I walked into the meeting room, the last one to arrive.

Andril and Fredrick, both looking tired beyond their years, spoke in hushed whispers at the far end of the whitewood table, an aura of secrets upon them. The others- Taneri, Breale, and Auro- talked by the bright windows on the other side, though Taneri loomed in the shadow by the curtain. An expectant atmosphere hung in the air throughout the room, as if we were planning some grand expedition, and it quickly infected me and Gideon with a newfound passion.

Feels like they have a plan. Gideon commented. Maybe we can be done with this soon.

I nodded, hopeful in the same vein.

“Saphry?” Frederick waved me over, and after a quick nod to the others I sat down next to Fredrick, across from the prince.

“I’m glad you were able to get out.” Fredrick said. “You made Marcolo sound so stubborn.”

I chuckled painfully. It had been quite a pain to convince Marcolo to let me come here, a feat only accomplished by bludgeoning the servant with the prince’s name and expectation. Even then, it’d been no easy task, and it’d taken upwards of an hour for him to finally let me out, albeit with his escort. The whole ordeal really wasn’t what I had in mind when I’d become nobility.

“He’s waiting in the dining room.” I admitted. “But it’s better than nothing.”

“You must’ve scarred that man for him to act like this.” Andril said.

“Perhaps.” I said stiffly.

Andirl sighed.

“I must apologise, I fear I was too prejudiced when we last spoke.” He looked at me squarely, and I found myself avoiding his eyes. “After the night in the warehouse, I was just worried for your future, but perhaps I took it too far.”

I nodded, satisfied, only realising after a second that they were looking for an answer.

This is normally the part where you say sorry too. Gideon thought.

What? I didn’t do anything wrong!

And you definitely did something wrong.

I sent a quick glare upwards, wondering if he could read my thoughts.

“And I suppose I’m sorry for running off like that.” I looked down at the table.. “That could be construed as childish.”

I mean, personally I thought the passive aggressive exit was a perfect answer, but I wanted to end this weird atmosphere more than I cared about my pride.

“We were worried.” Fredrick said. “Especially after the library had that break in a little while later.”

I still hadn’t told anyone but Auro what had happened that night, and I still wasn’t inclined to. I was pretty sure Fredrick suspected it, but confirming it was certain to put me in way deeper than I wanted. Especially now that the only official story was of the ‘white witch’ breaking in, with no mention of any raid.

“I just spent the night with Auro. I heard them parading down the street about that though.”

“And no one’s bothered you yet?” Andril asked. “They’ve even come to look over the staff of the palace, looking for the culprit.”

“Eh, Marcolo hasn’t let me out of the house since then…”

That wasn’t good. Had any of those men seen enough of my face to recognise me then? I had hoped that the hood and shadows would’ve been enough, but it appeared that I had been a little too naive in thinking that. I’d have to be more careful in the future.

“But I’ve heard of your little demon problem from Fredrick.” Andril laid his head on his arms, looking as though he was liable to fall asleep right there. “Mightily dangerous thing for you to do. What if anyone had seen you?”

“Not again…”

“I don’t mean it like that, I mean they definitely would’ve thought you were the white witch if they’d seen you breaking into a house.”

“We weren’t seen.” Fredrick said. “I’m fairly sure of that.”

“And what we found was more than worth the risk.” I glanced towards the twin. “Did you have Hans look over that yet?”

Being who I was, Fredrick had been the one to take the soulstone to the church to look over it, though I wasn’t sure what they could really find about it that we hadn’t.

“I did. I just finished telling Andril about it.” Fredrick said.

“Terrifying stuff.” The prince mumbled, his eyes closed. “I’ll have to ask Hans for it back later.”

“He said the same things that I did, mostly. The stone was artificially enchanted, the demon unnaturally bound. He was quite distraught about that actually. He looked about ready to start an inquisition on the spot, and he marched over to the new chapter master’s office after I left.” Fredrick looked straight at me. “He was a little angry when I told him where it came from, though I didn’t mention you or Auro.”

Damn it.

“...I’ll avoid the church.” I found a nice tapestry to look at behind him. “Maybe he’ll forget about it.”

“According to him, you won’t even have to break any habits to do that.” Fredrick said seriously.

Alright, that one wasn’t even my fault, it was Saphry’s! Well maybe I hadn’t helped by continuing it, but never mind that.

“Anyway.” I segued. “Didn’t you have a plan to tell me about? Something Auro and I could really help with?”

“Ah yes.” Andril sat up. “You’ve heard of the solstice gala, correct? The party the king holds at the end of this month? The one all the senate is invited to?”

“Ah yes, the solstice gala, the solstice gala at the end of the month, the solstice gala with all the senate.” I closed my eyes and nodded sagely. “Never heard of it.”

Hans mentioned it. Gideon pointed out.

“Correction, I’ve heard of it once.”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

Andril rubbed his forehead.

“Sometimes I have to wonder if you really live in the city…” He said. “We think our plotters are planning to strike then and there, in the middle of the event.”

“Why do you think that?” I asked. “Isn’t that a little too high profile for something like an assassination?”

If I were to think of how to assassinate a high profile public figure- which if I were speaking officially I’ve never thought about- I would probably choose somewhere out of the way where I could confirm they died, and without the possibility of help. A public feast with all of the realm? That seemed like exactly the wrong place to do it. Unless you just wanted to make a point.

“I thought so too.” Andril admitted. “But Breale was able to sneak into Lord Agos’s house the other day apparently, where she heard him meeting with my older brother, Elindri. According to her, they-”

“Wait.” Fredrick said quickly, looking between the prince and his sister. “She told me she heard them through a window, not that she got inside.”

Ah, Breale was a little insane, wasn’t she? I couldn’t imagine having to deal with a force of chaos like that constantly. Maybe Fredrick deserved a little more pity than I thought.

“No, she definitely got inside.” Andril said. “Though she tried telling me that at first as well.”

Fredrick rubbed his forehead.

“If you’ll excuse me.”

Andril and I watched as he strode over to the other group and grabbed Breale’s arm to pull her out of the room. Everyone watched as the door shut behind them and muddled argument began to drift through.

After a second Andril coughed, and I tried to ignore what was going on behind me.

“As I was saying.” He said. “She heard my brother and the count speaking over the plan, and a sudden need to act at the gala.”

“Your brother?” I raised an eyebrow. “You don’t think-”

“I don’t know what to think.” Andril said simply. “I can’t believe he would plot to kill me, but… well there’s a thousand things they could’ve been talking about. Lord Agos didn’t actually mention an attack after all, only that the ‘white witch’ was spotted in the library that night and that finding her should be added to their ‘other plan’. Apparently, he believes they found a Lmenli mage.”

“A leh-men-lee mage, huh?”

I glanced upwards at Gideon, who seemed to understand immediately.

A lmenli mage is a thaumaturge who supposedly uses a font of magic other than fire. It has to do with some ancient folktale, though I can’t quite remember the specifics. The word itself is a phrase in Lmeri, the language used for spellcasting. It means something like ‘stone of humanity’.

A miracle stone, huh? I wonder how powerful something like that would be.

“Nonsense, I know. But Breale assures me he sounded convinced.” His head fell back to the table, a beam of light illuminating his black hair. “And combined with Taneri’s own investigations into this conspiracy, I believe they’re going to strike on the night of the gala. And a probable target is me.”

“That’s… slightly terrifying.” I said honestly. “Are you planning to hide while we go through this plan?”

“I’ll get to that in a minute.” He said. “Once the siblings get back in I’ll explain the plan to everyone.”

…

“In the meantime, while you have all undergone your surveillance, I have been at court.”

His eyes drooped, the bags swollen, and a haggard air hung about the second prince, hinting at a few days of sleep deprivation. Now that I looked closer, even his clothes bore the marks with wrinkles and creases plaguing the hemming of his coat.

“If you were to look upon the senatorial preceding of course, you would see nothing out of the ordinary.” Andril continued. “Nothing wrong. It is behind the scenes that one must stalk to see the edges of this plot.”

This was pretty much a perfect example of why I stayed away from politics. Everything is secret, or polite, or rotten. It was like biting into cake painted white, it might even look good on the inside, but it’d still kill you. Not even to mention the patience wading through all the hidden agendas and meetings… No, this was better work for the prince.

“And to be honest.” Andril looked over all of us individually, pausing over me for just a second longer. “I’m not sure our plot is entirely the Temoif’s own anymore.”

Wait, what? The hell did that mean? There was no way that was true! We’d overheard Lord Agos talking about it, found that demon in the manor, and I’d even witnessed them raiding the library firsthand, though I couldn’t tell the others about that. If it wasn’t this Temoif faction, then just who was it?

“Sir?” Taneri asked after a moment. “How can you be certain of that?”

“I’m not. And I won’t claim to be.” Andril said. “But I have talked to many of them over the last several days and, while I am aware there are subfactions and competing interests, their overall political plans do not mesh with the instability of the kingdom. The Temoif need the kingdom in one piece for their invasion, and the assassination of myself or the king could possibly send us into a power struggle for years. It doesn’t make sense.”

I’d heard mention of the Temoif’s war-aligned status before, but this was the first time I’d heard about plans for an invasion. Briefly I had to wonder just what exactly this faction wanted, or needed. What neighbouring country was the target of their conquest? Why did they want that? Resources? Land? Or just plain imperialism? Verol didn’t seem to be struggling for anything in particular to me, so it almost made me disregard the first two, but I’d heard of war being declared for less. And if supposedly there was a huge faction in the senate vying for this…

I shook my head. With any luck we’d be out of the world before long, probably in at most a month, so there was no real point in understanding the country’s political movements. I was just here to punish a murder, and then I’d be gone.

“Summark can hold for years.” Taneri argued. “I wouldn’t put it past those bloodsuckers to let it be razed while they install a puppet on the throne.”

“Elendri sympathises with the Temoif.” Andril raised an eyebrow. “They must only wait. And even my father, Esiland himself, isn't opposed to the idea. Such an invasion would attract the affections of all the Lmeri after all, it’s only that he desires time to build up. They have no reason to commit such treasons.”

I glanced upwards at Gideon, now completely lost, but he remained fixated on the second prince. Was one of the kingdoms around us exceptionally hated or something? That was the only reason I could think of that made even a little sense, and even then it seemed unlikely. Even the word ‘Lmeri’ tripped me up still, though through context clues I was beginning to understand it as meaning ‘humanity’ or maybe ‘surrounding nations’. Perhaps it was the culture.

“I’ve heard talk that they don’t believe we have the time to wait.” Frederick said from beside the prince. “Such zealoustry would make sense given what we’ve seen thus far.”

“And yet the council continues in its attempts to ingratiate itself with my father.” Andril sat back down, slumping into the chair. “The two factions have never been so close, or so agreeable to each other. If this attempt had occurred half a decade ago I’d understand why, but now?”

He shook his head.

“It’d just be shooting themselves in the foot, even if it did succeed.”

“Then who?” Breale asked. “Do you think Lord Agos and the first prince were acting alone?”

“And why would your brother want you dead?” I added on. “Is your relationship that strained?”

Andril put his hands up to quiet us.

“It is possible, though I’d consider it unlikely.” He sighed. “We don’t have proof that Lord Agos even committed it, remember?”

“Sir-” Taneri began.

“I know, I know.” Andril interrupted. “But while we fight, I still can’t believe that Elendri would attempt to kill me… Our brotherhood has never strayed nearly that far. And Lord Agos is known as a good man.”

A good man who raids libraries and tries to kidnap girls? Reminds me of all the times I’d heard of the good and pious catholic priest. Well, I was sure the grand majority were upstanding, but the relation still stood.

“Then who?” Breale asked again.

“I’m not sure.” Andril admitted. “But as our only lead is the Temoif, we’ll stay upon it. Just know that we may end up being wrong about them.”

“I’ll believe it when we catch them.” Auro muttered. “Because someone out here is summoning demons.”

“So you have no objections to going forth with the plan I made?” Taneri asked.

“No, it should work regardless of the culprit.” Andril chuckled half-heartedly. “Though I would hope brother wasn’t planning on watching me get assassinated.”

‘Watch me get assassinated’? I could already tell what type of plan this was, and it wasn’t sounding like one I’d like.

“Well, don’t keep us in the dark.” Breale looked between the two. “Spit it out!”

“The basic idea…” Andril gave us a weak grin. “...is that I’ll act as bait.”