“From where?”
Heskar hesitated.
Lucien’s gaze sharpened. “From where?”
Lysa answered before anyone could stop her. “Temple stores, Your Highness. I watched the kitchen pour it from a sealed bottle.”
Lucien looked at Maelor.
Maelor’s expression remained serene.
“Who found the forged page?” Lucien asked.
“It was discovered during chamber inspection,” Heskar said.
“There is no routine chamber inspection of a marked bride’s private correspondence an hour before the final sequence.” Lucien crossed the room and stopped beside the desk. He did not touch the page. “Who touched this before you arrived?”
No answer.
Lucien looked at Corvek. “You recommend suspension.”
“Pending review, yes.”
“A review that would delay the final sequence and activate estate vulnerability clauses against House Corvyr before any determination of guilt.”
“That is not my concern.”
“It should be. Procedure used without awareness of consequence is merely violence with better handwriting.”
Corvek’s jaw tightened. “Your Highness.”
Lucien turned toward Maelor.
“This happened before.”
Maelor’s eyes flickered.
Only once.
Sabine saw it.
So did Lucien.
“Not like this,” Maelor said.
“No,” Lucien replied. “Not exactly. It never is exactly. That is how cowards convince themselves the pattern is new.”
Silence spread through the chamber.
Sabine understood then why his face had gone so cold.
He had seen the architecture.
Removal through procedure.
Isolation through concern.
Discrediting through planted instability.
