Chapter 598: Good methods should be preserved.
The Crimson Hall lived up to its name.
It was a long, high, cold room, lit by red stained-glass windows that made the light fall over the floor like thin blades of blood. Black columns supported the arched ceiling, and between them stood motionless royal guards, all in dark armor and discreet cloaks. There was no excess decoration, which made the environment even more intimidating. The hall seemed made for audiences that ended in treaties or executions, and Kael suspected that, for vampires, the difference between the two depended only on the tone used in the conversation.
He was not in the main hall.
Unfortunately.
Liza had followed her own suggestion and led them to a side room separated from the Crimson Hall by an enchanted wall of dark glass. From inside, Kael, Sylphie, Irelia, and Amelia could see and hear everything. From outside, no one would notice them. At least, no one ordinary.
Kael was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.
Sylphie was beside him, holding his arm with a naturalness that looked like affection, but worked very well as preventive containment. Irelia remained near the enchanted window, observing the arrangement of guards, doors, and exits. Amelia had already opened her notebook again.
Kael looked at her.
"Are you going to write down my reaction too?"
"If it is relevant."
"My entire existence is turning into documentation."
"That might explain why you keep repeating the same mistakes."
Sylphie smiled.
"I like her."
"I used to like her too," Kael murmured.
Irelia looked through the glass.
"He arrived."
The hall doors opened.
Lord Cassian Veyr entered like someone who expected the entire room to remember his name before even hearing it. He was tall, thin, with long black hair tied behind his head and red eyes of a dark shade, almost wine. His skin was pale, marked by the cold elegance typical of ancient vampires, but there was something in his expression that turned nobility into arrogance. He wore a black ceremonial coat with silver embroidery and a ruby jewel pinned to his chest, the symbol of a clan old enough to think age was an argument.
Behind him came three lesser representatives. Two men and one woman, all impeccably dressed, all with the same expression of calculated indignation. They did not look like soldiers. They looked like people accustomed to turning a misplaced word into a formal request for punishment.
Liza entered through another door.
Alone.
Violet remained one step behind, to the right, silent. Her presence was enough to remind everyone that "alone" was a matter of formality, not vulnerability.
Cassian inclined his head.
He did not kneel.
Kael noticed.
Sylphie did too.
Irelia murmured:
"He is testing limits."
Amelia wrote it down.
"First gesture: insufficient bow."
Kael looked at her.
"That was fast."
"Vampires speak before speaking."
In the hall, Liza stopped before the smaller throne used for audiences, but did not sit. She stood, hands relaxed in front of her body, red eyes fixed on Cassian.
"Lord Veyr."
"Your Majesty."
The word came correctly, but with no warmth at all.
"I was informed that you demanded an immediate audience."
Cassian raised his chin.
"Given the circumstances, I considered it necessary."
"Circumstances."
"Grave rumors are circulating through the capital."
"Rumors circulate when cowards prefer to whisper instead of speaking clearly." Liza tilted her head slightly. "Speak clearly."
One of the representatives behind Cassian seemed bothered. Cassian did not. He expected hardness and had come prepared to look offended by it.
"They say Your Majesty intends to hand the hunger of our people over to the witches."
Kael let out a low sigh in the side room.
"He started directly."
Irelia replied:
"Because he wants to seem like a defender of the people."
Amelia wrote without taking her eyes away.
"And because the word ’hand over’ already establishes betrayal before the facts."
Sylphie squeezed Kael’s arm.
"No."
"I did not even move."
"Your shoulder moved."
In the hall, Liza showed no reaction.
"Interesting. Continue."
Cassian narrowed his eyes, perhaps irritated that she did not deny it immediately.
"The Kingdom of Vampires has barely risen from a crisis caused by external interference. Vlad was manipulated, clans were used, our authority was distorted. And now, less than a week after reclaiming the throne, Your Majesty receives the King of Witches inside the palace and discusses handing him control of our hunger?"
Liza remained still.
"You use many conclusions for someone who claims to hear only rumors."
Cassian smiled faintly.
"Then deny it."
"I do not take orders from you."
His smile died for half a second.
In the side room, Kael murmured:
"I liked that."
Sylphie poked his rib.
"Quiet."
"I am quiet."
"You praised her."
"Low."
Amelia wrote something down.
Kael looked at her.
"That did not need to be recorded."
"It did."
In the hall, Cassian took a deep breath, recovering his composure.
"Your Majesty, I did not come as an enemy."
"You came demanding an immediate audience, refusing to kneel, and repeating unsourced accusations before three witnesses chosen by you. If this is friendship, Lord Veyr, your house needs to revise its customs."
The woman behind Cassian tensed.
Violet looked at her.
The tension died.
Cassian kept his attention on Liza.
"I came because the ancient clans are restless."
"The ancient clans are always restless when they do not control the direction of the wind."
"And with reason. The kingdom is being reshaped too quickly. Executions, open records, public memorials, Vlad’s custody in the hands of the witches, and now this supposed artificial blood project."
Liza did not move.
"You know quite a lot for someone guided by rumors."
Cassian realized too late that he had stepped one pace beyond safety.
Amelia realized it too.
"He knows about the project."
Irelia nodded.
"But he should not know that name."
Sylphie frowned.
"Artificial blood was not the final proposal."
Kael grew more serious.
"He heard an incomplete version."
In the hall, Liza took a slow step toward Cassian.
"Artificial blood."
Cassian answered without hesitation, trying to turn the mistake into an attack.
"Or sap, as some are already calling it in the corridors."
Silence fell.
In the side room, Amelia stopped writing.
Irelia straightened her posture.
Sylphie went completely still.
Kael smiled.
It was not a happy smile.
"We found it."
Sylphie looked at him.
"The leak?"
"Part of it."
In the hall, Liza remained standing before Cassian. Her face stayed calm, but her red eyes had grown colder.
"Sap."
Cassian realized then.
This time, the hesitation was visible.
"It was an expression used by some."
"By whom?"
"I am not Your Majesty’s informant."
"No. Informants tend to be more useful."
One of the representatives took a step forward.
"Your Majesty, Lord Veyr is only expressing legitimate concerns of the old nobility."
Liza looked at him.
"And you express the concern of which house?"
The man swallowed dryly.
"House Morvain."
"House Morvain had two members involved in the radical patrols that hunted my daughter."
The man went pale.
Liza continued:
"Choose very carefully the next sentence you use to speak of legitimacy before me."
He stepped back.
In the side room, Irelia spoke quietly:
"She is dismantling the delegation first."
Amelia nodded.
"Isolates Cassian, reduces the supporting chorus, and turns the audience into an interrogation."
Kael observed in silence.
Sylphie looked at him.
"You are enjoying yourself."
"A little."
"This is serious."
"I know. But she is good."
Sylphie narrowed her eyes.
Kael slowly turned to her.
"Politically."
"I know."
"Sylphie."
"I am observing."
In the hall, Cassian decided to change his approach.
"Your Majesty may try to intimidate me, but that will not change reality. The people feel hunger. The clans feel shame. Vampires were not made to depend on flasks bought from humans or witch potions. Hunger is our nature. Our fangs are our truth."
Liza looked at him for long seconds.
"And dead children are your truth too?"
Cassian went rigid.
The entire room seemed to lose air.
Liza continued, her voice low and clear:
"When radicals decided to prove their fangs, forty-seven children died. Twelve more disappeared. Families protected by treaty were attacked. The kingdom you claim to defend showed its claws, yes. And what I saw was shameful."
Cassian clenched his jaw.
"Those crimes were the result of Vlad’s madness and external manipulation."
"And of the pride of men like you, who spent centuries calling restraint humiliation."
"Careful, Your Majesty."
Violet moved only one finger.
Every guard in the hall became more alert.
Liza did not blink.
"Do not tell me careful inside my palace."
Cassian went silent.
For a short time.
"Your palace still belongs to ancient blood."
Liza took another step.
"My palace belongs to the crown."
"And the crown belongs to the lineages."
"No." Liza’s voice grew lower. "The crown serves the kingdom. That is the part you forgot."
In the side room, Kael uncrossed his arms.
Amelia noticed.
"Kael."
"I know."
Sylphie held his hand.
"Let her finish."
He took a deep breath, but did not look away from the hall.
Cassian, however, seemed to have decided to abandon elegance.
"And what will Your Majesty do? Allow witches to study our blood? Allow the successor of a primordial tree to interfere with our hunger? Allow Kael Scarlet, a foreigner who massacred patrols on our border, to decide the future of our lineages?"
Kael’s name changed the temperature of the hall.
Liza went still.
Violet too.
In the side room, Sylphie closed her hand.
Irelia murmured:
"Now he wants to draw Kael out."
Amelia replied:
"Yes."
Kael smiled faintly.
"It would work."
Sylphie looked at him.
"Kael."
"I said it would work. I did not say I will."
In the hall, Liza stared at Cassian.
"King Kael killed soldiers who tried to kill him under corrupted orders. And still accepted to come to my palace to speak before judging my entire kingdom. That is already more restraint than many of ours have shown."
Cassian let out a low laugh.
"So now you defend the scarlet storm?"
Kael tilted his head in the side room.
"That title is spreading."
Sylphie murmured:
"Do not be proud."
"I am not."
"You are a little."
"Maybe a little."
Liza answered in the hall:
"I defend facts."
"Facts?" Cassian took a step forward. "The fact is that he is here. The fact is that witches are involved. The fact is that Your Majesty is considering altering vampiric hunger with foreign magic. That is not reconstruction. It is surrender."
Liza stayed quiet.
Then smiled.
It was small.
Cold.
Terrible.
"Thank you."
Cassian blinked.
"For what?"
"For saying exactly what I needed to hear."
He realized too late.
Liza raised her hand.
"Violet."
The commander appeared beside her almost like a shadow.
"Your Majesty."
"Lord Cassian knew of the sap proposal before it was formalized, knew of Vlad’s custody before the signing between crowns, and knew of Sylphie’s presence as Yggdrasil’s successor before the official announcement."
Cassian stiffened.
Liza continued:
"That means he received information from someone with direct access to the palace’s inner core, to the audience records, or to forms of espionage that ignore our barriers."
"Your Majesty," Cassian said, lower. "Careful with accusations."
Liza paid no attention.
"He will not be arrested."
Kael frowned.
Sylphie too.
Liza continued:
"Arresting him now would turn him into a martyr for half a dozen frightened old men. He will leave this hall alive, free, and convinced he escaped."
Cassian went still.
Violet understood immediately.
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Liza looked directly at Cassian.
"But every servant, messenger, attendant, guard, and intermediary who came near his arrival will be interrogated. Every route used by his messengers will be reviewed. Every house that repeats exactly the words you said today will be marked as a recipient of the same source."
Cassian clenched his teeth.
"This is political persecution."
"No. It is a hunt."
The silence that came afterward was absolute.
In the side room, Kael smiled discreetly.
"Good."
Amelia wrote it down.
"Effective phrase."
Irelia looked at her.
"Are you taking notes on the queen too?"
"Good methods should be preserved."
Liza, in the hall, took a step back.
"The audience is over."
Cassian stood there, furious, but with no space to advance. He had come to provoke, accuse, and perhaps extract an impulsive response. Instead, he had left too many traces in his own speech.
At last, he inclined his head.
This time, more deeply.
"Your Majesty."
Liza did not answer.
Cassian turned and left with the three representatives. Violet made a short gesture, and two guards followed the delegation at a distance. Not as an honorable escort. As surveillance.
The doors closed.
The hall remained silent.
Liza stood motionless for a few seconds.
Then she spoke, without looking toward the side room:
"You may come out now, King Kael. I know you are smiling."
Kael blinked.
Sylphie looked at him.
Irelia smiled.
Amelia closed the notebook.
Kael sighed and walked to the hidden door.
"I was smiling diplomatically."
When he entered the hall, Liza looked at him with absolute lack of patience.
"That does not exist."
"It does now."
Sylphie came right behind.
"He is learning from Amelia."
Amelia replied:
"I take no responsibility."
Irelia observed the doors through which Cassian had left.
"He left irritated, but not defeated."
Liza nodded.
"No. But he left marked."
Kael folded his arms.
"He knew too many things, and in the wrong way. That means the leak did not come only from documents. Someone heard conversation, copied pieces, and mixed them with political fear."
"I agree," Liza said.
Amelia approached.
"Or someone wants Cassian to look like the main recipient."
Everyone looked at her.
Amelia opened the notebook to a new page.
"Do not discard the possibility that he is bait. He is arrogant enough to repeat what he heard without realizing he was being used."
Kael became thoughtful.
Liza looked at Violet, who had already returned to the hall.
"Bring me the list of everyone who had contact with Cassian since his entry into the capital. And I want Umbra in the palace shadows."
Kael turned to her.
Liza raised an eyebrow.
"She is here, is she not?"
Kael was silent for a second.
"Probably."
The shadow beside a column rippled.
Umbra partially emerged, arms crossed, as if she had only been mentioned because she allowed it.
"I am."
Liza showed no surprise.
"Good. I want to know where the information is leaking from."
Umbra looked at Kael.
Kael sighed.
"You may help."
"I was going to help anyway."
"Of course you were."
Sylphie narrowed her eyes at Umbra for a second, but decided to leave the jealousy for later. The situation was too important.
Umbra looked at Liza.
"There are shadows in this palace that do not belong to the right bodies."
Violet hardened.
Liza went still.
Kael looked at Umbra.
"What does that mean?"
Umbra turned her face toward the door through which Cassian had left.
"It means someone is listening through people who do not even know they are being used."
The room grew cold.
Amelia closed the notebook.
Irelia breathed slowly.
Sylphie touched Kael’s hand.
Liza looked at Violet.
"Seal the palace."
Violet placed a hand to her chest.
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Kael smiled faintly.
"Now the day became interesting."
Sylphie squeezed his hand.
"Do not say that as if it is good."
He looked at her.
"I will not lie."
Liza walked toward the exit of the hall, her voice cold as a blade.
"Then let us hunt the shadow before it warns its owner."
Umbra smiled.
This time, there was nothing affectionate in her smile.
"Finally."