"Listen!"
It was the Dowager's cold, commanding, and eerily steady voice. The voice of a woman who had once ruled empires through whispers and glances alone.
And the hall obeyed.
"Aralyn tells the truth!" she declared. Her words thundered across the chamber, silencing every breath. "Leroy is the rightful heir to the throne."
For a moment, no one moved. The Emperor's heart lurched painfully in his chest. His mother's words struck him like a blade. He had expected her outrage, her schemes, perhaps another attempt to manipulate him, but not this.
Not truth.
When she had said she wanted to do "the right thing," he had dismissed it as the moral whimsy of an aging woman. He thought once Leroy was dealt with, she would return to her senses… to him. But now…
She was condemning him. Before the entire court.
