"Find me a collection of nobles, and I guarantee you there would be at least one corrupt or plotting one. In some countries it's harder to find an *honest* one than a corrupt one even. Corruption and its temptations just seem to come in tandem with the status of nobility." - Saying attributed to the Silver Maiden.

Imperial Palace

Sabaya, Central Elmaiya

Third Elmaiya Empire

6th day of the 1st week, 8th month of the year 161 VA.

"Grandfather! How are you feeling!?" yelled Lucea in surprise and excitement when her grandfather's eyelids fluttered open for the first time in weeks. Aideen stood beside the excited Empress with a smile, having just finished her treatment of the former Emperor for the day.

"Wuh…? Lucea? Where am I?" mumbled the former Emperor, still dazed from the long period of unconsciousness. Normally people who were in a coma for that long would have many more issues, but Aideen had fixed those along the way, armed with the experience of how she healed Éirynn from the plague back then. "Oh… right. How long have I been out?"

"It has been over a month, grandfather," said Lucea honestly. The first week and a half had been the best healers in the empire trying everything they could to no avail. They had lacked familiarity with the first forms of the plague from long ago, which has only struck the elves and Ptolodecca.

After they gave up and turned to searching for Aideen, it took them another week to find her, then two more weeks in which she had been busy at work as she handled the former Emperor's ailments.

In those two weeks, she had also checked on the others who had been exposed to the illness as well, namely Lucea and her three older children. Lucea's fourth children was still too young and had not been with them that day.

Fortunately, she saw no lasting damage on them. The plague - which was clearly tailored specifically for them - had failed to take hold in the more powerful Lucea and her derivative affinity children. As for Khaer Ul, Aideen's treatments had taken so long because she wished to ensure that he suffered no lasting damage from it.

"You are truly worthy of your reputation, Young Lady," said Lucea's husband, a gray-scaled lizard therian as he gave Aideen a bow of respect. The man, named Tesruq, was less than a decade older than Lucea, and was a disciple to the Bone Lord in Ptolodecca once, even if his forte was more towards governance than necromancy. "I feel sorry for myself for having missed the period you had been most active in due to not having been born yet."

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While outwardly Tesruq and Lucea presented the image of a harmonious imperial couple, it was a mere facade for the people's benefit. Their marriage was done completely for political purposes, and there were no true affection between the couple.

Nor could there ever be, as Tesruq was attracted to males, while Lucea herself gravitated mostly to other females. Both of them had an understanding with one another, and although they sired four children together, that was mostly for more pragmatic reasons.

Each of them kept their own bevy of lovers, with the knowledge and blessings of the other. Back when Lucea was still just Crown Princess, they had kept it covert, but since Lucea had become a much-beloved Empress whose position was as solid as it got, both of them just let their keeping of lovers be an open secret.

While the relationship started out of pragmatism, as a show of bond between Ptolodecca and Elmaiya and to assure peace between the nations, Tesruq and Lucea had nonetheless grown closer to one another over the years.

There was still no true affection between them, but they respected one another as equals, and a good friendship had actually developed between them. Other than the lack of actual attraction and affection, their relationship was arguably an enviable one.

"You flatter me," said Aideen with a nonchalant wave of her hand. She had not known Tesruq much, since he had not remained as the Bone Lord's disciple for that long before he married Lucea. He on the other hand grew up with tales of her feats as his bedtime stories. "I just happen to be familiar with what this plague is based on. On that note, have you found out who is behind this?"

"The actual culprit? Not yet, but we are closing on them," admitted Tesruq openly. Lucea had actually involved him as the prince consort in helping her govern, as his studies under the Bone Lord actually proved useful there. He gave a very different outlook to situations that Lucea greatly appreciated. "We got the source of the plague in question though. They're stubborn, but they'll squeal eventually… or their mother would."

"Someone we know?" Aideen asked out of curiosity, filing away the implication that Lucea and Tesruq had the perpetrator's mother in their torture chambers to a corner of her mind. That was not her problem. "The knowledge of this specific plague shouldn't be that common, much less this early variant."

Left unsaid on her words was that most of the people related to it had died when Aegon Rowliss unleashed his "masterpiece" in Fort Asconix back then, and she highly doubted anyone would have survived the concentrared plague there.

"Aegon Rowliss actually had a son," said Tesruq without preamble. "He had apparently been intimate with his lab assistant, who the rangers had assigned to keep an eye on him back then. He sent her away for safety reasons when they discovered she was pregnant. That was three months before the outbreak of the plague."

In other words, three months before Aideen had infiltrated the fort and caused the outbreak of the plague that hit Elmaiya back then.

"It has been… seventy years? The assistant is still alive after all that time?" she asked with some genuine surprise.

"A cantankerous old dame in her late eighties, yes. She also apparently taught her son what she knew, as he was the one who made what we had to deal with," said Tesruq as he nodded. "Apparently they had blamed the current regime for what happened to them back then. Don't ask me how they come to believe that, I have no idea myself."

"And no clue yet on who's behind them?"

"Oh, we have suspicions. We found some evidence we determined to be planted that pointed to Erstgertsog Veros, so it's likely someone who would benefit if the Empress were to be hurt or killed with the blame falling on the Erstgertsog's head," explained the therian man with a toothy grin. The current Erstgertsog was Grigori's eldest son, Artair's nephew. "That leaves a list of suspects that had not numbered too much. All we have to do now…"

"Is to narrow it down," said the therian man menacingly as his bifurcated tongue ran across his teeth in a display of an eager predator's expression.