The assessment resumed after the recess, but the mood had changed. The affected nobles spoke in lower voices. The knights stood closer together.
Kaelen stood at the edge of the field, the voice still echoing in his skull, the bond pulsing with a fear that was entirely his own.
[You seem well adjusted]
He ignored it.
The system flickered with data, and for once he paid attention, anything to keep him from listening to the noise.
The houses, their alliances, their grudges. The web of blood and marriage and old betrayal that held the capital together.
House Ashworth came first in his mind because the envoy had come first in his face.
They were an ancient family. Old blood and even older grudges that stretched back three generations to a dispute over a boundary stone and a woman who had married the wrong man. Their banner was crimson and gold. They had endured by being ruthless, by never forgiving a slight, by collecting favors the way merchants collected coin.
