The next matter before the council was Dawnstar.
Nyx delivered what she had gathered in a few measured words.
Dawnstar was dying slowly. With Gerardy dead and the crimes beneath the mountain dragged into the open, the Red Dawn faction had fractured into three feuding clans, each drowning in debt and disgrace. Worse still, the Moonlight Syndicate had sunk its hooks deep into all of them — buying some, frightening the rest — and so long as it held the clan leaders, Red Dawn could not be made to fall the rest of the way.
Emery listened and asked little. The picture matched everything Tessa and Klea had already laid before him. Dawnstar was rotting from the inside, and the Syndicate was the rot.
By the time the final matter was concluded, the night had grown late.
Emery dismissed the council.
It was nearly midnight when Klea returned to the hall.
"We have a visitor," she said.
A guest chamber had already been prepared in the western wing.
It was there that the visitors were brought.
The first was an elderly Grand Magus clad in travel-worn robes. Though age lined his face, his frame remained broad and powerful, the build of a man who had spent centuries carrying a sword rather than a pen. His aura was steady, disciplined, and unquestionably dangerous.
The old man swept his gaze across the room once.
The slight tightening of his jaw made it obvious he did not entirely approve of what he saw.
The second visitor stepped forward before him.
When she lowered her hood, Emery immediately recognized her.
She was beautiful in the refined manner of old nobility, her movements graceful, her posture impeccable. Yet beneath that elegance lingered exhaustion. The past year had clearly taken its toll.
Seraphine Dawn.
Princess of the Red Dawn faction.
Emery knew little of Dawnstar’s politics, yet he recognized this one. Seraphine was Gerardy’s elder sister — and one of the three now contending for what remained of the Red Dawn name.
"Forgive the hour, Lord Emery, Lady Klea," she said with a graceful bow. "The matter is of the greatest importance."
Emery remained silent, allowing Klea to take the lead.
Klea folded her arms. "State your purpose."
Seraphine did not hesitate. She spoke plainly.
It was the same proposal Tessa had delivered a few years ago, now spoken by the woman herself.
A union.
Seraphine declared her willingness to submit the whole of Red Dawn to the Earth faction, provided Emery took her as a legitimate wife, binding the two houses by blood and law.
By the standards of Magus alliances’ aristocracy, it was an extraordinarily generous offer.
Despite its decline, Red Dawn remained a power with centuries of history behind it. Its territories spanned an entire planet.
Many factions would have accepted before she had even finished speaking.
Emery answered before she reached the end.
"No."
The word was flat and immediate.
The old guardian’s face darkened at the blunt refusal, his mouth already opening to protest, but the princess stopped him with a glance.
Then she did something the old man plainly had not expected.
She lowered herself slightly, her voice and bearing softening into something almost humble.
"Lord Emery, please reconsider."
She turned toward Klea.
"I have heard of your bond, Lady Klea, and I have no wish to e between you. I ask this for one reason only—to ensure a smooth merging of our two houses."
Her meaning was clear enough.
Red Dawn still possessed more than two dozen Grand Magus and hundreds of Magus, scattered across three feuding clans that would never bow to a simple purchase or treaty. Only a true union—blood and name alike—could bind such proud, fractured forces together without plunging Dawnstar into another civil conflict.
"Please, Lord Emery," she added quietly. "Now is the right time."
Emery did not reply immediately.
Instead, he turned toward Klea—not for permission, but because she understood Dawnstar far better than he did. She had lived within its political web for years while he had been absent.
Klea was no longer the young, jealous girl she had once been.
She studied Seraphine for a long moment, weighing far more than the words themselves. Then she gave a small, courteous nod.
"Let us hear the full proposal."
Relief flickered across Seraphine’s face.
She began to explain.
It took only a few minutes for Emery to revise his opinion of her.
She was not merely eloquent.
She was intelligent.
Sharp.
Far sharper than Gerardy had ever been.
As she spoke, Emery finally understood why so many people had once considered her the more suitable heir to Red Dawn. Unfortunately, tradition and prejudice had stood in her way. In a faction dominated by old bloodlines and conservative elders, her gender had closed doors that her petence alone should have opened.
She did not waste time offering territory, resources, or Grand Magus as bargaining chips, as a lesser negotiator might have.
Instead, she focused on the things the Earth faction genuinely lacked.
She spoke of the hundreds of experienced administrators Red Dawn had stationed throughout Dawnstar and neighboring sectors—governors, logistics directors, treasury officials, diplomats, trade overseers, and Alliance liaisons. Men and women who had spent decades managing cities, planetary infrastructure, and interstellar merce.
The Earth faction possessed powerhouses.
Red Dawn possessed bureaucracy.
And bureaucracy was often harder to replace than Grand Magus.
Then she revealed the second advantage.
Red Dawn’s network.
Over centuries, the faction had cultivated countless relationships throughout the Magus Alliance—connections within planetary governments, military departments, mercial guilds, and regional councils.
Influence that could not simply be purchased.
"With a smooth transition and the right leadership," she said, "Grade Three would be no dream for the Earth faction at all."
For a single heartbeat, Emery wondered whether the woman had somehow read his intentions.
Then he dismissed the thought.
Faction advancement was the ambition of every rising power. Seraphine had merely identified the most obvious prize.
Still, he found himself impressed despite himself and remained silent, allowing her to continue.
Her terms followed.
The entirety of Red Dawn’s businesses, military assets, and remaining political influence would be placed under the Earth faction’s authority.
The Full amount of Red Dawn’s treasury would be transferred.
Thirty percent of the planet’s land rights would bee Earth faction territory.
The remaining seventy percent would stay divided between Seraphine and the last legitimate branch of the Dawn family—a concession designed to help the proud old clans accept the transition without rebellion.
And at the center of the agreement stood the final condition.
Seraphine would be recognized as Emery’s legitimate second wife.
Emery could not help noticing the difference from the last proposal a few years ago.
Back then, she had demanded to bee the principal wife and had offered neither territory nor meaningful concessions.
The woman standing before him now was far more pragmatic.
Klea listened to every word without interruption.
When the princess finally finished, Klea responded with a graceful gesture and a perfectly measured smile.
"We appreciate your proposal."
Her tone was courteous, neither warm nor cold.
"This is not a decision that can be made lightly. We will consider the matter carefully and return to you with our answer."
It was not the response Seraphine had hoped for.
The disappointment was subtle, but Emery caught it.
Beside her, the old guardian was less restrained. Irritation flashed openly across his face, his brows drawing together as though he wished to argue.
Before he could speak, however, Seraphine stepped forward and inclined her head.
"Thank you for hearing us."
Her posure never broke.
"We will await your decision."
With that, the two visitors withdrew.
The chamber doors closed behind them with a soft thud.
Silence lingered for several moments.
Then Emery turned toward Klea.
"Are you actually considering it?"
Klea met his gaze.
A smile slowly appeared on her face, calm as still water.
"No."
"Start with how she arrived," Klea said. "She came at night, cloaked, without a banner, without an announcement, and without any of the ceremony someone of her position should normally demand. She doesn’t want this meeting to bee public knowledge."
She paused for a moment, considering the memory.
"That tells me two things. First, it tells me how desperate she has bee. Second, it tells me she still isn’t being pletely honest. She is hiding something"
Emery nodded in agreement.
Klea continued.
"But that isn’t actually why I refused."
A faint smile touched her lips.
"The real reason is much simpler. We don’t need anything she’s offering."
She began laying out the facts one by one.
Earth had been quietly working its way into this planet for ten years now; its influence no longer leaned on Red Dawn’s at all. As for those vaunted connections — Red Dawn had ruled corruptly for decades, and to inherit their officials and their relations would only be to inherit their rot. More burden than gift. And the land, with the faction’s debts and the troubles spreading across it, would do nothing but lose value by the month. Earth was not short of spirit stones; any problem that could be solved with coins was no problem at all.
"And the treasury she offered is probably the most misleading part of the entire proposal."
Although the faction undoubtedly still possessed valuable treasures, its debts were almost certainly far greater in parison. Any wealth they inherited would e hand in hand with obligations that could take years to untangle.
Emery nodded slowly, fully impressed.
"So what is your plan?"
"We wait," Klea said. "And we watch what she does next. She’s playing a dangerous game between the Syndicate and us — of that I’m certain."
Then she hesitated, just slightly.
"Actually... the truth is, I mean to use her situation to draw the Syndicate out." Her eyes flicked to his. "It could be dangerous. What do you think?"
Emery let out a slow breath and smiled.
"Don’t worry. Do whatever you think is best. I believe in you."
Klea held his gaze a moment, then asked the question she had clearly already guessed the answer to.
"You mean to enter seclusion again."
Emery let out a deep sigh before answering truthfully.
"Yes."
Baeldum had shown him what real power looked like—the terrifying gulf between his own strength and that of a true Three Cosmos cultivator, to say nothing of a Supreme. The road ahead was crowded with challenges. The duel with the Sky Lord awaited less than fifteen years from now, and even before that came the mission into the Tartarus Realm, a dangerous undertaking that would demand not only his time, but far more strength than he currently possessed.
He could not afford to remain where he was.
The breakthrough to the Three Cosmos Realm had to e.
And it had to e soon.
User Comments
0 comments from readers