Chương 362: 8.7

Evren stood before the High King. Murad the first, Conqueror of Orestias and Rebuilder of Terminapolis. The Wolf Prince stood in the throne room of the High King of Magarska Officially as the Prince of the Vanand. He did not entirely understand all the reasons why that was important, but Fizzbunches said that if he wanted to slay the lies of his regent by making them true the first blow was to be done as such.

And when he was asked by his advisor what he wanted to do most of all about Hazim's presence in the Capital Palace Evren was sure. The 'Regent' would pay for this trespass.

"High King Murad, First of your name, Conqueror of Orestias and Rebuilder of Terminapolis, Unifier of the Dacian Vault. I come before you to declare a crime and betrayal upon me." Fizzbunches had coached him on how he could find that victory." Our opponents are many while we are few, they have taken the initiative, but they stand divided in their efforts against us. All seek to own you and yours, to control you, but they work against each other just as surely as they do against you."

The high king smelled amused, but he had a frisson of fear well hidden beneath his finery.

"Is that so Wolf Prince Evren of the Vanand? A very serious claim to make, you are certain?" Evren held fast to his expression, his coils were only so tense as warranted his words. His wings were held proudly. Ears alert and forward, lips tense but not raised above his fangs. Eyes clear and focused upon the High King's own. The words of Fizzbunches are still clear in his memory even though his 'little advisor' could not attend this meeting." It will begin with cleaving the faults between our enemies apart.

Spark the wicks of their fear alight and then tip their lanterns into the kindling of mistrust to burn unstoppably. We move the strongest of them against the weakest and let their own suspicions and evil bleed them all." Evren lashed his tail even if it made the wind in his chest bite at the performance.

"It is just as serious that any would dare to dishonor you my king against one of your own princes. My reading and teachers have made it clear to me it is vital that I bring this to you my liege." The Wolf Prince watched the High King, the way that a tension eased from his spine, Evren breathed in how the scent of him changed. A hint of anger rising, but also relief. Good, Fizzbunches had told him what to look for. What signs there might be that the man's thoughts were moving the way they needed.

Murad leaned forward now, interested, a calculating look to his brows.

"Your tutors have done themselves credit. If there is truly such a serious matter as a betrayal of my princes I should be made aware of it. Who is your accused of this crime?" Evren let up on the struggle to keep the snarl from his lips. Spitting the name he strived to never utter except when absolutely required of him. The hateful man tasted like a knife on his tongue. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"My Regent Abas the Second, Low King and Lord of Kars. Though it pains me to tell you, for he had seemed a fair and just teacher ordered by my king. His counsel until this has been true, and this makes his betrayal cut even deeper." But though it felt like his mouth should be full of blood for the way his wind tried to cut him even uttering the man's name the only lies he spoke were his regent's own. Lies he had gladly spread through the streets of Kars and the courts of the Vanand.

Lies laid out for Evren to make anew into truth. If he could just get the High King of Magarska to believe what he wanted him to believe. Reveal the truth just enough to turn the men against one another.

"He has schemed betrayal, my king, he steals from the people of Vanand, when I strive to protect them he tries to turn my courtiers against me and in your very own house he has now attempted to take my own brother hostage to silence me against you." Consideration turns to alarm in the eyes of Murad, however just like Fizzbunches had promised the man grasped the opportunity Evren gave him. The Wolf Prince of Vanand had come to the High King of Magarska with this matter.

Despite having exposed plots that had ultimately been set in motion by the king himself the fact that Evren earnestly and 'naively' came to the highest authority of the land with his loyalty to Magarska seemingly intact made what Murad might initially see as a disaster into an opportunity. His face became angry, lies made flesh as the scent of him was one of tension, worry but also excitement.

"You know this truly Wolf Prince? How?" Fizzbunches called it a snare of words, a trap of lies, carefully made by their quarry itself. Just needing to be revealed at the right time and they would close it around themselves with hardly an effort from them. Evren let his snarl turn cruel, letting the hate he had for this man reveal itself, and yet Murad believed that all of the wyrm's ire was held purely for the 'betrayer'.

"He speaks freely in his rooms of his plots, the blood of loyal men to Magarska has stained his guard's blades when they have acted against him. Commoners all of them but still loyal and good men silenced for his evil." The dismissal of the murdered bird master hurt, it dug at Evren's ribs with the fury of his wind. But the High King needed to see his Wolf Prince, a wyrm trained and made every part the cruel and awful thing he wanted out of all his princes."

Those that think themselves above others look for their own cruelty in others, they suspect kindness towards their so-called lessers as signs of betrayal. If they believe you are cruel as they are, they will mistake you as one of them." But the most important part was to tell Murad without saying it that his agent in Vanand had disobeyed a direct command from his king.

Had jeopardized and risked the High King the 'asset' of his Wolf Prince despite such carefully and abundantly clear commands to never speak aloud any of their plans in the same building as a Wyrm. It was out of laziness and arrogance rather than rebellion, but Fizzbunches had assured Evren this would not matter. Evren now witnessed that his friend and Advisor had been right.

The High King of Magarska's anger was finally genuine, the stink in his sweat and the fury in his eyes rising to a blaze as grey brows curdled.

"I see, very good Wolf Prince of Vanand. This is indeed a very serious matter, I will see that this betrayer properly sees justice at once!" The wyrm nodded, pulling his snarl back down. Forcing gratitude into his eyes and dipping his head the way that all the stupid awful men in the palace enjoyed him doing. But the pain in his chest was easing, the first proper blow was finally being made against these horrible men. It would begin with the awful 'regent'."

The powerful will attribute to malice, where simple ignorance or stupidity suffices. And we shall make a blade from this to stab them in the gut." It would end with the terrible man before Evren.