Octavius smiled as he sat back in his chair in his office, thinking about the future. Victory was sweet, and the taste of it following Trajan’s killing only made Octavius thirst for more. There were so many people to punish, so many things that only he could do to return the Bull Kingdom to what it should be, and he wanted to get started right away.

But he suppressed that urge to get started working on things right away. Trajan had only just been buried a few days ago and Octavius was still technically in mourning, even if mourning was the furthest thing from his mind. What was more, several of his other plans had already been implemented, and he had to wait for them to bear fruit before he could proceed.

The wait was killing him. For almost a decade, now, the King had been indisposed, leaving only himself and the bastard in charge of the Kingdom. Everything that would happen in the next few weeks had been a long time coming, and Octavius could practically feel himself vibrating in anticipation.

But still, he had to wait. Everything would come in due time, and him hovering over the shoulders of his subordinates as they tried to work wouldn’t accomplish a damn thing, no matter how much Octavius wanted to do just that right now.

Fortunately, the preliminary findings of some of his plans walked right in the door in the arms of the Sapphire Paladin and a few other of his personal stewards.

Octavius smiled at Sapphire, blatantly letting his eyes wander up and down her body. Unlike when Earthshaker did so, however, Sapphire greatly enjoyed the attention, going so far as to strike a few slightly provocative poses for her Prince.

After a few moments spent appreciating his lady’s beauty, Octavius acknowledged the rest of those who had entered his office with a curt, “What do you have for me?”

He didn’t even let them take a seat first.

“Your Highness,” the highest-ranked of his stewards began as he retrieved a few pieces of paper from the stack he was holding so that he would get the information he had to relay correct, “the questioning of Prince Trajan’s personal retinue has concluded, and we’ve made some progress toward your goals, but not, I fear, as much as we’ve hoped.”

“Explain,” Octavius demanded, glaring at the man. The steward was a kindly, grandfatherly old man, but if Octavius were to order him to strangle his own children, he’d do so without hesitation.

“We made sure that the most prominent knights were questioned regarding all matters that could possibly be tied to them, but I’m afraid the reports we’ve gotten from the office of the High Arbiter aren’t encouraging. In the case of Sir Adalgrim, Sir Leon, and Dame Minerva, just to name a few, most of the additional charges that could be levied against them would go nowhere.”

“There is still merit in levying them, if only to tie them up in the courts while we make our moves,” Sapphire pointed out.

“Of course there is,” the elderly steward replied, “however, the ultimate decision, in this case, will likely be made by the High Arbiter since she has personally stuck her nose in this business. If we bring charges against, let’s say Sir Leon for his connection to the death of Lord Tiberias last year, the High Arbiter wouldn’t sign off on it. There just isn’t enough evidence.”

Octavius suppressed a scowl. It wouldn’t normally be so difficult to put most of Trajan’s old knights out of commission with a little exploitation of the justice system, but with the High Arbiter now personally overseeing all matters connected to Prince Trajan and his assassination, attempting to do so would be very dangerous, politically speaking.

It was paramount to Octavius that he wasn’t publicly seen engaging in such tactics. All other considerations had to come after that. There were gains to be made there, especially since Octavius knew that August had met with both Minerva and Leon, but it was too great a risk if he were to bring anything but an iron-clad case against either of them for any kind of wrongdoing.

It just pained him to miss such an opportunity. Octavius had been trying to get some dirt on prominent supporters of August and Trajan like Leon and Minerva for more than a year, but his attempts had constantly been foiled. His rather blatant endeavor to search Leon’s villa following the vampire attack had been stopped by Trajan, as had many of his other investigations into other knights. Leon, in particular, Octavius wanted to bring down, if only for the humiliation of the young knight defeating his chosen gladiator during the triumphal games.

Still, even if he hadn’t enough to bring down Trajan’s old retinue, he still had enough on other people supporting August for his plans to work.

“Very well, we’ll forget about Trajan’s old retinue for the time being,” Octavius said as neutrally as his disappointment would allow. “How about the rest of our targets?”

“We’ve been having much more success on that front, Your Highness,” the steward replied. “We can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that many of Prince August’s lower-leveled stewards have been engaging in practices that could be seen as corrupt, though to my knowledge, most lower-level officials often engage in similar practices. Bribery and the like, nothing too crazy. Regardless, it’s enough that within perhaps a week or so, there will be some arrests taking place among some of Prince August’s low-ranking retainers.”

“Hopefully, we’ll be able to get them to flip on some more influential people,” Sapphire added.

“Indeed. Even if they don’t, though, we’ll get something we can use on them, even if we have to twist the truth to suit our purposes…” the steward replied.

“Focus on those who are vulnerable, don’t manufacture evidence unless it’s absolutely necessary,” Octavius ordered. “If people like Minerva and Leon aren’t vulnerable, then we’ll let them be until we can strengthen our position. Besides, while a force of two thousand can’t be ignored, Minerva’s hardly the most influential woman around, and Leon is nothing more than a barbarian with little strength. How much can they hurt us even if we leave them alone? Focus on August’s support, erode his base and make him desperate.”

“And then he’ll be right where we want him to be…” Sapphire said, clearly relishing the words.

“Yes,” Octavius said. “We can still fail at this point, so be cautious, don’t rush. The High Arbiter’s involvement complicates matters, but we can still do this if we’re careful. How are we coming along on the other front?”

“Our people are ready, they need only be questioned,” Sapphire said.

“August will be laid low by their testimony…” the steward added, a vicious grin forming on his face.

“Good…” Octavius murmured as his eyes drifted over to the windows of his office.

It didn’t quite sit well with him that he had to do this. He was the Crown Prince, and soon to be the King! Such scheming should’ve been beneath him, and it would’ve been if his father had simply confirmed what had been obvious even as far back as when Prince Herculanus joined the blood priests; that Octavius was to be his heir, not August.

“When I’m King, all of this will be unnecessary…” he muttered. “These problems—August, Minerva, that Valeman savage, even that upstart peasant Roland—they shouldn’t be so out of my reach… Once I’m King, I’ll make sure no one is so immune to my wrath ever again…”

The Prince’s face twisted into a sadistic smile that utterly eclipsed the one his steward wore, though it was gone but a moment later.

Even with these small setbacks, Octavius was in a fine position. Trajan was dead, and he had more than enough in the works to bring down August.

“There has been much talk of civil war should my father die,” Octavius mused aloud, “but I will ensure no such travesty ever takes place. August will be dead before I take the throne, and it will be by the hand of justice that he loses his life, not assassins in the dark…”

“That’s a shame,” came a voice from the doorway, suddenly sending no small amount of panic running through those in Octavius’ office—if what they were discussing were to leak, it would be all of them who would become intimately familiar with the headsman’s block instead of August. Fortunately for them, the speaker turned out to simply be the Earthshaker Paladin. “I was hoping you would allow me the honor of killing the bastard Prince, but I suppose one was enough.”

The Paladin sauntered into the office as if it were his own, lazily throwing himself into a chair by Octavius’ desk without even asking first, to the derisive and judgmental stares of the others in the room, though notably not Octavius.

“I’m glad you understand, Uncle,” Octavius said. “Some fun must be saved for others, after all.”

“Though it brings me some amount of pain, I must admit that you’re right in this case,” Earthshaker admitted so frankly that it would’ve been rude if their relationship wasn’t so familial, though that still didn’t stop Sapphire and the stewards in the room from giving staring daggers at him.

“I suppose that’s it, then,” Octavius said with some impatience. “We’ve done what we can, now we just wait for the chips to fall.”

—

Within the Hall of Justice, the central administration building for the Arbiters, thousands of people worked away. Some were investigators, looking into cases on behalf of the Arbiters when the King’s own investigators either couldn’t or wouldn’t. Others were paper-pushers, dealing with the Kingdom’s bureaucratic apparatus so that others could do their jobs without interruption. Still others were Arbiters of various rank, their assistants and secretaries, accountants, and everyone else that such an important arm of the government required.

Three days after Trajan’s retinue had been called in for questioning, the answers they had given had been analyzed and many a suspicious eyebrow had been raised. More than fifty knights had to be called back to be questioned again, though Leon, Minerva, and Alix were not among them—at least, not yet.

The information revealed over the course of these interviews started to paint a picture to the High Arbiter, one that she didn’t like. It was one of conspiracy and potential regicide, one that depicted someone of extremely high stature committing treason of the highest order.

Without delay, she began to sign off on arrests and expanded her investigation to include those in the service of Prince August, setting the Hall of Justice practically aflame with activity. Dozens of low-ranking knights were either detained for questioning or strongly encouraged to sit down for interviews by the High Arbiter’s investigators.

One man, however, escaped such a fate. His encounter with the agents of the High Arbiter began when his arrest warrant appeared on the desk of a relatively mid-level bureaucrat in the Halls of Justice.

This bureaucrat wasn’t a rich man, but he wasn’t poor, either. He was just a cog in the machine, signing off on warrants and just about any other paper that crossed his desk. To him, it sometimes felt like the only thing he did all day was sign his name on the indicated lines. Oftentimes, his monotonous job got to be so much that he barely even read the papers he was signing, even though it was technically his job to ensure that each one had been properly reviewed.

The day he got the arrest warrant for Justin Isynos, however, he stared at the paper for several long minutes before he finally signed it. Following the few strokes of the quill needed to sign his short name, he rose from his desk and left to take an early break. His work would pile up, but in this case, he had other, less formal business to take care of.

He wrote a quick note and took a ten-minute walk over to the Royal Palace where he located the desk of an acquaintance of his. She wasn’t at her desk, so he had to wait for another ten minutes, but that didn’t matter to him. When she did return, he and she barely spoke a word to one another, simply sharing the same space long enough for the man to pass the note and depart.

After reading the note, the woman burned it and left her office again, to the surprise of her assistant. Ignoring said assistant, the woman passed on the note’s information to another official in the palace, a young steward who worked in Prince August’s retinue, who paled and got to his feet.

This official then moved as fast as he was capable of without discarding his dignity and drawing attention to the small Isynos estate. It would’ve been an easy thing to pass the information along under normal conditions, but Justin hadn’t gone to the palace that day, insisting instead on doing his work from home. The official stayed in the estate for a matter of minutes, just long enough to pass along word of Justin’s arrest warrant, and then made his way back to the palace.

The High Arbiter’s agents arrived at the Isynos estate barely two hours later, but they found the place completely deserted. No Justin Isynos, not servants, no stewards, no papers, not even furniture. It was like the man had simply packed up and left without anyone realizing it, leaving his villa completely empty.