The Dragon Kings' Forbidden Witch

”With that,” Cedric said, ”I believe this session is concluded. You are all dismissed. We reconvene in one week.”

The elders began to file out slowly, their expressions thoughtful, their minds clearly working through everything they had heard.

Matthias paused as he passed Cedric’s seat. ”Masterfully done,” he said quietly, so quietly only Cedric could hear. Then he continued out of the chamber.

Was Matthias complimenting Cedric’s presentation? Or was he acknowledging that he understood the trap? Cedric would have to pay closer attention to Matthias’s movements in the coming days.

Varrick left without comment, his skeptical expression unchanged.

Venn practically floated out, clearly already mentally engaged with reviewing the prophecies.

Brennan left looking troubled but somewhat comforted by the suggestion that the girl might need protection.

Garrison left looking thoughtful, probably calculating the potential benefits of a curse-breaking solution.

Finally, only Cedric and Aldrich remained.

***

Aldrich remained seated while the others left, waiting until the chamber was empty and the doors had been closed before speaking.

”Masterfully done, indeed,” Aldrich said, echoing Matthias’s words but with a different implication. ”You’ve given each of them enough information to fuel their particular concerns while leaving them uncertain about the truth.”

”Uncertainty breeds caution,” Cedric replied, moving to one of the windows and looking out at the city below. ”And caution is what we need right now.”

”Did you notice anything?” Aldrich asked. ”Any reactions that seemed false? Any questions that should have been asked but weren’t?”

Cedric turned back to the elder. ”Matthias is more interested in the strategic implications than in truth-finding. Varrick is suspicious of everyone, including the kings. Venn is so caught up in the prophecies that he’s not thinking clearly about other possibilities. Brennan is frightened and looking for reassurance. Garrison is calculating profit.”

”And any of them could be the mole,” Aldrich concluded.

”Any of them,” Cedric agreed.

”But my intuition says...” Aldrich paused, considering. ”My intuition says it’s someone whose primary loyalty is to a house rather than to the realm. Someone who stands to benefit personally from betraying council secrets.”

”Garrison?” Cedric asked.

”Possibly. His family has ties to several of the major houses. But his primary concern is always practical benefit. I would need to see evidence of actual profit before accusing him.”

”Matthias?” Cedric offered.

”Matthias thinks ten moves ahead. If he were a mole, he would be far more subtle. He wouldn’t leave traces. And his questions today were too strategic, too focused on real concerns. A mole would ask different questions. A mole would push for certain decisions.”

Cedric nodded, accepting Aldrich’s analysis.

”My concern,” Aldrich continued, ”is someone younger. Someone with something to prove. Someone ambitious.”

”Brennan?” Cedric asked.

”Possibly. Or someone not yet on the council. Someone positioned to rise, who might see selling secrets to a powerful house as a path to advancement.”

Cedric returned to the table and sat. ”We have one week. In that time, someone will leak one of these versions of the investigation findings. And when they do, we’ll know who our mole is.”

”And then what?” Aldrich asked. ”When we identify the traitor?”

Cedric was quiet for a long moment.

”Then we have to decide whether to remove them quietly, or to expose them and have a public trial that will shake the council to its foundations,” he said finally.

”A difficult choice,” Aldrich observed.

”Everything about this situation is a difficult choice,” Cedric replied.

***

After Aldrich had departed, leaving Cedric alone in the great chamber, the lord of council allowed himself a moment to simply sit.

The transformation incident in the training grounds. The mysterious girl at the center of the kings’ attention. The mole within the council itself selling secrets to someone. The curse worsening, the timeline accelerating, the future of the realm growing increasingly uncertain.

All of these things were happening simultaneously. All of them were connected by threads that Cedric was only beginning to understand.

The kings needed the girl. That much was clear from their behavior. But why? Was she truly the answer to the prophecy? Could she somehow break the curse?

Or was she connected to the curse in some other way? Was she making it worse?

Cedric moved to one of the windows and looked out at the capital sprawling below him. The city that depended on the stability of the throne. The people who had no idea how fragile the structures of power really were. How easily everything could collapse if the wrong pieces fell into place.

The incident in the training grounds had shown him something crucial: the kings’ control was more fragile than anyone had admitted. One of them had lost complete control during a simple training session. Who was to say it wouldn’t happen again? Who was to say, eventually, that all three wouldn’t lose control simultaneously?

And if that happened, while the council was divided, while there was a mole in their midst, while a mysterious girl of unknown power was at the center of everything...

The realm would fall.

Cedric understood this with absolute clarity.

The pieces were moving. The game was accelerating. And he was running out of time to keep all the pieces in place.

He turned from the window and moved slowly out of the chamber, his mind already working through the next moves, the next strategies, the next carefully orchestrated moments that would determine whether the realm survived what was coming.

Behind him, the great chamber stood empty, waiting for the next council to convene. Waiting for the next crisis to be addressed. Waiting, as it had for centuries, for the next Chapter of the realm’s ongoing struggle to survive.

***

*THE STABLES*

The stables were Morgana’s sanctuary.

They had always been, but never more so than now. In a world where nothing made sense, where the palace was becoming increasingly complicated and dangerous, where she felt constantly caught between revelation and concealment, the stables remained constant. The work was honest. The animals asked nothing of her except care and attention. The rhythm was predictable, reliable, unchanging.

She began her day as she always did, before the sun had fully risen.