Contents
Chapter Seventy-Three
Overview
Vabras finalizes a coordinated purge, framing an invented coup by Emperor Bersun using Gedrun Stour’s corpse as a double. Lady Harmony and Lord Clarion stage a cover story that sanctifies Ruko and recasts Rivenna as a martyr, while the Eight remain trapped in a portrait. Vabras, devoted to order and Andren’s dynastic plan, prepares to move the court to Samra and personally hunts the remaining traitors.
Summary
Vabras reviews the night’s purge: coordinated attacks leave Hounds dead, key kin assassinated, and the Fox palace in flames. The casualties are tallied precisely—1,793—and the blame is prearranged to fall on a fabricated coup by Emperor Bersun, now said to have resisted succession to Andren Valit’s son.
In the throne room, Lady Harmony and Lord Clarion stage the aftermath. Before frightened guests, they present Abbess Rivenna’s corpse and a crowned body on the steps—Gedrun Stour masquerading as Bersun—to sell a narrative: Bersun tried to kill Ruko with the Blade of Peace; Rivenna died stopping him; the Monkey spared the world and the Tiger blessed Ruko. Doubtful courtiers remain silent as Harmony and Clarion assure all that the Eight have Returned Home.
Inside the walls, the true Eight—bound in a single tormented portrait—seethe, unheard. Their captivity underscores the lie being installed as state truth and the scale of Andren’s manipulation.
Elsewhere, Vabras prepares for transition. He has packed for immediate departure on the new High Admiral’s Leviathan to restore Samra, letting Armas decline—Andren’s revenge in city form. Vabras privately exults in the promise of unbroken order: Andren’s Chameleon Spell offers life without succession, with heirs slated for the same fate as Ruko. Only Vabras knows and approves.
As he orders squads to hunt remaining traitors, a rare private moment reveals Vabras’s concealed softness toward a stray cat he once saved—quickly suppressed as he returns to duty. He departs to lead the final sweep, determined to perfect the purge and seal the new regime’s narrative.
Who Appears
- VabrasHound High Commander; orchestrates the purge, frames Bersun, embraces Andren’s eternal order, prepares to move power to Samra.
- Lady HarmonyCo-authors the official story; performs grief, exalts Rivenna as savior, and legitimizes Ruko before the court.
- Lord ClarionStages the throne room narrative; reassures guests the Eight are ‘home’ and mimes the Tiger’s blessing of Ruko.
- Andren ValitUnseen architect; his Chameleon plan ensures dynastic control and the shift of the court to Samra.
- Emperor Bersun the Second (Gedrun Stour)A body double displayed as Bersun’s corpse to sell the coup narrative; the real Bersun died years ago.
- Rivenna GlorrenLies dead; recast as martyr whose ‘sacrifice’ saved Ruko and the world in the staged account.
- RukoEmperor-in-waiting; publicly ‘blessed’ by the Tiger in the narrative and set to sail for Samra.
- The Eight (in the portrait)Divine figures bound into a single tormented portrait; conscious, furious, and silenced.
- Samran Hound captainReports progress, fails to find the traitors; escorts Vabras as he takes personal command.
- FacetSeasoned courtier who conceals doubt, accepting the new regime’s story to survive.
- Grace EliatExperienced courtier; withholds skepticism as the staged truth is installed.