"That was the plan," Eve said.
He looked at her.
She held his gaze and waited.
His smile shifted slightly. Still warm. But more attentive now.
"Straight to business," he said. "I appreciate that." He set down his tea. "The rchant faction has been watching your progress with significant interest since the claim hearing. Your petition was well-constructed. Your conduct at the hearing was impressive. And the ascension, of course, changes the political landscape considerably."
"It does," Eve said. "Which is why I wanted this eting."
"Indeed." He folded his hands on the table. "What is it you’re hoping the rchant faction can offer you, Lady Evangeline?"
"I’m not looking for what you can offer ," she said. "I’m looking for what we can build together."
He raised an eyebrow.
"My father spent years working on Conclave reform," she said. "He was stopped before he could complete it. The reform he was building would have changed how supernatural governance works, made it more equitable, more transparent, less dependent on the kind of faction politics that allows one person to control the Conclave for twenty years without proper oversight."
"Lord Malachai’s tenure," Aldous said carefully.
"Yes," she said. "His tenure. Which the rchant faction benefited from considerably."
Aldous looked at his tea. Then at her. The warm smile was still there but the calculation behind it was more visible now.
"That’s a direct statent," he said.
"I’m a direct person," she said. "I’m not going to pretend the rchant faction was neutral under Malachai. You weren’t. The trading licenses, the supernatural comrce regulations, the border agreents, all of it was structured to benefit rchant faction interests during his tenure. I’ve read the docuntation."
Aldous was quiet for a mont.
Damian beside her didn’t move.
"You’ve done your howork," Aldous said finally.
"Yes," she said.
"And you’re telling this because..."
"Because I need you to understand that I’m not naive," she said. "I’m not going to sit in faction etings and pretend the last twenty years didn’t happen. They happened. Your faction made choices. That’s done." She paused. "What isn’t done is what cos next."
He looked at her.
"The reform I’m building," she said, "will change so of the comrcial structures your faction has benefited from. I’m not going to tell you it won’t. It will. The trading license system needs restructuring. The border comrce agreents need to be renegotiated to be more equitable across all factions." She held his gaze. "But the reform will also create new opportunities. Larger markets. Better supernatural comrce infrastructure. Long term stability that benefits trade more than twenty years of one faction gaming the system ever could."
She slid a folder across the table.
He looked at it without touching it.
"What is this," he said.
"A preliminary outline," she said. "Of what the comrcial structures look like under the reform. What the rchant faction loses short term. What it gains long term." She paused. "I had my team model it against the last thirty years of rchant faction comrce data."
He picked it up.
Opened it.
His expression as he read it was....she watched him carefully. The warm smile faded. Not into hostility. Into sothing more genuine. Actual attention. The face of a man who had expected a political eting and found numbers instead.
He read for a long ti.
Nobody spoke.
Damian poured himself more tea.
Aldous turned to the third page. Then the fourth. Then went back to the second.
Finally he set it down.
"This modeling," he said. "Who did this?"
"I did," she said. "With help from Silas and from Vessa Morvaine, who has forty years of Conclave economic records."
"The Morvaine witch," he said. "She’s alive."
"She’s been alive," Eve said. "She’s been watching."
He absorbed that.
"The long term projections," he said. "These assu full reform implentation within five years."
"Yes," she said.
"That’s optimistic," he said.
"It’s achievable," she said. "With Military faction backing, Traditional faction support, and rchant faction participation." She paused. "Which is what I’m asking for. Not endorsent. Participation. Your people in the room helping build this so that it works for everyone."
He looked at the folder again.
Then at her.
"You’re twenty six years old," he said.
"Yes," she said.
"Your father was forty three when he was working on this reform," he said. "He had decades of Conclave experience. Political relationships built over a lifeti." He paused. "And he still couldn’t get it done."
"My father was stopped," she said. "That’s different from failing."
Aldous was quiet.
"He was stopped," she said again. "By one man who controlled enough of the process to make sure it never moved forward. That man is no longer in the Conclave." She held Aldous’s gaze. "The thing that stopped the reform is gone. What’s left is the question of whether the people who could help build it are willing to."
Aldous looked at the folder.
At the numbers.
At twenty six years of data modeled against thirty years of history.
"I need to take this back to my senior partners," he said. "A decision of this magnitude requires consultation."
"Of course," she said.
"I’ll need two weeks," he said.
"You have one," she said.
He looked at her.
She looked back.
Then he laughed.
A genuine sound. Short and surprised and entirely unperford.
"One week," he said. "Fine." He picked up the folder. "May I keep this?"
"I made it for you," she said.
He stood and she did the sa, they shook hands across the table.
His handshake was firm. Evaluating. The handshake of a man making a final assessnt.
Whatever he found in hers seed to satisfy him.
"Lady Evangeline," he said. "I ca here today expecting to manage a young heir who needed to be handled carefully." He paused. "I was wrong about that."
"People often are," she said.
He smiled.
This ti it reached his eyes.
She walked him to the portal.
His assistants went through first. He paused at the threshold and looked back at her.
"Your father," he said. "I t him once. Years ago. Before everything." He paused. "He had the sa quality you have. The thing where you understand that politics is just people making decisions and if you can change what people understand then you can change the decisions." He looked at the folder in his hand. "He would have been good at this."
"He was good at it," she said. "He just didn’t get to finish."
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