The King's Messenger

Chapter 30

Eden asked Adrian to assume leadership of House Mirene for the time being. Lady Mirene's parents were gone, and she had never married; she had aunts and cousins, but they weren't in the city, giving Eden a perfect opportunity to grant Adrian more power.

The Mirene manor was also closer to the Charere manor than Adrian's own Bahk manor. Eden hoped Adrian would appreciate the sentiment.

Eden brought his artificing supplies, documents, and glaive back to the palace. Standing in his room, he examined himself in the mirror. He looked a mess; hair hastily tied back, unrelenting shadows under his eyes, worker-class clothing, an eyepatch covering his handsome face, bandage poking out from under his sleeve. It would end tonight, starting with a full night of sleep.

FIrst, though, he had documents to prepare, stamps to press, and jewelry to make. With a sigh, he sat at his desk, lighting an oil lamp and inspecting the earring. A few more carefully detailed runes, and it would be done.

Eden slept early, the previous night's complete lack of sleep, combined with his general exhaustion, forcing him out of commission. For the first time in weeks, he didn't open his eyes again until the sun hinted at the window, the sound of birds trilling and chirping filling the air.

A grin spread over his face as Eden opened his eye. He wasn't tired. Finally, he wasn't tired.

Eden finished the earring without much difficulty, setting off to test it on the daily lies that people told through the day. It had the same problem as earlier; it would heat up at a lie, such as when someone responded that they were well when asked how they were, but it wouldn't distort the sound at all, which frustrated him almost as much as the fact that he'd made the device in the first place. He shouldn't rely on artificing to catch falsehoods for him. It wasn't as though he doubted his skills, he just... wanted a second opinion.

Captain Torre dealt with much of the fallout from Lady Mirene's betrayal; if any of it fell to Eden, he played the vapid prince who couldn't be bothered. Adrian managed the Mirene household with some help from Janke, and Eden spent his days polishing the necessary kingly orders. Since he was back in the palace, it was a simple affair to lift his father's seal, soon to be his own, out of his chambers.

But the documents were mundane affairs, trite tasks that didn't occupy the mind. As days drifted by, bringing Eden ever closer to Autumn Hail, thoughts fluttered through his mind on a stormwind. He'd killed before, it wasn't just a fear of taking a man's life; it was his own father, for the saints' sake. Did he feel guilty for planning patricide, or did he feel guilty that he thought it made sense? And it did- however unprepared Eden might unexpectedly be, he would still be a better king than his father. Wouldn't he? After all, he wanted to prevent slavery and exploitation of indentures in Valina. He wanted to end corruption in the bureaucracy. He wanted to help spread resources, introduce artificing, perhaps even in combination with alchemy, to increase crop yields and prevent famines, like the one that took the Fishers' firstborn daughter.

Lofty goals, the lot of them. Would he be able to complete all of them, any of them? Or would the crown infest him with cruelty and dispassion like it had his father and his father before that?

Eden pressed the seal of a dead man walking into hot wax, crimson like blood. Alyssa's vials weighed heavily in his pocket. He stamped the document, wax oozing out from the sides. The royal emblem, an eagle gripping an olive branch in its talons, stared back at Eden.

He stood abruptly, hands smudged with ink, and combed his fingers through his hair. He'd made too many promises to too many people- people who deserved better- to back down now.