AO 7 Ch 38

The dinner swung into full momentum almost immediately. The Zenovian royals clearly knew their way around the social battlefield.

In no time, everyone was wheeling and dealing, strategically picking each others’ alliances apart. It was not unlike watching a pack of animals tear through a carcass left in the midday sun.

Once again I was seeing proof that I wanted nothing to do with ruling a country. This was not my idea of a group I wanted to continually be surrounded by. But for the current dinner, it was perfect.

Gabriella was absolutely savage. I realized just how much control she wielded here in the royal palace, as she clearly demonstrated it the moment everybody entered. "Come now, everyone be friendly," she called from where she stood, trying to draw more of the royals into the room. 

I wasn't overly suspicious of her for the murder mystery, especially now that she had confessed she had no idea about Freya. But if it hadn't been for that, I would surely suspect her, simply based on how ambitiously she displayed herself that night. 

"Sister," Arthur stood tall and stared down at his elder sibling.

"I'm so happy you've decided to change your mind and not needlessly slaughter your siblings.” She lifted a wine glass in his direction, only for him to huff in response.

He didn’t really have a good response to that in the midst of said people he had previously wanted to kill as per ‘tradition’. Either he gave up here and showed he was indecisive or he doubled down and made a room full of enemies. 

"I think you misunderstand, sister. I never intended to needlessly harm anyone. But there are some people, amongst the royal family, that will need to understand the new order." With those words, he motioned over his shoulder, and Vel'shae stormed into the room along with a cluster of soldiers and important looking folks. 

I was giddy with excitement. They hadn't even served the soup and salad, but we were already marshalling our forces and moving the murder mystery dinner along. 

"Ard, calm down," Emlyn put a hand on my shoulder. 

"How am I supposed to stay calm when this is happening right before me?" I gestured ahead.

“An effort of will.” Emlyn whispered.

Clearly she just didn't understand.

Arthur had several Vel'shae, and important-looking soldiers come through the door at his gesture, squaring up and ready to spark conflict with Gabriella. 

"I think you'll find yourself outmatched, sister. If you had kept this between the two of us, I could have forgiven you. But you've clearly gone too far with how much you involved our siblings in our little spat." Artur stated.

I blinked, doing a double take. Yet no one else was. Way to twist things around to fit that narrative, but that’s exactly what a murdering mastermind would do…

"You're right, dear me," she said, but I was fairly certain there was not an iota of actual concern. 

"Is that all you have to say for yourself, sister?" He asked, puffed up like he’d give the order and this would all be over for her.

"All I'll be saying at the present juncture," she sniffed. "If you would please," she said, gesturing aimlessly towards the door. 

I was just as curious as the next person as to who would enter next. And as it happened, it was shockingly delicious.

The leaders who had come through just moments before, on Arthur's side, suddenly changed teams, corralling him and marching him towards his sister.

I quickly felt Emlyn’s hand on my arm, keeping me from clapping. I had to bite my lip not to squeal at the turn of events. “Look, she turned the tables!” I hissed excitedly.

“Ard please. A fight might very well break out, stay close.” Emlyn chided me.

Internally, I was crossing my fingers that an interesting twist came of it.

"What is the meaning of this?" Arthur said, looking around for help. But no help came. No one so much as looked in his direction. The rest of the heirs were pointedly looking anywhere but at his dilemma.

"It seems, dear brother, that you are not as popular as you were led to believe," Gabriella clicked her tongue. "It's a shame, really."

"I don't understand," he said, looking from side to side, in some misguided hope that an answer might come. Instead, those guards he had brought with him shuffled him out the doors, and Gabriella lifted her glass victoriously to the rest of the dinner party companions. 

"Well, now that formalities are out of the way, shall we proceed with the evening?" She had a massive smile on her face, so much so that I was uncomfortable. Yet it was also undeniable that she'd come out of that particular exchange the victor. And she clearly was going to take her spoils with or without anyone else's concern at the party. 

"To Gabriella," someone lifted a glass and shouted loudly. 

"To me," she said, clearly delighted with how the evening was progressing. "I am terribly sorry that you all had to witness our little familial spat," she began, looking around the room to meet everyone's eyes. "It is always important to remember that at the end of the day, we are all family. Family is not simply something to rely on in the good times. It is something to foster from troubled time into beautiful growth well into the future years.”

What she did not mention is that she would be in control for all those future years, but we all heard the undertone.

"Dear sister," Augustus stood up with a row of Zenov heirs. "Though I humbly respect your choices, I must insist that the manner in which we rule change." He beat his hand forward with each word, like he was a conductor of his own symphony.

The move was rather unfortunate, particularly as his hand disappeared into a small veil of darkness that swallowed it and severed it before he even realized what had happened.

He let out a scream that was quickly covered by Gabriella’s authoritative tone.

"Augustus, dear me," Gabriella shook her head. "Your heart is in the right place. The idea of people governing themselves is like asking a blacksmith to also be an expert in woodworking, home building, masonry, and everything else. People are simply too focused on their own endeavors to have the breadth of knowledge required to rule. Instead as a royal you must understand the painstaking effort that has gone into training us heirs so that we can best take care of the country."

At this point, Augustus had fallen to the ground, clenching his stump. His second, Jezebel was hovering over him, pouring life magic into him to stop the bleeding.
Gabriella strode over to him, wine glass lazily in hand. "While you still have half of your ability remaining, I recommend you bend the knee.” 

“You will go down in history as a tyrant compared to our so beloved mother.” Augustus spat.

“I will go down as a merciful saint, allowing the royal family to continue to thrive. Every miraculous advance made by you or any of my siblings in the coming decades and centuries, I can point to and say that I allowed that to flourish with the mercy I was able to show because I had enough strength to wrangle the family without… much blood. You cannot stand against me, Augustus, so stand down." She stared down her nose at him.

The young royal looked behind him towards his co-conspirators. However, now that he had been disarmed, or perhaps dishanded was a more apt description, they pretended as if they did not know him and weren't associated with him, much to Gabriella's clear delight.

She glanced at me, and I flashed her a smile that told her I was just here for the party. It was shaping up to be a good one.

Gabriella clapped her hand and raised her wine glass in a toast. "To the future of Zenovia, to the future of the Zenov line, may the two of us ever prosper, hand in hand. Of course with the understanding that your current freedom is born from my mercy today, don’t forget it." She glanced heavily around the room, pausing.

"I abdicate all responsibilities as a potential heir." A princess stepped forward, and one by one, well over a dozen of the heirs gave up their rights. 

Gabriella smiled, her gaze cast to the nobles within the room, as if calling each of them to uphold her siblings to their word. Finally, her eyes settled on me.

"I already said that I'm not in this for any sort of royal purpose." I told her.

"Yes, but louder for those in the back." She gestured with her wine glass, her face the definition of glee. Then again she was about to break down the last obstacles to becoming queen.

I would rather not make myself an obstacle right now, especially given the roll that Gabriella was on. 

"Ah, I, Arden Aldis, son of Harry Zenov, do not now nor ever wish to be king. Please continue so we can get to the fun part that comes next." I called out. 

Gabriella smirked. "I had no idea you were looking so forward to my coronation. In that case, I will make this brief. Our mother will be interred tonight. And tomorrow, a new queen shall rise to take her place." Gabriella gestured, and someone hurried across the room with a crown on a pillow that had clearly been prepared beforehand. It seemed she was a little too eager for that crown.

"You know, I kinda like Gabriella," I whispered to Eva. "She's really got a flair to everything she does." 

"Careful," Eva squinted at me. "It's not that you like her, like her, is it?”

“Are we children? Who says it like that anymore?" I teased her. 

Emlyn sighed and ran a palm against her face. "I don't think you have anything to worry about, Eva. Somehow, I doubt Gabriella is the type to share." 

"No, but she's certainly the type to steal," Eva huffed and drowned her complaint with a glass of wine. 

Gabriella was really drumming up the whole affair, sitting back down at the head of the table as the crown bearer circled around her.

“I pronounce the next queen of Zenovia, Queen Gabriella Zenov.” The man said taking the crown with white gloved hands and lifting it ceremonially over Gabriella’s head and set it with the care of a jeweler would use for the center stone in their masterpiece.

"To the future of Zenovia," she finished the cheer she had started before culling the herd.

There was a polite clap that started with a few soft ‘for Zenovia’ being called out towards her.

Then as she lifted her glass to her lips, she promptly fell face forward into the wine glass, smashing it against the table with her face. The crown came unseated and rolled down the table until it tipped off the side with no one to catch it as the whole room went silent.

What I hoped was wine, but very well could be blood, spilled down the table as her shoulders shook twice before going still. The only sounds were the ringing of the fallen crown and the slow drip off the crimson drenched table cloth.

My mouth dropped open. "Oh. My. God. This is so perfect," I said, my voice echoing in a room so quiet that the drops of wine dripping off the table echoed. 

No less than a dozen heads turned in my direction, their expressions clearly indicating they had misunderstood my excitement.

"Ard.” Emlyn growled.

“What? The timing, the dramaticism, just..." I kissed my fingers, like a chef having created their masterpiece.

The scrape of steel interrupted my thoughts as a Vel'shae pulled a sword and pointed it at me.

"Oh no, you misunderstand," I chuckled at the Vel'shae. "The murder mystery that we're all going through is just a little too exciting. Don’t worry, I didn’t do the murdering." 

Eva grabbed me by the shoulder. "I'm sorry, you'll have to forgive him. He's a little unusual at the best of times, and the situation in the palace has him off." 

"Off?" I repeated incredulously. 

"Ard, please, do not make this any worse than it is." Eva hissed. 

"It's pretty bad," Maribelle said, her hands already grabbing a fistful of her skirt, no doubt ready to produce a pair of wickedly sharp daggers at a moment's notice. 

"It's not that bad." I gestured over at the now dozen Vel'shae and the continuously increasing contingent of armed guards entering the back of the room. "They're here to keep the order, right?" I smiled. "And we didn't do anything wrong."

“You celebrated the death of the newly crowned queen.” Jezebel shouted holding onto Augustus before flashing me a satisfied smile as everyone closed in on me.

I frowned at why she suddenly turned on me, but before I could do anything guards had us surrounded.

***

The doors to my cell rattled as they closed, trapping Emlyn, Maribelle, and myself inside. I was pleasantly surprised that they were relatively private, and it wasn't exactly lacking in accommodations. It seemed even the royal palace made their prisons comfortable. 

"Well, that went well," Emlyn turned around and flicked me in the forehead. "Did you really have to jump for joy when she died?"

"What? It was perfectly dramatic." I looked at her with big puppy-dog eyes. "How could I resist?"

"By not seeming like an absolute psychopath, cheering on the next queen's death." Emlyn answered, legitimately quite upset with me. “If it wasn’t for Lord Valken you would have had to kill your way out of there.”

"Yeah, I suppose my timing could have been better." I at least had the wherewithal to give her a guilty smile. 

"Perhaps we should just leave," Maribelle suggested. "I know you did not want to disrupt the Zenov family overmuch, because you wanted their cooperation when all of this was done. But I think locking you in a cell is a step too far, Sir." Maribelle folded her hands behind her back, as if she was patiently waiting for me to just blow the door off its hinges.

I snapped my fingers together, but rather than a jolt of lightning, all that came was a rather pathetic spark. 

Emlyn scowled. "Don't tell me..."

"Hold on, hold on. Sometimes it just takes a minute to warm up." Which was a complete lie. I snapped my fingers again. This time the spark was certainly bigger, but not enough to blow a door down. 

"Maybe try fire?" Emlyn offered oh-so-helpfully. She was lucky she was cute.

But before I could try, Missy appeared, lounging on the bed. "No, there's something here," she tutted and wove her fingers through the air. "Not surprising that a royal family of mages has found some way to suppress a prisoner's magic."

"Oh," I said. "Well, then. I just messed up, didn't I?" I scratched the back of my head with a big smile. “At least we have the royal dungeon. Bed, separate room for the bathroom and it’s pretty clean.”

Emlyn looked like she was a second from strangling me. "If you don't take this seriously..."

"Well, it's a good thing we only have to be here for the night." I opened my hand and displayed a small note Lord Valken had handed me. I was glad he understood the murder mystery theme.

Emlyn looked down and scowled. "What is this?" She snatched the note and quickly read it aloud. "Play along. I just need the night."

"See? And we trust Lord Valken, right?" I pressed, really hoping this would work. Because between Uncle Valken and a little arrogance that I could always just free myself, I had let them put me in the dungeons. In hindsight, that was a very bad decision, one that Emlyn or any of my women probably got a free pass to nag me about it for the rest of our lives.

Hopefully, I could avoid that because giving Emlyn a thing like this would mean it was held over my head for the rest of my life. I didn’t need any more of those.

"I suppose so," Emlyn said, "but I really, really don't like being separated from everyone."

"Me neither, but if it's Uncle Valken, then he's working on something. And maybe, just maybe, Emlyn, we could trust him after everything he's done for us." I leaned back, lounging a little and feeling like I’d dodged that bolt of lightning.

"What if he wasn't in his right mind?" Emlyn countered. "What if--

“Like the Vel'shae that could only snarl and drool?" I scoffed. "You know, Lord Valken is an expert spy. I'm sure he has all sorts of training and techniques, even to deal with the oddness that is happening here." I nodded confident with someone who was skilled enough to train the best spies couldn’t be fooled by whoever was killing in the Zenovian palace.

"Fine. One night. Anything longer than that? And I'm asking Missy here to bail us out." Emlyn hooked a thumb at the goddess. 

"Well that's fine. It will take me a little time to work out what exactly they've done, and get Ard free of it." Missy suddenly found one of the walls particularly interesting. "And while we're waiting, I think Ditzy was asking for you," Missy commented off-handedly.

She said it almost too casually. Alarm bells went off in my head.

"Oh well, if Ditzy's looking for you, you should probably see what it is." Emlyn coughed into her hand and couldn't meet my eyes.

I glanced over to Maribelle, who was now sharpening her knives.

"I will watch over your body, sir. Perhaps in Soulgard you could have a private conversation." She offered without looking up. Even Maribelle was in on this?

I looked at all of them suspiciously. There was definitely something going on. But I wasn't going to get an answer by prodding Emlyn. I had enough experience to know that was an entirely vain endeavor to go up against her stubborn nature. 

"Fine then. I will see you all tomorrow morning." I told them.

I laid down on the bed and with a quick thought, pulled my soul into Soulgard. Being able to sink into a deep sleep in an instant was fantastic.