The lord's hall was chaos.

Every seat was filled. The noise of voices assaulted my senses, deafening my own thoughts. Clusters of nobles shouted, argued, whispered. There were faces burning with rage at Perdinger's infraction. There were also faces strained by anxiety over what this would mean.

Now I understood better why there were so many retinues of knights gathered just beyond the walls. Balthazar had summoned the lords of the land for a special session. Beyond the windows of the chamber I could see the sun sinking toward the horizon.

I didn't want to be there. My mind and heart were a convoluted maze. A pall of disbelieving sadness draped over my psyche. I wanted to go back to Katya, feeling miserable that I had abandoned her with Lauren's body to pursue my own violent urges. I wanted to see Lauren, to know once and for all that this was reality, that she was dead. I wanted to disappear into the darkness of a room or the comfort of a bottle and just stop thinking. And, intermittent with all of those thoughts and impulses, the burning desire to return to Buffalo and use the power of my suit to tear the walls down and find Perdinger surged.

Tara and Olaf followed behind me. They were somber too. Olaf had known Lauren as a peer. There had been some friendship there as well. But he knew of the relationship that had grown between Katya, Lauren, and me. I was very aware that the depth of his emotion dwelt on how this was affecting me.

Tara saw Alya standing alone at the end of the chamber. She squeezed my shoulder with a hand before parting from us and moving to Alya's recessed corner. They bowed their heads together and were immediately buried in urgent conversation.

Magneblade stood on the dais by the chair of the Lord Supreme. Balthazar was absent yet. Magneblade stood strong, silent, and imposing by the seat. I thought of how Tara and Alya had spoken of Magneblade and Chowwick as being Balthazar's creatures. Watching him stand there, I could see the truth of it. He was positioning himself in support of the Lord Supreme before the man even entered the room.

It was then that I realized how many eyes were on me. Ironveil and Earthtithe watched me under hooded brows from where they hunched over in conversation. Cornelius stared at me through red-rimmed eyes, surrounded by friends who pressed close to the grieving lord. They were all trying to assess me. They wanted to see if their new Sword, the upstart hero who had won so well for the city, was a creature of the Lord Supreme as well. As I moved between the aisles I realized there would be gravity to where I came to a stop. Should I stand by Balthazar's seat as Magneblade did. Should I move to the side with Alya and Tara.

Lord Darkwater caught my eye, standing between the aisles, deep in conversation with a powerfully built man in the armor of a knight. I didn't recognize the man at first. Much had changed about him. He was still disgustingly handsome, still proportioned like an ancient statue of a hero. His face still portrayed the embodiment of confident conceit to the world.

But he had changed too. There were dark rings under his eyes. There was a ragged hardness to his face. If it was possible, he seemed to have grown taller and stronger in the months since I smashed him from the tower in the middle of the Arena.

That had been the last time I had seen him. My mind was distracted with grief, politics, rage, guilt. I couldn't spare the energy to fully recall, but I remembered his father indicating that he had left the city to train elsewhere. It seemed he was back.

Lance turned his head to look at me. Even here, in this time of worry and sadness for the city, he couldn't muster the facade of conciliation. His eyes met mine and all that poured from them was hate and resentment. I had taken the suit from him. The victories and glories I had won could have been his.

As I passed him in the aisle he turned from his father, speaking low. "Shopkeeper."

I paused. "Lance. You've come back."

I held my voice and poise well. He was not the rival any longer. He was not the boogeyman with power of secret backers. He was a lord's son. I was a god. I could crush him with one hand. Battling the stew of emotions that bubbled within me, I couldn't help but imagine the catharsis that would bring me.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

He said, "I had to. We might be going to war if Buffalo don't relinquish Lauren's killer to our justice. I didn't want to miss the chance."

His eyes burned with hunger. Behind the flames of violent desire lurked other thoughts I could only glimpse.

I said, "It won't. It won't go that far."

He smiled, that dazzling, smarmy smile. "I can always dream. Maybe you'll catch an arrow and I can get my suit back."

I turned from him and walked on without response. I had been open to the possibility that we could assume some charade of civility. The matter was settled. I was Sword. He would one day be a lord of the land. Our roles were set. Open animosity served neither ourselves nor the city. But I couldn't trust myself to be near his venom while competing with my dark emotions.

Olaf and I moved to the side of the hall. There was an unspoken vote in where I came to a halt. I didn't join Tara and Alya in their alcove. I didn't join Magneblade on the dais. We stopped by the wall partway between. The meaning was unmistakable to the dozens of eyes that watched. I wasn't Balthazar's creature, nor his adversary. I was undecided. I was my own man.

No sooner had we come to a stop than a hush fell over the crowd. I turned my head quickly, knowing already what would have brought silence to the frantic energy of the room. Balthazar descended the main aisle, flanked by Jean and two knights.

The silence was quickly subsumed by an ocean of low whispers. Heads bent to ears, hands covered mouths, the commentary resumed.

Balthazar took his seat and the proud, stony face surveyed the room. He was counting, calculating, surveying. I tried to focus enough on the moment to ape him, to try to see what he was seeing. I knew there was a block in support of him and a block against. But the hall was not divided along those lines. Ironveil and Earthtithe sat together. Darkwater sat with Lance standing behind him. Farseer was surrounded by a throng of lesser nobles unfamiliar to me.

Balthazar cleared his throat. It was amazing how much power the sound seemed to have. A ripple of silence spread through the seated horde of nobles. All but a few fell instantly silent. Darkwater continued his hushed conversation with Lance, almost in open defiance of Balthazar's unspoken command for silence. A few others did likewise. I noted them down as obvious opponents of the Lord Supreme.

Balthazar spoke, his voice immediately consuming the room. We were in the Tower. All tech functioned, but this man needed no amplification. Even here, with so many voices in so much space, his voice dominated while barely seeming to elevate.

"Friends. Compatriots. Today has been a grievous day. A sad day. It is easy to make political capital on a tragedy. It's easy to turn the sorrow of a family into emotions that can drive decisions. I know we are all here today with conflicting imaginations, with visions of what comes next that are at odds with each other. But in obsessing about these drives and personal motives, it is all too easy to forget that a young woman died today. Not just any young woman. An heir to one of the proudest houses in our land. More, the Speaker of Boston. A newly forged leader of our city. And a young wife, newly wed, the whole story of her life yet to write. Now it will forever go unwritten."

His words were most likely engineered, carefully devised for maximum effect. But they cut me. They were the reality I was trying to avoid. I felt the wetness of my eyes, found myself blinking hard to contain the overflowing emotions. I considered folding my helm up to conceal my face. My breathing sped up.

"What happened today was murder. It is easy to point to Buffalo and call this an act of war. But that is simply not the case. Yes, there is no denying that Buffalo bears part of the blame. The city embraced weak leaders, those weak leaders gave way to the chaos of the Greenmen. That failure sowed enough discord that when the degeneration took hold of their Griidlord, Perdinger, there was not a structure in place to contain him. Yes, he ran wild for too long. But there was no intent. Buffalo may owe this city recompense for its failure, but I caution you all. This is no time to react harshly. Costly mistakes can be made when emotions run high. Mistakes that keep costing long after the emotions have come back to earth."

A murmur rustled through the gathered lords. It spread like ripples from a confusing stone dropped in a pool of expectations. They had not expected this. I heard a man in a seat near me mutter to his neighbor. "What's this? Baron doesn't want to go to war? There's a first time, my boy, for everything it seems."

Darkwater rose from his seat. The crowd went quiet again as they saw him, nobles nudging distracted lords adjacent to them. I watched. Lance's father carried weight in this room as well.

Darkwater spoke. His command was a sputtering candle next to Balthazar's. But Balthazar's voice was superhuman. Darkwater, by mortal comparison, spoke more than well enough.

"Lord Balthazar, this is quite enough. I for one am not about to be fooled by your misdirections."

His words were interrupted by unhappy grumblings and a shout from the back. He continued.

"No. My friends, don't be deceived. This man wants a war. He has always wanted a war. He built his reputation on war. A war is the last thing Boston needs. I want to take this moment to right our ship. We have Flows. We have a new Sword we can depend on. I need you all to heed me right now. Before this man has a chance to steer our ship into disaster, I propose a vote of no-confidence."

Every seat was emptied as the room rose to its feet, the air devoured with roaring of assent and dissent.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.