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154 Capítulos

141

Alaric's POV My father called on a Tuesday evening while Raven was at a late seminar and Cael was asleep. I was at the desk working through a succession law module that was considerably denser than anything else in my course. He said, "Forin has made another move." I put my pen down. "What kind of move?" "He has found a secondary claimant to your title," my father said. "A distant branch of the Thorne family that has been dormant for over a decade. He has funded their legal representation and pointed them at the succession confirmation." I sat back in my chair and said, "He shifted from Raven to me?" "When the inquiry failed, he needed a different pressure point," my father said. "Your succession is the most obvious one remaining and he moved quickly, which tells me he had this prepared before the inquiry concluded in case he needed a fallback." "How serious is the claim?" I said. "Weak," my father said. "But not impossible to sustain without the right counter documentation, a

142

Raven's POV The second year started differently from the first year. I noticed the difference on the first morning when I walked across campus to my opening lecture. I did not feel the specific alertness of someone in unfamiliar territory, but instead felt the ease of someone who knew where they were going and had earned the right to walk there without second-guessing every step, in a way that felt deserved. Alaric noticed it too because he said over breakfast, "You look different this year." "Different how?" I said. "As you belong here," he said. "Not that you didn't before, but before you were deciding whether to belong and now you just do." I thought about that while I walked to my lecture and decided he was right. Belonging somewhere you had chosen rather than somewhere you had been placed felt completely different and I was still getting used to that distinction. My course load was heavier in the second year and more interesting because the first year had been foundational,

143

Raven's POV The letter from Lord Thorne arrived on a Monday and Alaric read it at the desk while I was putting Cael down for his afternoon nap. He reviewed the contents carefully without interruption and placed the letter back on the desk in the same orientation it had been delivered. When I came back out, his expression had the particular quality it got when something was sitting on him that he had not yet decided how to carry. "What is it?" I said. He held the letter out. I took it and read it. It said the Beta Lord succession confirmation, which had been deferred during the council cases, had been formally rescheduled for the end of second year and that Alaric's attendance and preparation were not optional. Lord Thorne would begin the formal transition briefings immediately. I put the letter on the desk and said, "How do you feel about it?" "I do not know yet," he said, which was honest. I appreciated that he did not instantly reach for a cleaner answer than the one he actual

144

Alaric's POV The first briefing was on a Thursday. I drove down to Thorne territory the night before and stayed at the estate. My father met me at the door and said, "Get some sleep?" which meant he could already see that I had not been sleeping as well as usual. I appreciated that he did not make more of it than that. The briefing was held in the main council chamber at the estate. There were four senior advisors present alongside my father, and they covered the formal governance structure of the Beta Lord title in detail. These were the territorial responsibilities, the council obligations, the dispute resolution protocols and the financial oversight requirements. I sat through all of it and took notes very carefully and deliberately. I asked questions where I had them and by the end of the three hours, I had four pages of dense writing and a much clearer picture of exactly how much the confirmation was going to change the practical shape of my days. I drove back to Elderwick t

145

Alaric's POV We left Elderwick at seven in the morning. Raven had coffee in a travel cup and I drove. The road was quiet at that hour and we did not talk much on the way down because there was not much to say that we had not already said the night before when we went through the plan together. We got to the estate at half past eight and my father was already in the records room with three of the bound volumes open on the large table. He looked up when we came in and said, "Good, sit down." Raven put her bag on the chair and looked at the volumes. Then she said, "Which section are we starting with?" "Secondary title claims," my father said. "Historical precedent going back four generations. I want every clause read properly, not skimmed." "I know," she said and pulled the third volume toward her. That was because she had been through it before and knew the layout well. My father looked at me, and I picked up the folders, then we started. The room was quiet for a long time, with

146

Raven's POV The two-week extension the claimant's legal team had requested passed slowly in the way that waiting periods always do when you know the outcome is coming, but cannot move it forward and life continued around it the way it always did. The regular lectures and assignments, Cael at the childcare center, and evenings at the desks. None of it felt as heavy as it would have a year ago because we had learned by now that waiting was just another part of the work. Four days into the extension, Dara sent a message saying the financial records were complete, verified, and ready to submit. I forwarded it to Lord Thorne and he had them submitted to the council before the end of that afternoon. I sent Dara back a thank you and she replied, “You are welcome, this is what I do.” She always reduced her role to function rather than involvement, which made her easier to rely on without needing to interpret her beyond what she stated. I thought that was one of the better things about h

147

Alaric's POV The confirmation was on a Friday. We drove down to Thorne territory Thursday evening and stayed at the estate. My father met us at the door and took Cael immediately. He carried him inside without asking and Cael grabbed his collar. He let him and did not break his stride. Raven and I went to the room my father had prepared. She sat on the edge of the bed and looked at me. Then she said, "How are you feeling?" "Ask me tomorrow," I said. "I am asking you tonight," she said. I sat beside her and thought about it. Then I said, "Ready and not ready at the same time. I think that is probably the right way to feel the night before something like this." "Yes," she said. "I think so too." We did not talk much after that and went to sleep early because the confirmation started at nine in the morning. My father had said to be in the chamber by eight thirty. I lay in the dark for a while before sleep came and thought about the expelled student I had been when I first arrived

148

Raven's POV Maren sent a message two weeks before the end of the final semester asking if she could visit. I sat with the message for a day before responding because I wanted to answer from a settled place rather than a reactive one. When I was ready, I wrote back and said yes. I gave her the weekend date and she confirmed within the hour. She arrived on a Saturday morning and knocked rather than ringing the bell which I thought was very Maren. She was careful about taking up space even when she had been invited into it. I opened the door and she was standing there with nothing in her hands. She looked at me and said, "Thank you for letting me come." "Come in," I said. She stepped inside and looked around the dorm room. I watched her take in the two desks, the course notes, the crib in the corner, and Cael on the floor between the desks with his wooden puzzle. She looked at all of it carefully. Then she looked at Cael and went still. He looked up from his puzzle, looked at her,

149

Raven's POV The final semester moved faster than any before it. I noticed that speed in a good way rather than a panicked one because fast meant things were happening and things happening meant we were close to something that mattered. Close felt different from far in ways I was still getting used to appreciating. My last major assignment was due on a Wednesday and I submitted it at half past ten in the morning. I walked out of the submission building into the campus and stopped on the path outside. I stood there for a moment because finishing something that large did not announce itself with anything dramatic. It just ended and you were standing outside a building on a Wednesday morning with nothing pressing in your hands for the first time in a long time. I called Dara. She picked up on the second ring and said, "How did it go?" "I submitted," I said quietly. "I know you did," she said. "How did it go?" "Well," I said. "I think well." "I always knew it would," she said. "Y

150

Raven's POV Sable graduated a week before us and threw a small gathering in her dorm room the night before her ceremony. When I say small, I mean eight people maximum. There was good food from the east gate place, no decorations, and Cael falling asleep in the ,corner on a pile of jackets belonging to people he had decided were acceptable. She sent the invitation as a message that said, “Coming over tonight, bring Cael. Do not bring anything else because I do not need anything and if you bring something, I will make you take it home.” I sent back okay and Alaric sent back understood. She sent back the goods. We walked over on the seventeenth, and the goods room was already half full. Sable was in the middle of a conversation she finished before coming over to us and that was very Sable. She did not abandon conversations to greet people because she thought that was rude to both parties and I had always liked that about her. She came over eventually and looked at Cael on my hip. The

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