By the time we reached the silver spires, enough time had passed for me to push the awe from my face. I stared at the others until they put on stoic expressions as well. We needed to appear dignified, not like lost bumpkins.

The keep consisted of about half a dozen smaller spires, with the Duke's Spire towering above the others at nearly twice their height. Viewed in isolation, the spires were magnificent. But compared to the way the Duke's Spire absorbed the sun’s rays and reflected them with an amplified, regal warmth, the others seemed little more than basic structures.

Each spire was adorned with a set of double doors, shut tight. The smooth obsidian doors were embedded with hundreds of small characters radiating with what I was beginning to recognize as magic. Unlike energy, magic and mana had a more natural feel, as if I could pluck them straight from the air around me.

Who lives in the Duke's Spire now?” I asked when we stopped in front of the towering structure. Some guards broke off from our main group ran off to open the doors, needing no orders from the knights.

“The matriarch,” EleVame replied, his gaze drifting toward Nida, who had wandered off the cobblestone path to examine the vine-covered side of the spire.

I raised an eyebrow, surprised. “The Duke had a wife? Is she the duchess, then?”

EleVame’s face scrunched in confusion, and it took him a moment to parse my question. After a second, he gave a soft chuckle. “The Duke’s wife, Duchess Albassa Alistar, passed away many years ago. The current matriarch is the late Duke’s sister, Lady Eliza Alistar. Under duchy law, she must fulfill both the matriarchal and patriarchal duties until the council decides the succession.”

“How does that process usually work?” I asked.

EleVame sighed, glancing at Eichinger, whose frown deepened. After a pause, the knight shrugged. “I suppose there’s no harm in telling you. It is no secret, after all. Duke Alistar’s death, while unexpected, was not unprecedented given the duchy's history. When there's no direct heir, either the King appoints someone to start a new bloodline, or the local nobles of the ducal council select a candidate.”

“Don’t get any fantasies, girl,” Eichinger sneered. “No matter what the council decides or His Majesty commands, the title always stays in the family. A peasant, back-alley bastard like you will never—”

His tirade was cut off by the sharp intake of hair and a low growl.

The area went dead silent as four thin red lines appeared across his throat, Nida’s claws resting delicately against his Adam's apple. Her glare was lethal, eyes burned with the promise of death, flicking to the frozen guards before locking on the sound of grating metal as the knights drew their weapons.

Eichinger had gone utterly still. The sneer on his face gone, replaced by the cold calm of a seasoned warrior trained for violence. For all his boasting, I knew the man was trained in war.

“The disrespect here goes both ways,” I said, breaking the heavy, awkward silence. “Perhaps it is time for Sir Eichinger to make himself useful elsewhere. I don’t believe his presence will be needed within the spires.”

EleVame hesitated, clearly uncertain of his next move. “Normally, I’d arrest your companion,” he growled, motioning for the other knights to sheathe their swords. “But not tonight. She was defending her lady’s honor, and that’s no crime.”

I beckoned Nida back. She released Eichinger with a scowl looking like she'd prefer to rip his throat out. Before she left him, she whispered something in his ear. His only reaction was a slight, if clearly involuntary, grimace.

Nida returned to my side and Eichinger exchanged whispered words with EleVame who was not shy in his excessive gesturing. Eichinger said something and EleVame's face turned red with anger, a veins bulging from the side of his head. Eichinger held his hands up on mock surrender or resignment, and stormed off. He shot me one final look before he rounded the corner, muttering shit under this breath.

The final glare he shot me cemented his death in my mind. The knight would suffer for a very, very long time.

Once the doors to the spire were opened, EleVame beckoned us forward. The inside of the Duke’s Spire was just as regal as the outside. The entrance was a cavernous chamber with vaulted ceilings supported by massive pillars of white and obsidian marble. The floor was split into hundreds of polished black stone tiles, so smooth and reflected for a moment it looked as if we tread upon water. Silver chandeliers, each studded with dozens of brilliant crystals, hung from above reflecting the sun in a glorious shine of rainbow colors. Windows lined the entrance chamber in all directions, providing the building with so much light the sun made it hard to look in certain directions.

People in luxurious suits and dresses bustled about—some high-end servants, others clearly nobles. They all carried about in their separate areas, crowded around a young man or woman. The youngest of them was perhaps early teens, while the oldest appeared no more than mid twenties.

At the center of the chamber was a staircase that spiraled into the far heights of the spire, splitting off every dozen or so feet to branch off like bridges toward doors that seemed to lead into rooms. The higher the stairs climbed, the more the spire seemed to close inward with a pyramid shape.

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“It’s like a tree inside of a pyramid,” Nasq said breathlessly, his eyes wide.

EleVame glanced at him. “That’s an interpretation, I suppose.”

I cocked my head at the knight's response. How did he not see that the staircase was clearly a tree? For someone trained to the extent of this knight, I would have thought him able to overcome his base prejudices.

Assuming Nasq was correct about the elves having built the place, of course.

“Shall we climb, then?” Nida asked.

EleVame nodded. “I’ll show you to your rooms. Most succession guests are on the third floor, but since you hold the Duke’s House Coin, you’ll be placed higher.” He exchanged a few words with a scholarly-looking guard before turning back to us. “The eighth floor.”

Most of the guards left us as we ascended the steps, leaving behind only a few to continuing trailing, perhaps deciding we were no longer a threat. The gazes of other nobles lingered on us as we passed, their eyes filled with judgment. The gazes felt nostalgic, bringing me back to my time as a princess candidate in Aedronir and the politics of the time.

They must be the other successors, I realized, making a mental note to memorize their faces.

The staircase was as grand as the rest of the Silver Keep. Each step was cut from flawless marble that shimmered with a faint pearlescent sheen, appearing to be so smooth that no amount of effort would keep someone steady on its flat surface. Despite the glossy surface, however, the stairs appeared to be designed with caution, their tread carefully textured with fine, shallow grooves that ran the length of each step.

I could feel under the soles of my boots the subtle roughness providing the staircase a surprisingly sturdy grip, preventing any slips or stumbles. The banister, in contrast, was sleek and cold, offering no grip. The smoothness of the obsidian stone caused my hand to all but float along, as if never touching something substantial.

“Just in case it comes up later,” EleVame said, “the entrance lobby is referred to as the Echo Chamber. It will likely come up more than once during your stay here.”

“Any other names I should be aware of?” I asked, but EleVame didn’t answer and continued to trod up the eight floor where a small branching path led to three heavy oak doors. Each of them with runes scrawled across their surfaces. “What do the runes do?”

“They allow the Duke access in emergencies and protect the rooms from unauthorized entry," the Knight answered and bowed, beginning to take his leave.

“Who are auth…” I started to ask, but EleVame had already begun to leave, leaving behind six guards stationed by the doors. Rather than split off into the three rooms, the others followed me into the center one. Without being sure what the purpose of those six guards was, sticking together seemed the best course of action. Fortunately, everyone seemed to be of the same thought.

The center door clicked shut behind us and Nasq whispered an incantation. I felt the flow of mana slink into the oakwood door like intangible smoke. Though the door remained exactly the same in appearance, it radiated a different kind of sturdiness, as if the oakwood had been turned to steel.

Brianna collapsed onto the two person wide bed, hair fanning out around her. “That was so stressful,” she said, exhaling a breath so long I wasn’t sure how her lungs had contained all that air. “That big knight looked like he wanted to kill us on the stop. What in all the Hells was that asshole’s problem anyways?” When I looked up at the woman, surprised by her improper language, I was met by a pale face quickly coloring to a deep shade of red. “I-I apologize for my language.”

Victor groaned, hands massaging both sides of his temple. “At this point, Brianna, you might as well act like yourself.”

The noble woman looked around sheepishly before resting on me, as if asking me for permission. I leaned against the nearby wall and raised my eyebrows as the woman. “I knew you to be less ladylike than you appeared due to your position as an informant, but I never knew you to be so crass Lady Ballenci.”

Nida chortled and Nasq shot me a sarcastic 'are you kidding' look that might have earned him a quick beating had I not been growing so fond of my two paragons. Nida, on the other hand, did not stop at just a look. “We’ve seen Lady Lilliana be waaaaay more crass than calling someone an asshole,” the tigerkin cackled.

I didn’t respond, my mind too preoccupied with the challenges ahead.

“Take a quick break,” I ordered. “Rest while you can. Now that we are here, I doubt this council will wait long to deliver whatever commands they want. If my guess is correct, that should start the battle for succession, though I cannot be sure what form that will take. It’d be best if we could simply remove the other candidates from the running by killing them, but I'm sure the council would find new candidates to replace the dead.”

I debated killing them and then resurrecting the entitled noble children. The image of the Hydra flashed through my mind and ghost pain crawled up into the stump of my left arm.

Maybe I practice that a bit more, first.

Victor nodded in agreement, though when I strode toward the bed, he very obviously kept away from me to maintain the respectful distance of a servant. “Your analysis is correct, Lady Lilith. The Alistar Duchy is known for its just and honorable traditions. Even though those standards were set by Collin Alistar, most successors will uphold them. There are a few that will not, but the current Matriarch definitely will. Everything I’ve heard about her indicates she had great love for her brother's dreams and ideals. Though you don't have the successor's House Coin, having the Duke's places you in quite the formidable position of power compared to the other candidates."

Brianna sat up, her face set into a serious expression. It seemed that whenever information was brought up, the woman remembered her position. Anything else though, she did not seem to care much about. “Victor's right, my lady. It might not have seemed like it so far, but that House Coin does provide you with access to nearly every part of the city and there are many who will obey you if you show them that coin. Still, no one outside of the Alistar bloodline has ever been appointed. There have been some moments that a very distant relative was appointed, but still a relative."

Nida bared her sharp canines. "What if there are none of the bloodline left?"

I waved the tigerkin's over-eagerness down. "No, that will not do." I had no intention of spending the rest of my life in Elyndor. It was a means to an end, a tool to acquire more. If I killed everyone who could rule, who would rule in my absence? No, only those hard to control would need to die. I turned to Brianna and Victor. "Can the two of you brief me on the Alistar successors? Tell me everything you know."