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CHAPTER 32: The Estate Divides

last update Last Updated: 2025-08-28 19:41:31

The tribunal hall had never known silence like this.

It wasn’t true silence, of course. The echo of overturned benches still rang in the rafters, a servant whimpered in a corner where she had fallen, and nobles shouted across the chamber with half-swallowed panic. But for all its noise, the room felt hollowed out. The air was thinner, as if the walls themselves recoiled from what had manifested only moments before.

The shadow was gone—or rather, it had slipped back into whatever unseen fold it came from—but its memory clung like smoke to the ceiling. The tribunal flame, once steady, still guttered blue. And in every face Lucien saw, he read the same question:

Had it been summoned… or invited?

“Order,” Lucien thundered. His voice carried like iron striking stone, sharp enough to slice through the chaos. “Sit. Down.”

Some obeyed, mostly out of reflex. Others did not, their eyes darting between him and Zaria as if the two of them were the tribunal’s prisoners instead of its arb
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    The next morning, the summons arrived. A footman in imperial livery appeared at her chamber door, bowing low, his silver tray gleaming. Upon it lay a folded parchment sealed with crimson wax. Zaria took it with reluctant fingers, breaking the seal. The script was elegant, deliberate, meant to impress. Lady Zaria, it began. The Empire would honor your presence at a private council gathering this evening. Matters of alliance require your voice. Attire shall be provided. Below, Kael’s insignia—a serpent coiled through a crown. Her heart thudded once, heavy. They wanted her there. They wanted her. Not Lucien. Not his council. Not the bond. Her. ⸻ When evening came, they dressed her not in her usual gowns of muted elegance but in something else entirely. Attendants swept into her chamber carrying armfuls of fabric: silks spun so fine they clung like water, stitched with threads of gold that caught the lamplight. They draped her in ivory first, then crimson, then midnight blue,

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