33 Risen#re

Lord Callum and Milan sat across each other, between them were three spacial rings, neatly laid out on a table, Galatros from the Xelia academy had been here just moments earlier to deliver these items to them.

Two of the rings held the bodies of the demi-Ent's and the last held the head of their daughter, sealed in a block of ice.

Milan picked up the one with her daughter's head and took it out to see her face, for a second her entire body trembled, as the face reminded her all too much of Edith, they were far to similar.

Callum furrowed his brow, "Have her cremated," he said softly.

"Yes, my lord," she answered curtly, "What shall we do about her passing?" she asked.

"We'll send someone to investigate what she accomplished, if she did anything of significance, we'll go down there and erase the nation that killed her, just as we always do," he said before quickly adding, ", and Milan hand over the duty of receiving Ediths reports to someone below you."

"What?" she cried out, cocking her head to look at him sceptically, she realised that her reaction was a little too strong and looked away from him.

"This a punishment for her, you told her to stay away from Lirian due to his current actions, but not only did she disobey, she ran in the opposite direction you told her to go," he pulled up an article about their new found relationship.

"And don't think that I haven't noticed how attached you are becoming to her, it's for the best for you to put some distance between the two of you," he said indifferently while falling back into his seat.

She began to leave in a hurry when a communicator rang in the room.

"Stay," Callum ordered as he picked up the call from Lady Elizabeth of the Jane family.

When the projection came through, she bowed her head slightly and greeted Lord Callum, "Your highness, sorry for interrupting... there is something... we need to discuss." she said although her tone seemed uncertain.

Lord Callum smiled knowingly, after all the Jane family had a very close relationship with the empress, with the recent trouble it must have seemed impossible for her to determine what stance she ought to take.

Lirian had just disrespected a pillar of the empire but at the same time, the Jane family had just resolved the problem they created with the prince candidate and most importantly the empress.

If they bared their teeth at Lirian it would make their position uncomfortable with the empress, but if they didn't the other nobles would criticise them for not admonishing such behaviour, it was a tricky situation.

"You should show your support for her majesty and her son, if anyone comes biting at your heels just tell them to speak to me and I'll iron things out for you," he offered very generously.

Lady Elizabeth looked at him dumbfounded, she did expect him to be so straightforward about such a matter but more than that was her surprise, she did call to speak about that matter but she found herself with a different stance.

"If you ask me her majesty, has spoiled her brat a little too much, it's time for him to learn about some responsibility, he went too far this time," Callum continued while speaking he noticed that Elizabeth's eyes were drifting around.

"Is everything alright?" he asked curiously.

"First I wish to convey my condolences for the loss of your child," she said to both Lord Callum and Milan.

They both nodded in acceptance, Elizabeth didn't fail to notice a slight look of gratitude on Milan's face.

She glanced between lord Callum and Milan uncertain of how to proceed she had a different stance on the matter but she didn't know how to bring it up.

Finally, she sighed in defeat there was no right way to say it anyway, "In all honesty your highness, I think you should reconsider your stance on Lirian."

'There that wasn't so difficult,' she told herself, 'Now that I've got the ball rolling there is no turning back,' she thought to herself she had been contemplating this very seriously.

She had met with Lirian herself during the discussion about the compensation, and she had been utterly impressed by his intelligence, but that wasn't what convinced her to speak up for him.

It was Alastor, who had surprisingly given her a call just hours after the speech had gone public, and he told her some truly unbelievable things.

She knew Alastor well enough, he knew the position he was in with the family, so he refrained from contacting them, but he chose to contact her directly to discuss Lirian.

Lord Callum and Millan looked at her with knitted their brows, waiting for her to explain herself.

She fell into deep thought as she pondered on where to start, when an alarm began beeping in the room, Callum looked around, when another hologram suddenly appeared in the room.

They all heard the voice of an A.I ringing out as they looked at the person in the hologram with wide eyes.

[Your majesty, I'm a good A.I, I successfully broke into the inferior beings communication channel]

They paid no heed to the A.I that every person in the empire had come to hate, for its awful personality module that the emperor had created, and dropped to one knee while bowing their heads.

"Your majesty," they all loyally said together as they gazed upon the emperor of the entire empire Albus Clovis himself.

His mane of golden hair fell onto his shoulders as he looked at them intently with his deep eyes.

As they rose back up Elizebeth tried to quickly excuse herself, "This must be important, I won't intrude your majesty," she said bowing slightly and waiting to be dismissed.

Albus looked at her deeply, "I've been monitoring as many communications in the star zone as I could, and you are the first person to speak up for my son, what makes you think that I want you to leave."

The emperor's tone was deep and powerful as he spoke as they all listened, they were surprised by his current involvement, it meant that what had happened was a lot more serious than they even realized.

"Now, tell what makes you think that my son shouldn't be punished for his actions," his voiced boomed and its majesty left her breathless.

"Your majesty I did not mean to say that he deserves no punishment only that we should watch carefully before we do anything drastic," she gave a perfunctory response, internally she was cursing herself for listening to Alastor, she was having a hard enough time as things stood telling this to Callum, but now the emperor himself had gotten involved.

"Alastor from my family contacted me, he told me that it would be the biggest mistake I ever make if I think for a second that the prince candidate did such things without planning at least a dozen steps ahead," she seriously.

"Are we speaking about the same Alastor that tried to kill him two months ago?" Lord Callum asked with a raised brow.

That fellow made a very dumb move but Callum was well aware of his track record, it was so good that if Alastor had asked to join the Eden family, Lord Callum would have personally welcomed him with open arms.

Of course, that was before he made a complete fool of himself.

Elizabeth nodded, "He also said the candidate told him a couple of things that he couldn't tell me, but the most important thing was that the he was invited to join into the candidates campaign when he returns from his trial."