine and preen. While I was a noble, now with my position as Grand Duke, I no longer have any claim to my former title. But that is fine with me; I was never suited to it anyway. (I wonder how good an ally they would make? Their meeting with the Queen ended well, though they’ve made more than a few enemies in the Royal Court.) I thought, remembering the rumors about a failed assassination attempt. (They have few friends here, but having the Queen on their side, and thus on mine, would be immensely useful.)

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“Your order, Grand Duke Sopra?” Lariz said, snapping me out of my thoughts.

“No changes, but send them both an optional request to speak with me here at the Sanctum; after Suma’s mother’s ceremony.”

“Very good, sir.” Lariz said, and spread his wings.

“Before you go, what was the mother’s new name?”

“Ah, I believe it is Luna.”

“A good name.” I said, With that, Lariz left, and I resumed my meal. Though it no longer tasted quite as good as it had before. “So, he named her mother…” I said aloud, thinking to myself of my own family, and what led me to become the Grand Duke of Zach-Ashem.

Before, I was the only son of Earl Onkar Sopra. An evil, spiteful, and hate-addled man that could never be pleased. The only times I can recall ever seeing my father pleased, was when it was with himself. For the first two years of my life, he forced my mother to raise me, then on my second birthday, he brought me to his estate, and I never saw mother again. She was a nameless Neame, and he had her killed afterwards, but because of his station, he faced no punishment… at least, not until I gain my position.

The day I became the Grand Duke, I ordered several investigations to be opened into my father’s affairs, all of which I knew about before hand from years of living with him. Over fifty counts of theft, ten counts of murder, including my mother’s, and nineteen counts of fraud and bribery. For his crimes, I pushed for the death penalty. Not to protect myself, but for revenge. Revenge for myself. In truth, I barely remember my mother, I was so young when I was taken after all. There were several reasons that could have applied, and did in a small way, to my seeking revenge. His abuse, his corruption, his mistreatment of everything… but in truth, it was really about what he did when he found out I’d mated with a peasant.

He'd said he was protecting me from making the same mistake as he did. He told me to be grateful, because if the other nobles had found out, they would have ridiculed me, or shunned me. I never found her body, or the egg, but what I did find was a group of transmutation specialists to perform his execution. They turned him to stone, and I buried his statue at the base of Mount Fafnir, just north of the peasant’s homes. Sure, dozens of other nobles were also arrested and executed, alongside him, but they all got death-trees and funerals. My father will get what he deserves when the dragons return… nothing. Of course, after all of that, I was left with more enemies than friends.

“Yes, maybe they would make good allies.”