Silver Skeletons: Book 3 The Rose Tree Chronicles

Chapter Twenty-Five: Secrets

"The death of a Slave must be reported to the Association of Slave Owners forty-eight hours after the death."

There was so much information in Marquis Rallian's journal that Rein wanted to read the entire thing right then and there. Unfortunately, she knew that she didn't have enough time to do so. She would just have to return once Rallian was asleep and read it then. In the meantime, she had to prioritize the more important subjects within the pages: Ariana and Nadia.

Much of the content of the journal was surprising to Rein. There was silent strain and much mistrust between Rallian and Ariana. He expected her to demand Nadia's death any day now and predicted it to be the beginning of the end of their friendship since he was prepared to refuse. However, the longer it took for him to receive the demand, the more suspicious he grew that Ariana would try to kill Nadia without him hearing about it first.

Rallian struggled to come up with ways to maintain the convenient relationship that he had with Ariana because she was his easiest way out if Nadia ever requested signage into the Annual Slave Arena, among other noted conveniences of course. Otherwise, he would have to make connections with employees who worked inside the ASO, which wouldn't be as assuring as having the queen on his side, especially after she obtained the Crown Matrimonial.

Nevertheless, Rallian was ready for Nadia to request signage into the Arena. He had a list of solutions and schemes to keep her away from it that took up an entire page in his journal, and Rein wrote them all down on the same parchment on which she had also taken notes on what she found in the pamphlets. Once she finished copying the list, she folded the parchment up as many times as she could, flew to the door of the study, and lightly scratched the door on the other side of which Makiar remained at guard.

Outside the study, Makiar heard the light scratching noise from inside the marquis's study. He took one step backward closer to the door and subtly put his hand by the silver lock. A piece of parchment folded many times over slipped through the keyhole and into Makiar's gloved palm. He quickly tucked it into his pocket, then stepped forward to arrive to his original post as if nothing had happened.

Back inside the study, Rein returned to the journal to read further about Rallian's thoughts on Nadia, such as his frustrations about how she wouldn't confess her ethnicity to him. He also spoke in detail about the way he felt about her. At first, he only saw her as a valuable piece of property, but it seemed that those feelings eventually progressed to a strange form of relatability, and then respect. It appeared that at the time Rein read these journal entries, Rallian struggled with the possibility that he loved Nadia more than his own daughter, and he wasn't sure how to handle this or what he should do about it. This was the most shocking bit of information that Rein found yet in Rallian's journal and she couldn't imagine finding anything more stunning than this. Rein had to take a moment to pause and ingest this bit of information. The idea that Rallian could possibly love Nadia so much, yet treat her the way he did, wasn't something that Rein could understand and she probably never would.

***

Back at the banquet, Marquis Rallian took notice of Ivanna's gloves. "Do you always eat with your gloves on, my Lady?"

"I touched an Elvic blade last week and developed a nasty allergic reaction," Ivanna answered. "It's quite unattractive, so I wish to hide it."

Viscount Orion looked disbelieving at Ivanna. Then she remembered that back when she was his slave, he had teasingly run an Elvic blade along various parts of her skin, which did not cause an allergic reaction. Hopefully he would say nothing to Rallian, at least not during this party.

"Ah, I see," said Rallian. "You said you're a fire elemental earlier, did you?"

"Yes, I did."

"I don't recall pointed ears being a trait of fire elementals."