SSS Talent: From Trash to Tyrant Chapter 932 - One House

Maeron walked the upper corridor with Seraphine and Verena. None of them had spoken since leaving Rivena behind, the quiet came with them all the way toward the family hall.

Verena broke it first. Her face stayed composed and the anger sat plainly under her voice.

"Your father could have told Rivena privately that she wasn't coming. Instead he sent a maid into the room and made certain the three of us heard it."

Seraphine kept her fan closed in one hand as she walked. "Valttair wanted the thing understood. Rivena is restricted, and he has no intention of pretending otherwise because a Council is coming."

"That does not make what he is doing to her any easier to swallow."

Maeron glanced at Verena before he looked ahead again. "Then don't swallow it. Only don't hand him a reason to tighten her leash before we're ready."

Verena said nothing to that. By the time they reached the doors, Maeron had put the subject aside and turned his mind to what waited on the other side of them.

He pushed the doors open, and none of the three went in. Valttair already sat at the head of the table, and Trafalgar had been put several places further down than at their last gathering.

Seraphine caught it at once. Everyone in the castle knew Trafalgar had been called in the moment he landed, and Maeron had expected that private hour to seat him nearer their father, not further off.

"Can the three of you move? Some of us would like to get inside."

Lysandra had come up behind them, with Helgar, Nym, Darion and Elira waiting further back. Maeron stepped aside without answering and let the rest of the family through.

Trafalgar watched them take their seats. Unlike Maeron, he understood the distance perfectly well.

They had already spoken at length in private. Seating him near the head of the table afterward would only have put their arrangement on display.

If Maeron chose to read the gap as a quarrel, Trafalgar was content to let him. The four wives and the heirs found their places, and Rivena's chair stood empty where everyone could see it.

Valttair waited for the doors to close before he spoke. His voice carried the length of the hall with the same weight Trafalgar remembered from every gathering of his childhood.

"It has been more than two years since House Morgain attended a full Council of the Eight. Myrrhvale has a head again, every seat will be filled, and from the moment we set foot on that island this family will be watched."

Nobody broke in. His gaze travelled slowly over his wives and his children before he went on.

"I do not care what grudges any of you carry inside this castle. I do not care which sibling you despise, which branch you hold beneath you, or whose chair you believe ought to be yours. The moment we stand in front of the other Great Families, all of it stays behind these walls."

His eyes passed across Maeron, Helgar, Lysandra and Trafalgar before they came back to the room at large, and nothing in his face eased.

"You carry the Morgain name. Behave as though you knew what it was worth."

The hall stayed still while he went on. Every sentence had an order sitting underneath it.

"House Morgain has kept its place among the Eight because men know what follows when we are crossed. Strength built that. Discipline has kept it. I will not watch generations of standing thrown away because one of my children could not hold their pride for a few days."

Seraphine kept her composure while Verena's face hardened. Neither woman argued.

"You will not quarrel with one another where anybody can see it. You will not give away our disputes, our troop movements, our accounts, or anything else another family can use. You will not promise Morgain soldiers, coin or political backing without the authority to do it."

Maeron kept his face still. Valttair did not look at him, which made it impossible to tell whether that last warning had been aimed anywhere.

"People will come at you. Some will offer friendship, some opportunity, and some only want to hear you talk. Listen if you like, and understand that every answer you give will be weighed against this house."

Helgar leaned forward a little. "Are you expecting trouble at the Council, Father, or is this only because every family will be in one place?"

"I expect several difficult conversations. One of them concerns the mine."

The table sharpened at that. Even Maeron stopped turning over the warning that might have been meant for him.

"Nearly two thousand people died in Morgain territory because an outside force walked onto land under our protection and made a disaster that should never have been possible. I will raise it in front of the other families, and I intend that those responsible learn what it costs to do such a thing to House Morgain."

Verena's jaw tightened at the reminder that the territory had been Rivena's charge. Maeron saw it, and neither she nor anyone else said a word against him.

Whatever they intended for Valttair, the mine stood apart. If he could drag the guilty into the open and wring compensation out of them, that only fattened the House Maeron meant to inherit.

Seraphine looked toward her husband, her tone measured. "Do you intend to put all of it before the Council, or speak to the family involved beforehand?"

"I will decide how much becomes public after the conversations I need to have. What the rest of you need to understand is simpler. When I speak for House Morgain, not one of you cuts the ground from under me."

Several heads inclined, and Valttair moved on to how the family would carry itself once they arrived.

"Maeron stays near me through the principal greetings as First Heir. Seraphine attends with the main delegation. Lysandra remains at hand when she is wanted, and the rest of you will have your places before we leave."

His eyes went to Trafalgar. "Meet up with heirs to talk and strike up conversations; you need to build a network of contacts. Outside them you may go where you please. You will draw a great deal more attention than at the last Council, so hear a man out before you give him an answer."

"I understand."

The exchange was short, and Valttair looked away the moment it was finished. Maeron studied the distance between the two of them again, and found it more interesting with every minute that passed.

Valttair laid both hands on the table and looked down the length of his family. His voice stayed cold, with nothing of ceremony in it.

"Whatever any of you intend for your own futures, hold this in your head while we are there. The other seven families do not need to see where House Morgain is split. They need to see strength, discipline, and one name."

"House Morgain."