The blade was out now. Not swung, but visible. The Emperor wasn't asking as a man. He was asking as the empire. Ludwig felt the Second Prince's presence flare like a smug ember at the edge of his awareness.
The trap was complete: refuse, and you defy the Emperor; accept, and you surrender what you bled for.
That was clear and obvious. This was a test, and a very hard one at that too.
Ludwig looked at the second prince, he had a smug smile on his face.
The smugness wasn't loud, but it was poisonous. The kind of expression that said: I already own your answer. You just don't know it yet.
Ludwig could almost hear the Second Prince's thoughts, how he'd imagined this moment, how he'd rehearsed Ludwig's humiliation, how he expected the Emperor to take the heart and place it into the heir's hands like a trophy.
"Your majesty," Ludwig said, "This is not a power that anyone can handle; it isn't a good power. It isn't evil. It is simply rabid and destructive."
