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“The other scroll?” he continued. “I’m sorry, but I passed by your office after the messenger came. There were two letters delivered, weren’t there?”
Ms. Securia’s face grew heavy. “She hasn’t told you ...”
“What? Who?”
“The censor of the senate has concluded that your cousin was working to the archon’s interests, rather than the senate’s. That she assisted you in acquiring your alliance.”
His heart stopped.
His letter! His damn fucking letter to the censor! With everything that had happened, he’d completely forgotten all about it!
“Well, surely that doesn’t matter anymore, does it?” he said with a hopeful laugh. “Now that the senate have agreed to negotiate the deal, that is all just old news.”
Ms. Securia looked at him gravely. “Your Excellency, I am sure the common folk of Mestibes are all now singing the praise of House Savair—so loudly in fact, that the senate had no choice but to hum along. But there has still been a grave insult to Mesti. A total betrayal of the goddess. And war is still coming. This alliance will combat it, but not stop battle from bloodying our lands. The favor of Mesti will still be paramount—more paramount than it as ever been.”
And someone must pay a price for that, came the unspoken words in his ears. Someone must be sacrificed to appease the goddess.
He gave a mirthless laugh as his skin prickled with frost. “Let me guess, they’ve delayed House Cosmin’s attempt to become patricians?”
“No, Your Excellency. It appears that the censor set your aunt an ultimatum. Given your cousin’s youth, Senator Beeta Cosmin could either take the family’s punishment herself and be removed from the senate, or her daughter would be dragged back to Mestibes and forced to bear whatever penalty the senate deemed fit.”
Oh, shit...
Aurelius’s stomach twisted. He didn’t need to see the letter. He knew Beeta Cosmin far too well.
Teigra was taking the fall.
77
TEIGRA
She filled the bag in a daze, taking care to align the edges of her stolas perfectly.
It had been three days since she’d received the scroll.
At first, she’d expected it to be an apology from Calix, or some fanciful letter from Fabulosa. Instead, it had been from Mestibes, cosigned by the censor of the senate on the left and Mother on the right, informing her that she was charged with treason, and must now return to Mestibes to face her punishment.
Treason...
Punishment...
That could include any number of horrible things—being stripped of her position, or banishment to one of the mid or low polities, or possibly even death, although she found some comfort that this particular punishment had not been carried out in Mestibes for decades.
Or, if the senate so chose, she could suffer something even worse—having her name stricken from the records of citizenry, no longer to be known as Teigra Cosmin, but as Teigra Enklimitas.
Criminal.
Traitor.
At first, the news had cut her so deeply, breaking her so completely, that she thought she might never breathe again. But then, as the hours passed into days, circumstance stretched into some kind of distant madness.
Under normal circumstances, she’d be driven home immediately to face her punishment. But Ms. Securia was doing the bare minimum on the negotiations, leaving Jaspar too busy to drive her back.
And so, she was left to wait, as the very contract she was being blamed for was being negotiated by her superiors.
It was all so absurd.
It was all so unreal.
