Munas had arrived to request Cordelian's help in "better pleasing the Doukar", which amused him. She obviously wanted advice on how to manipulate Fornulus into marrying her. Now that Vicca was out of the way she would be the First Empress, and her child would become the Mekos and future Doukar (or so she thought). Cordelian knew she had stopped dosing herself with Kilpion, a herb used to prevent pregnancy, no doubt hoping to get pregnant with Fornulus' child. What she didn't know was that Cordelian's people were sneaking the herb back into her wine. The last thing he wanted was another heir in his way.

He leant back in his chair, regarding the woman sitting across from him in his private audience chamber. He didn't like that she did not seem nervous around him anymore. It would have been more convenient had she still been overawed by him. He'd been too lenient with her.

Euphastolon sat by the window, as usual. Both Munas and Cordelian were doing their best to ignore his crude insinuations.

"You've done quite well for yourself, my lady. I wonder if I'm even in a position to give assistance to someone as exalted as you?" He said.

"I am nothing compared to you, my lord Eukrates," she said.

She appeared eager to please him, so at least she wasn't getting ideas above her station. Now that Vicca was gone, she was only of limited use to him, so he wouldn't hesitate to discard her if she got awkward.

"You have the ear, and heart, of the Doukar. One such as I has little to offer. What I do have is only through loyal service and the favors of my friends." He shook his head in mock humility.

"I've got a lot to offer a young woman," Euphastolon said.

"You're too modest my lord Eukrates. Everyone respects your achievements."

Her manners had become more polished since her arrival in the capital, but Cordelian sighed as his true meaning went over her head. She wasn't good at picking up on hints. He could hardly complain. He had asked Tokropos for someone who did not possess great mental acuity. He decided to be blunt, even though bluntness left a bad taste in his mouth.

"Let me be frank my lady: if I help you, I expect you to help me in turn.”

"It's always been my principle that both parties should leave satisfied," Euphastolon said.

Munas nodded without hesitation to Cordelian. "I understand. You're my patron, I'll help you however I can."

He should have been more forthright to begin with.

"I want you to encourage His Exaltedness to follow my lead. It's best for everybody. I'm sure he doesn't like having to make all these decisions."

"No, he's always complaining about how busy he is."

"The more time away from work he has, the quicker he can overcome his grief and move on with his life." With you, was his implication.

"Fornulus will be happy, Cordelian will be happy, and then you'll be happy." Euphastolon added.

Munas nodded eagerly. A more intelligent person would have realized that to undermine Fornulus was to undermine herself, since her position was dependent on the Doukar's. A weak Doukar meant a weak Empress.

"I'll try to get Forny to listen to you more. Although he already listens to you a lot," she said. Cordelian graciously ignored her shocking lack of decorum in addressing his elder brother.

"Excellent. In exchange, I'll start floating the idea of you as Empress to some of my allies in the patros. You know some of them I'm sure: Cardenium, Menolos, Eudaimok, and so on."

Her eyes had grown wide at his casual mention of some of the most powerful people in the empire. She babbled her satisfaction and fawning admiration before he finally succeeded in getting rid of her.

"What a dimwit. Great looking though," Euphastolon said after she left. "Are you actually going to support her in becoming an empress? I assumed you were going to kick her back home once Vicca died."

"I always keep my promises."

"Do you?" Euphastolon said with surprise, irritating him.

"She can still be useful to me. I'll raise the idea of her marrying Fornulus to my allies, as I told her."

"I don't think they're going to like that. Some hick leaping over all of their daughters and favorites."

"It is Fornulus's own idea. I’ve done my best to dissuade him, but he’s ignored my frequent entreaties. Didn’t you hear?"

"It won't help that a certain someone has been leading them on with talk about how their families might produce the next Doukar, if only they can get into the good graces of the Eukrates." Euphastolon smiled.

"My goodness, who would ever do such a thing? Imagine extending such a tempting a prize in front of honorable patros families and then snatching it away." Cordelian shook his head.

"They’ll be livid. You are awful, Cordy, it's what I like about you."

Cordelian continued, more seriously. "It will further alienate the leading families and push them closer to me."

"They'd probably be even angrier if Fornie did marry her."

"Yes, but that doesn't suit me. It was difficult enough to lose one empress, we don't need another one."

"She'd probably get pregnant right away too. They always do."

"Besides, Fornulus doesn't want to marry, just wallow in self-pity."

"So you're just being a faithful servant and brother." Euphastolon snapped his fingers.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

"I live to serve."

----------------------------------------

As Euphastolon left the Eukrates' chamber, he encountered Pelagius sitting, waiting patiently to be admitted. Pelagius was scanning a scroll, probably some boring report that Euphastolon wouldn't waste his time reading. Grinning broadly, he quickly strode over and sat next to Pelagius, slinging an arm over the boy's shoulders.

Pelagius looked up and grimaced. Such a rude little brother.

"Little Pel, it's been a while!"

"I suppose it has," Pelagius said, shrugging off his arm and standing up. He was growing up. Pelagius was taller than him now.

"Here to see Cordylion?" Euphastolon sprawled out comfortably on the now vacated divan.

"Yes. Government business."

"What's the business?"

"Government related."

Euphastolon pouted. "Can't tell me?"

"No. You don't have an official position." Pelagius asked the attendant if Cordelian would see him now, since his guests had all left.

"You've been listening to Meronion too much," Euphastolon said, talking over him. "How's teeny Helastus?"

"Good."

"You should cherish your little sister you know. You never know when she might fall out of love with you. Look at mine – she's got no time for me, just talks about you all the time."

"Is that so?" Pelagius wasn't even looking at him. The attendant left to go check on Cordelian, leaving the two of them alone with only a couple of their strigulos for company.

Euphastolon smiled nastily. "You hate me, don’t you Pelagius?"

Pelagius turned around to look him directly in the eyes. "If I gave you any thought I probably would."

Euphastolon laughed. "I think I might like you the most out of all my brothers. It's the honesty, I suppose."

"You don't like Nikolonium. He's honest about how he feels about you."

"True, but he's not honest with himself. I don't like that." Euphastolon considered his brother for a moment as a thought occurred to him. "But you are, aren't you? I get it now."

Pelagius' eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"

"You know what you want, and you go for it. You do what is necessary to get what you've decided upon. I think we're quite alike."

Pelagius frowned at him.

Euphastolon grinned and held a hand up. "Don't worry. I’ll mind my own business." He stood and straightened his robes. "Perhaps one day you and I could be friends. Better than fighting don't you think?"

"You and I are on separate sides."

"Are we now?" Euphastolon said, still smiling.

The attendant returned and said the Eukrates would receive the Decim.

Pelagius suddenly smiled and shrugged. "I'll keep your words in mind." He left to go see Cordelian, following the attendant.

Euphastolon thought about Pelagius as he walked off. How interesting. He should have realized it before. Chuckling to himself, he left to go find something fun to do.

----------------------------------------

Sitting behind her desk, Meronion tapped the parchment impatiently while Khristos completed her formal greetings. She'd decided to act openly by sending her own attendant to investigate the site of Vicca's death, to see what she could turn up. It was a risky move. Cordelian would hear of it, and Meronion didn't want to give him any chance to cover his tracks. But she didn't trust anyone else for this job.

Nikolonium thought he was so smart suspecting Cordelian, as if she hadn't had the same thought months ago. The blundering little omaboy just had to come in and start stomping around. Now she had to move quickly to stop him from ballsing it all up.

Once Khristos had finished the greetings, Meronion asked her if she found anything out there.

"Nothing. I apologize, Your Highness."

Not surprising, it had already been several months. She gestured for Khristos to continue.

"I spoke to locals in the area. I heard no stories about any bandits bragging about attacking the carriage."

"You’d have to have rocks for brains to brag about it," Meronion said.

"True, but you'd have to be stupid to attack a heavily guarded royal carriage in the first place. Or you’d have to be protected."

Meronion didn’t reply. The bandit story had always stunk, and none of it made sense. Bandits liked easy prey, not a heavily guarded royal carriage. Ransoming the Empress would have been far more profitable than killing her. Law and order may have degraded in the empire over the last century, but not even bandits were so bold so close to the capital.

"It wasn't bandits," Meronion said. "Who has the means and motive?"

"Also, Your Highness, they must have motive to keep their involvement quiet. Which rules out a Circiniad attack."

Meronion nodded. Circiniads did like to assassinate Dardanian patros when they could, but if some Circiniad wanax had pulled this off, they'd be crowing to the skies about how this showed they had the favor of their god. Besides, the Circiniads couldn’t possibly come this far north.

"Perhaps the Lorgorin?" Khristos asked.

Lomberd broke in from his position by the door, rude as ever. "My people would never carry out such a cowardly attack."

Meronion had to agree. "The bodies of the attackers weren't Lorgorin." They didn’t have the pale complexions of the Northern barbarians.

The Lorgorin were closer than the Circiniads, but that was still a huge amount of hostile territory for them to cover. The Lorgorin might keep quiet about it to avoid retaliation, but they usually had more courage than that. Khristos knew all this, she was just following her princess' lead in covering all possible suspects. She knew that Meronion didn't want to consider her own family unless there was no other choice.

"The Monar Empire or the Bithia Alliance might be able to pull it off," Meronion said, thinking out loud.

"Monar and Bithia are our allies. I don't think they'd have any motive to do this," Khristos said.

Meronion wouldn't bet her life on it. Countries always had motive to undermine their rivals and gain power. But Monar and Bithia also had strong motives against killing the Empress. The consequences could be catastrophic for them. The empire would have to go to war, and nobody would win those wars. Bithia lay across the uncrossable Cansimar Desert, and Monar across the Furus mountains. Imperial colonizations of Monar, and vice-versa, had been tried in the past and always failed in the end. A war on Bithia would have to be by sea and would be a nightmare. The supply lines were too long and tenuous. Monar and Bithia would also lose access to Dardanian goods, particularly, crippling their efforts to stave off the Circiniads. And for what? Vicca dying didn’t provide them with any great benefits.

"It wasn't an external enemy," Meronion said.

"There are patros with the means, and they would have motive to keep quiet." Khristos offered.

That was true, especially the latter. The sectis of the nearest town had had to commit suicide for her "failure" to keep the Empress safe. The woman hadn't even known the Empress was passing through her lands. If a patros had assassinated the Empress and Mekos, it wouldn't just be them executed. Their family, servants, slaves, and soldiers would all be put to death, and their lands forfeit. You’d keep it quiet.

Secrecy yes, possibly means too, but what about motive? There were patros who were unhappy with Fornulus, sure. Ragnos, for example, or Tardenian. But none of them would risk everything just to strike back at him. Fornulus wasn't strong or cruel enough to have made any patros so desperate. Vicca didn't have any great personal enemies among them either, just the usual rivalries. Nothing serious enough for suck a risk.

Perhaps a patros hoped to replace Vicca, themselves or their daughter or sister. Somebody who didn't want to be only the second empress and wanted a future Doukar to be their blood. But again, who would kill the first empress before installing themselves as second empress? Cordelian had only recently been floating the idea of Fornulus choosing a second wife. Nobody would be mad enough to risk everything on the hope that they would be chosen.

So who had the means, the need for secrecy, and the motive?

Only royalty. Cordelian a grudge against Vicca for killing his confidant. To take the Thirty Crowns for yourself was a prize worth risking everything for. With Vicca and her children gone, only Theodorian stood between Cordelian and the crowns, and Theodorian was barren so if she became the Doukar there would eventually be a succession crisis. Nobody wanted that, so nobody would complain if she was skipped over. Effectively, Cordelian was now the Mekos.

Meronion rubbed at her eye patch as the socket began to throb. She hated this. She didn't want backstabbing, just good, honest battles.

"Khristos," she said at last. "Quietly, very quietly, find out where my little brother Euphastolon was at the time of the Empress's death. I know he wasn't in the capital. Use people with brains."

Khristos nodded.

Now this was a dangerous game she was beginning.