“Do you truly think that staying at your side is best for Aurelia, best for the monastery?” Algard asked Lucian. “That she would turn her nose at my offer… she clearly loves you.” Lucian coughed. “And if you feel the same, you should want the best life for her.”

  Lucian felt a little broken. “Do we have to keep doing this? Will you sign it or not?”

  Algard sighed. “Fine, I’ve no issue with this. But with this, consider any favor you think I might owe you nullified.” He signed the paper, then folded it and handed it to Lucian.

  “Thanks,” Lucian said.

  “Take care not to die horribly on your way back,” Algard said. “Brains splattered against the stone… a tragedy.”

  Lucian narrowed his eyes. “The hell does that mean?”

  “What? I’m wishing you well,” Algard said. “Please don’t suffer an accident that leaves you paralyzed from the waist down on your trip back. Really.”

  Lucian decided not to dignify that with a response. He looked at the paper as he walked away. This was the final piece of the puzzle for the trial. Now, it was time to get out of here.

  ***

  While trying to find the people that took care of Cate, Lucian also snatched up Aurelia’s books. She’d left them on the bench he’d been sitting at. He wanted to be sure it was nothing questionable. From the look of things, it was prophecies that’d been left behind by the True Divine Beast, and methods of instruction for teaching youngsters how to manifest their divine beast form.

  Prophecies… does she still think I’m his reincarnation or something? Lucian wondered. Or is she looking for something else?

  Still, he felt a little bad suspecting her when she seemed to be trying to find something to help teach him how to manifest a divine beast form. He put the books back, and then found the kind monastic that’d volunteered to watch over Cate. He told her what was going to happen.

  As much as Lucian would’ve preferred sticking around and making sure that the mediation between Denzel and Algard went well, he felt that the bad blood between the two brothers had been sufficiently tamed to let them do this with the oversight of the monastery alone. The much more urgent matter was making sure that this trial didn’t spiral out of his control. Cyril had seemed reinvigorated when he left. Perhaps he had a way to get at Lydia.

  The biggest bargaining chip had been taken off the table: the title of Duke of Villamar. Lydia couldn’t attempt to use that any longer. That said, he still needed her testimony to sink Cyril fully.

  Lucian knew that the emperor wouldn’t let this matter with Aurelia rest, but to hell with him. Lucian had done his part. He returned to the city of Verne the same way that he’d left it, riding with the monastics to try and beat Cyril there. He requested Brutus stay and make sure things stayed civil.

  Upon his return, the first thing that he did was check on Theobald and Lydia.

  “I did precisely as you said,” Theobald promised. “I wouldn’t do anything less. This is shaping up to be the most important case of my life.”

  Lucian raised a brow. “Really?”

  “Course.” Theobald nodded. “Have you seen the news coverage lately? What happened in the courtroom that day took precedence over the death of the emperor in many papers.”

  “Good lord…” Lucian sighed. “People do love some courtroom drama.” He looked at Theobald. “Now that I have some people back with me, I need Lydia to be watched 24/7. Cyril might try to use a spell called Dark Doppelganger to communicate with her, and I can’t take the risk.”

  Best to cover all approaches, Lucian thought.

  “Sure,” Theobald agreed easily. “But once we’re out in public, it’ll be difficult to do anything to restrain her without losing public opinion. For this to work, we need to have her cooperation. If we’re crowding around her like a bunch of common thugs, it’ll look like her testimony is coerced.”

  “Duke—” Lucian paused. “No, he’s just Cyril now. Cyril abdicated to Denzel. One card out of her hand.”

  “Really?” Theobald’s green eyes veritably glowed. “You’re crafty. I knew that already, but… using the emperor to pressure him to abdicate, thereby mending the rift between the brothers? Veritably devilish.”

  “Thanks, I think. It’ll still be a bidding war, but the base price has been lowered a lot.”

  Theobald nodded. “Cyril is wealthy, ducal title or no. He has several highly successful business ventures.”

  “Money can’t buy some things,” Lucian said vaguely.

  Theobald raised an eye. “What, like love?”

  Lucian flinched at that word. “…no, not that.” He rubbed his hands, feeling the need to shower. “Anyway, I’ll talk to her.”

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  ***

  “Do you think you could answer with more than one-word replies?” Belcourt asked.

  “No,” Villeth answered. He made it far too irresistible to say that.

  Villeth sat before Belcourt, each of his eight swords stabbing the ground as he sat there, humbled. After being struck, he’d ended up passing over the Kingdom of Vantz and making it to the eastern side of the Confederation of the Veen near the coast. He’d crossed the continent, essentially.

  Belcourt scoffed. “You’ll speak to the Master in full sentences, but not me. Why is that?”

  “Inferior,” Villeth answered.

  “Why do I even bother…” Belcourt muttered. “This relationship we have, it brings me back to my childhood. My siblings would never tell me that they had a problem. They always went to my mom, and then she’d tell me that they had a problem on their behalf. You’re going to tell the First Emperor, and then He’s going to tell me. Why do we have to play this game?”

  Villeth thought back to the battle. That last hit the spearman mustered… it was powerful. It couldn’t have killed him, but it was genuinely dangerous. Yet rather than try and kill, his opponent recognized that it would be best to send him away. It wasn’t only that they had that idea, it was that they had the means to execute it on such short notice. It left him lost in thought.

  “Names,” Villeth said.

  “Names? You want the names of the people that fought you?” Belcourt asked, and Villeth nodded. “Aurelia was the divine beast, the two with gray hair and red eyes were Denzel and Algard Riverra. Lucian Villamar was the one with yellow eyes and gray hair. Then you had the one with the long dark hair, the Martial Prince Brutus Alkoyen.”

  He noted those names. Whether that battle was fatal or not, they’d beaten him. They’d achieved their objective, and he’d failed his. He would hunt them down when the time came.

  “Tell me… there’s two figures I can’t tell why they were there. What did Lucian Villamar do?”

  Villeth thought. If he had to guess..

  “Strategist.”

  “And Denzel?”

  Villeth stood. He was done answering this fool’s questions. He was eager for a rematch. For some reason, he was confident that it would come. This next one wouldn’t end with a mere parting of the ways.

  ***

  “No, no, no!” Lydia despaired, rubbing her hair furiously. “Abdicated?! How could you let something like that happen?”

  “It was out of my hands,” Lucian lied shamelessly. “Cyril suggested abdicating to ease the transition from emperor to emperor. Algard threatened to kill me when I opposed it. But… don’t worry,” he said, standing up and walking near. “I’ve come up with something.”

  Lydia bit her thumb’s nail. “We’ll have to contest this. We’ll have to try and claim the title. Heavens, it’ll be burdensome, but…”

  “No better way to get started on that process than by ruining Cyril’s public image,” Lucian said. “You just need to keep on doing as you have been during the trial.”

  Lydia looked at him with calculating eyes. “Right… yes, of course.”

  The words and their tone were convincing, but if Lucian knew Lydia well enough she was already considering other options. Even without his title, Cyril was probably more appealing than Lucian.

  “You know… even if this doesn’t work out… I’m not concerned,” Lucian said. “Because I never anticipated he’d let me become Duke of Villamar.”

  “How can you say such a thing?!” Lydia demanded of him. “That’s your birthright! I earned that for you, carrying you in my belly for nine months.”

  “Not just me,” he reminded her. “You have two children, remember? I have something else,” Lucian said. “Do you think Theobald was defending me out of the goodness of his heart?”

  “What do you mean?” Lydia asked quietly.

  And she takes the bait, Lucian thought.

  “Metterand’s estate,” Lucian said simply, smiling widely. “What do you think happens to it? What sort of lawsuit might a lawyer be very interested in? What might be a sweet relief for the wound of losing the Duchy of Villamar, a reward not at all inferior?”

  Lydia’s head went through all the equations at lightspeed, and the smile that graced her face was peer to his own.

  “Cate,” she answered. “I thought she was in Heavenwatch.”

  Lucian held his arms out. “Cate’s always trusted me, looked up to me. As a matter of fact, she’s here.”

  Lucian was learning a thing or two from Aurelia. In every lie, it helped immensely if there was a kernel of truth. Cate was here, and Metterand’s estate was at play in this situation… but that was only the tip of the massive iceberg this Titanic of a trial was headed toward.

  “Here,” Lucian said, producing that paper that Algard had signed. “A dispensation from the emperor consenting to Concord intervention in the inheritance of the Duchy of Metterand.”

  “Oh, Lucy!” Lydia charged him, embracing him firmly. She laughed gleefully. “I knew I could rely on you!”

  Lucian felt a little unsettled by the touch, like some kind of creepy teacher was wrapping her arms around him, but he returned the embrace. It was risky, bringing Cate to Verne itself… but damn it all, Lucian liked having her around, and Heavenwatch had proven not quite as impenetrable as he’d hoped.

  ***

  Lucian, Theobald, and Cate stood at attention before the judge as he read the note.

  “You’re contesting the inheritance of the Metterand family’s duchy?” the judge asked. “And further, requesting official Concord investigation?”

  “Given his proven ties to demons, judge, we think that a necessary step,” Theobald said. “As you can see, Emperor Algard has given his written permission. Duke Denzel has further signed this document.”

  “Very well. I’ll enter it,” the judge said, setting the note down. He looked at Cate. “And this would be the proposed beneficiary, I presume?”

  “Yes,” Theobald said.

  Lucian put a hand on Cate, and she looked at him. Cate would get what she was owed.

  Everyone in this family would.