Elder Sephiss looked as harmless as a snake in sunlight: narrow eyes, the faint blotches of old burns across his cheek, an expression calibrated between mild condescension and stored-away malice. He smiled like a man who had rehearsed pity.
"Elder Sephiss" Lanni said. She kept her voice even and let the accusation live in the quiet. "Where is Jett?"
Sephiss's smile didn't crack. "Jett? The knight? Ah. Lanni." He made the sound like the name was a flavor he didn't care for. "You're up early for tunnel rations."
"Do you know where he is?" she said. "My men confirmed it, he left to meet with you. He took Roberta with him." Lanni's words were precise; each one a knifepoint. "They never came back."
A faint fondness touched Sephiss's voice. "You're tired, Lanni. Days in those god awful zoner districts... maybe the converter food is getting to you. Maybe your worry is just, what do you call it, hunger dreaming itself into tragedy."
Lanni felt heat braid up her spine. She'd been smiling when she woke up; now her smile was gone, like glass. "Stop."
He leaned forward in his little square as if to show concern. "Listen. It's been difficult for everyone. Soldiers are scattered, nerves are frayed. If someone says they saw Jett, that may be rumor. People tell stories to feel like they're acting. You mustn't let grief make you see ghosts."
"They walked to you," Lanni said. Her voice rose. It wasn't just fear now, it was impatience, righteous and raw. "My sentry reported them in the lane outside your gates."
Sephiss blinked once, slow, with the trained blankness of a man who lived behind masks. "Lanni, you are making a lot of assumptions. You think things are darker than they are." There was a little laugh at the edge of his voice that could have been pity or cruelty. "Perhaps your boyfriend Hido is not pleasing you well or talks of gods have muddled your mind. It happens."
She felt something hot and metallic in her throat. "Do not speak on him"
His eyes sharpened. "I am saying you should be less worried about one missing knight and more worried about the animals."
The words landed like an animal's paw on a sleeping dog. Lanni's breath crawled shallow. "What—" she began.
"My sources," Sephiss said, as if reading from a ledger, "have noted movement in their borders. There is talk. The animal tribes are preparing as we speak." He let the syllables hang. "If they mean to go to war, then it will be a chaotic, violent thing. You should take care of your little... friends."
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Lanni's fingers tightened until her knuckles white-knuckled the table. He'd known. He'd known about the march plans. Knowing meant the enemy moved faster than she'd hoped. Knowing meant a leak at the heart of their island.
"You're lying," she said.
"Maybe," Sephiss admitted, smiling without moving lips. "Maybe I am. Or maybe you are trying to teach yourself horror. Either way, a new dawn is coming." He leaned back and the screen went smaller for a breath. "The world is cruel, but it's kinder with food."
The call ended with the courteous little click of a man who had ended a conversation for sport. Lanni sat with her hands clenched until the tremor in them died.
The banquet hall shimmered with wealth, red and gold drapes cascading from the ceiling, the soft clink of champagne glasses blending with laughter and polite applause. The air smelled of perfume, roasted meat, and money.
Sephiss stood as the call ended, folding his long arms with quiet satisfaction.
Venku leaned against a marble pillar, his jacket slightly rumpled, a dark smear across his cheek that didn't quite fit the opulence around him.
France swirled the champagne in his glass, studying the bubbles like they were battle statistics.
Dakota lingered by the buffet table, posture straight and dangerous , an executioner pretending to enjoy polite society.
France shrugged and sent a lazy grin Lanni couldn't see but could feel through the line. "I guess this means it's the end for all of them," he said. The words slid by like a blade, pleasant, casual.
Dakota's voice carried a brittle cheer. "They were arrogant. Artists and their performative courage. They thought they could touch giants with paint." He spat the words like something bitter forced into his mouth. "Disgusting."
France hummed. "When we return the land will be nothing but royals. Pure line. Superior blood, the dream we all desire, this land, this isalnd belongs to us."
"That is how civilization moves forward," Sephiss said, slow and certain. "As leader of the Zeta Branch we will kill the knights, the weak must be cleared so the strong may grow."
Dakota rubbed his jaw. "Shame I never got to kill an artist myself. All that talk of their miracles. It must be an overrated show, if you ask me, I think it's mostly horseshit."
Venku stood straighter, the easy gravity leaving him. He looked at France like a child who'd just been told a ghost tale was true. "But it isn't, Sir France," he said. "Artists are... different. Their power bends what logic allows. That's why they are dangerous. We must" he swallowed and straightened, "eliminate them."
Sephiss considered the young man for a long heartbeat. The interest in his eyes was not affection; it was appraisal. "Hmph," he murmured. Then, with the pleasant cruelty of a man discovering a useful pawn, he nodded to France. "Well, young Venku, see to your farewells. You will breathe the battlefield air again, and this time we take the entire territory."
Venku bowed, clumsy with reverence. "Elder Sephiss, Sir Frantz, If I may, should I remain to oversee the selection?"
Sephiss's mouth creased in a smile like a blade sliding back into its sheath. "Absolutely not. Elda Knights belong on the battlefield." He looked at France, who gave a bored snort. "You do not sit on a throne to watch. You take land. You take life."
France's voice cracked the quiet with mock tenderness. "You are an idiot for even asking, Venku. There is no choice. You will go. We will all go."
Venku's reverence turned near-comic as he scrambled to correct himself. "Sir, Lord, Sir Sephiss and Sir France, I apologize."
Dakota merely smirked.