Setting The Trap
POV: Blake
I was deep undercover in The Order and thanks to Dorothea’s intel, I quickly rose the ranks posing as my own cousin Draco. They valued high ranking nobility and what was higher than a member of the Royal Family. The Order didn’t know that Draco was sent by Lucien to represent the Royal Family in London so his absence and it being a secret was perfect cover for me to rise quickly. When I knew that they trusted me enough to give me some details about their operations, I was confident that I could send word to Alexandra to send out her statement. I had not anticipated that the press would use Mesha stones, I was called into the main hall so that we could hear her response. We listened to the General exonerating her from guilt of setting the horrific scene in her room. Alexandra’s voice rang out through the room, telling all in attendance that she was not scared and that she dared them to come after her. It was perfection in how she delivered her speech. If I didn’t have to act enraged in this moment, I would have beamed with pride at her strength and fearlessness. The transmission finished and a fist slammed on the table, it was the main man of the order called W, “The audacity that that little ant thinks she can just stand there and poke at us. Does she not know we have the strongest man in Vellum after her? Zero!” A tall man dressed in all black with a black mask and deep blue eyes stepped forward, “Yes, my lord W?” W spoke, “I want you to kill her this time. We gave her a chance to leave but she will not escape us this time. We have D on our side now, we know that his cousin, the Prince, is obsessed with her. He should be able to find out where she will be that will give us the best time to kill her.”
I gave a menacing grin but not for the reason that W was thinking, this was precisely what I was hoping to hear. I needed them to rely on me to feed them intel that Alexandra was going to be in the meadow within Blackwood in front of Dorothea’s house. I nodded at them, “As a matter of fact, I spoke with my cousin yesterday about her. She’s supposed to go visit Dorothea in two days, they will be practicing water magic in the meadow in front of her house.” W smiled evilly, “Well, that works for me. I need to pay Dorothea back for helping the ant get cured from our poison.” He looked at Zero and said, “Kill Dorothea right away. I am kind of feeling charitable so we want you to just capture the ant. We will torture her for her willful attitude before we kill her. She deserves that much.” Zero made a fist and touched it to his chest and bowed, “As you will it my lord. I will take my leave to prepare the torture room and my weapons for the killing.” The assassin Zero treated W with all the respect afforded to a member of the Royal Family. I had wondered if he was one of the many families aiming to place their daughter on the throne. I only had a day to figure that out but a plan formed in my head after I sent my spy off to Blackwood. The meeting ended and the members were starting to leave. I walked up to W, “W, I admire your determination to crush the House Batiste. I was never fond of them, I thought they were always too close to my family. I have never met the ant but from what I understand she’s quickly getting too close to both the Prince and the King.” He grunted, “Quite and it is inconvenient to the two noble families that are in The Order. We need her gone more for her likelihood of becoming either the Crown Princess or the Queen neither would work for us. We have designs on both the thrones of the Queen and Crown Princess.”
I internally laughed that they thought they could place their daughter next to me on my throne. I sighed in faked exasperation, “You will have a hard time getting Blake to marry anyone other than Alexandra. She’s been his dream woman since her infancy. It was my uncle’s sincerest wish that she marry one of his sons so that House Batiste would forever be tied to the throne. Her grandfather Darren had been close to my uncle for a long time.” The masked man clenched his fist at that declaration, “I’m well aware D but if The Batiste is taken out, the Prince and King will likely look elsewhere to continue their family line as is their Royal duties.” The audacity that they could manipulate me into marrying one of the two daughters of a family who is actively trying to betray the crown, it was astounding. I nodded, “Well, if you could tell me who it is my cousins are supposed to marry, then perhaps I can help you get it done. We could definitely have an old way practitioner on the throne with my help.” He shook his head, “I’m afraid that I cannot tell you that just yet. You have to earn our trust first. I don’t entirely know if you are here on behalf of our interests or if you joined us to get intel on The Order for the crown. If the information you gave us about where the ant will be checks out, then I will entrust you with this information.”
I had not banked that this W would be that clever since he had easily let me in to The Order. They trusted me enough to let me go to their meetings and get some information but not enough to divulge their identities. I had also anticipated that I would be followed so before I joined, I made sure to set up something with my cousin’s household that Panshad and I would stay there. She could keep my stones charged so I could contact my spies while Dorothea had promised to keep the stones for the spies charged while I was away. I was still able to keep in contact with my network to get things moving. I had also planted a Mesha stone with a Tarny crystal embedded into it with in the main office of The Order so that I could listen in on conversations being had while I wasn’t there. The Tarny crystal kept the Mesha stones abilities charged for about a year. I didn’t have many Tarny crystals, just two, because they were a resource monitored by The Council. The Council didn’t like the tactics that I used to get information so these crystals had to be purchased off the Dark Market and Tarny crystals only became available once every few years or so. I made a point to purchase them when they were made available. I would rather they be used for my purposes than for people like those in The Order to get a hold of them. I had hoped to get the information about their identities from the big man himself but I will take information where I can get it as long as I can bring down the noble families and The Order. They were merely a nuisance before Alexandra came and now, they were my sworn enemy. I would make them pay, especially that Zero who carried out their devious orders. Alexandra wanted to show mercy when he was captured but I simply wanted to do to him what they had planned for her once captured.
I snapped out of my thoughts and followed W out of the room, he turned to me, “You can join me for a drink in my office. We have a few things to discuss, I’m intrigued on how you would go about putting my daughter on the throne once the ant is eliminated.” I nodded at him, “I will need to go to the restroom first but I will join you shortly.” He simply grunted an affirmation and walked off. I waited until he ducked into his office and pulled out the stone I had in my pocket and whispered, “Pay attention to the Tarny stone and take notes.” I placed the stone back in my pocket and went into the restroom so that I could at least give the illusion that I had used the restroom. I joined W in his office when he handed me a glass Chalshini Rum, I wondered if this would give me a clue as to the identity of the man, I was sharing a drink with. He spoke, “The Duke of Chalshin gave this to all the nobles the day his son Derek was born. I don’t drink from it often since it is excellent quality.” I knew that I could eliminate Dellis Chalshin from my list of suspects. Even though The Order was all about pyrio purity and the old ways, they did have a few loyal lycan. Dorothea implied that she knew of one family that was lycan that was part of The Order. Unfortunately, that family was killed by The Order once their usefulness had run out. I would take eliminating suspects over nothing. I had my suspicion of who might benefit from eliminating Alexandra but I wanted to plant something into this guy’s mind to confirm. I told him, “So once you eliminate Alexandra for Queen and Crown Princess contention, what makes you so sure that the two daughters will be in line for your desired positions?” He chuckled, “I don’t see anyone else as being a threat. I believe the rest of the ladies in competition for Queen candidate are all on equal footing.” I shrugged, “Well I know that Blake also has his eye on Lady Jesslynne Kellen. He told me that if he lost Alexandra to his brother, that he would consider marrying her instead.” He made an arrogant scoffing noise, “You really believe that he would marry a dog? He is more suited to a pyrio and this would just take a gentle manipulation.” I sighed, “You don’t know Blake that well. He’s not one be easily manipulated. My cousin is clever and tactful. You’re likely to get caught and punished, it is best to offer up to him the alternative. This way you don’t divulge your secret identity to me but at the same time you get what you want. It’s a win-win.” He regarded my suggestion then nodded, “You’re right. I will have to have him present his daughter to the Prince at the first Queen competition event. Thank you for that suggestion, D.” And just like that, the mouse trap was set to capture the first of the two noble families.
