33 Risen#re

Lirian fell into deep concentration, in truth he didn't want this day to come he hated dealing with diviners, they were always the trickiest opponents, because it didn't involve swords and spells of mass destruction.

Rather it involved pure and unadulterated cunning, fortunately, he knew that this day would come eventually, from the day had heard about his mother's sour relationship with Efrideet he assumed the worst would happen.

The biggest problem with diviners was that to take them down you had to play a very long game and they always had an unscrupulous number of followers, there would always be a magnetic attraction that people had to those that possessed knowledge that should be impossible to have.

"Her primary goal was probably to kill you, to get back her majesty," Anya said thoughtfully as they all sat around and began discussing the implications of the attack. "And I'd venture to say she wanted to stir up tension between her majesty and the Jane family."

Several ring sounds were heard followed by the flashing of lights.

The communicators in the room had all started to light up one after the other, almost every person in the empire wanted to know what the empress's response to the Jane family was going to be and none were as anxious about it as the Jane family.

Taliyah pushed the communicators away and added, "No, not just tension, if Lirian had died I would have had the entire family erased without a doubt," she said while trying her best not to imagine such a scenario, just the thought made her think of every time a corpse or a piece of a corpse was handed to her and she had to identify it as a child of her own.

"Even now that option is still in the front row of my cards," she added honestly, it was a justifiable response for what had happened, and if she didn't respond with something strong people would take her for a pushover.

"Even if it's justifiable she could use it against you, Efrideet would claim that you are an unstable factor in the empire due to your love for your children and that you use your children as an excuse to sow discord in the empire," Anya said after deep contemplation.

"Indeed," Lirian said, "It will make a good rally call, to unite the people against you," he added as he looked at Taliyah's frown.

"The scariest thing is that even a failure of her first plan could easily trigger the second step of her plan," Lirian slowly began to explain, when he saw them looking at him for an explaination.

"Even though I'm not dead, it doesn't take away your anger mom," he could see her seething fury even now, "If you meet with anyone from the Jane family, she may be able to influence just like how she influenced Alastor, causing you to attack the Jane family."

"If I were to attack them without addressing Albus and the council it will paint an even worse image of me," she quickly concluded while clenching her fist until her knuckles went white.

"And that brings us to the first and final steps of her plan," Lirian muttered softly.

Anya frowned, "I thought this was only a double-layered trap," she couldn't see any other areas where this could affect them.

"Well, that's what I thought at first as well but I was wrong because there is another trap, she planted in the scenario that I survive," he only realised that after he saw Efrideet's name appear on the system.

"Justification," Taliyah suddenly added as she realised the final trap, "It I want to attack the Jane family I must be able to justify it by revealing your talent, to justify the attack you would have to be a talent rarely ever seen, and to prove it, I will have to release your pod data."

"And since I survived if my pod data is released there will be no telling just how many powers will move against me, even the neighboring empires will not be able to sit still," Lirian said softly, those 72 energy points was something never seen before in history, the closest number was 34 and that person was assassinated within hours of the news being released.

"But that makes no sense..., how could she be certain that anyone would find you a threat unless..." she paused with a startled expression, "she already knows," Anya said finished, "If she knows how to use that thing you told me about, where you learn information with fate strings..."

But Lirian shook his head "She is far too young to be able to do it not to mention that she will need a lot of guidance to have learned it, also I shielded the knowledge so she would have to be in a different league entirely if she wants to undo the shield and that's just not even in the realm of possibilities, the only possibility is that there is a spy."

Taliyah shook her head in disbelief, "That's ridiculous Lirian only three of my aides were present when we did your test and I swore them to secrecy with an oath disc, and Albus would never tell anyone nor would the current advisor."

"Then there is only one suspect remaining, one that you would never make swear an oath," Lirian said without holding back, he had no qualms with suspecting Telamon any longer even if it hurt his mother he refused to back down on this point, after all, it was his life on the line.

Before he could even react, he felt a stinging pain across his face and even his ears were zinging, he just glanced at his mother, he had expected this reaction from long ago.

"This is the second time I've been hit today on account of that man, when I prove that I am correct I will be awaiting my apology," he said softly while maintaining his calmness, humans were foolish sometimes they would rather ignore a possibility if it didn't sit right with them, instead of dealing with it.

"Anyway, for now, we need to come up with a plan to deal with the Jane family and spook Efrideet at the same time, I have a plan and I believe it might work, we'll start off making the Jane family pay a very large compensation for the attack on me and a ransom for Alastor," it was a very perfunctory response since they weren't taking any lives it held a special meaning towards the nobles.

It meant that they believed the Jane family was an unwilling participant in what happened, and that they suspected someone else was responsible for manipulating things behind the scenes of course that wasn't all there was to it and Lirian slowly went through it.

Taliyah felt aggrieved with Lirian's treatment of Telamon, it was like a grandson unjustly hating his grandfather in her eyes and she couldn't bear it, she watched and listened to him with downcast eyes.

She had come to know all the nonsense Lirian had spoken about Telamon over the years directly from Anya, and it didn't help that every time she spoke to the noble they would bring up his first day of school when he threatened her teacher.