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There was nothing in the palace's library that gave any indication as to who James really was.
Whilst there were many connected families to the Ankaid royal house, only one person matched James' age and that was a person Alex had personally met before on one occasion.
It was possible James had been lying about his age, but the people that were within ten years of his claimed age were politically active.
?Was it possible he was marked as dead?
?Alex sighed, rubbing a hand over his face.
Too many men who fit his age in the adjacent houses were dead as a result of war and disease.
Even if he used James' exact age and traced it back fifteen years prior, there were numerous candidates to choose from.
It was like trying to pick a single thread out from a rope whilst blindfolded, he had no idea which strand to tug on.
?The death rate had fallen since the country of Ashad had agreed to a truce but the death toll among the aristocrats had been excessive in the near past considering their military importance.
?He supposed he could try asking again but James had refused to answer once before and it seemed to be a touchy subject.
He didn't want to poke the sleeping lion.
As long as he remained on James' good side, he could remain involved in the coup.
Alex needed to be important to his father and the more entrenched in the plot he was, the more value and power he would have.
?He mustn't lose sight of his goals.
?Asking anyone else wasn't an option either, there was a risk they'd tell the duke about it. He couldn't let his father ever come to know that he was making his own moves outside of orders.
?He was going to have to keep searching independently.
?Riley's key for the records room was still in his possession. He'd been reckless not to turn it in but he didn't think Riley would have reported it considering he shouldn't have lended it out in the first place. It was possible Alex would be able to find something in the case files if he looked.
?He made his way down those narrow stone steps, the air dusty and smoky. He carefully watched his feet as he descended with his lamp, not wanting to fall and break his neck. People had died in stranger ways.
?The air was dry and sooty as always, the ashy taste sticking to the back of his mouth. It perpetually made him want to clear his throat to force the taste out but he knew from experience that no amount of coughing would get rid of the sensation.
?There was no one behind the front desk. Normally that wouldn't have been unusual at this time of the night but the royal knights had been placed on perpetual overtime since the plot began. The fires were still going so someone must have been keeping an eye on the place.
?Frowning, Alex tried the archive door, finding it locked. He used Riley's key to open it, his hand automatically hovered by his side where his sword would normally sit but he was unarmed.
?Even if Alex was being paranoid, he had been jumped by fellow so-called colleagues enough times that he only felt safe if he was cautious, even in times where it didn't make sense to be. There was no way anyone would have known he'd come down here at this time, except maybe James.
?Inside the archive room, the lamps had already been lit, the room light.
?A man revealed himself from behind one of the bookcases.
?"Your Lordship." That innocent drawl which Alex couldn't help but find sarcastic came out of the man's mouth.
?"Riley? What are you doing here at this time of night?"
?"Patrolling." Riley said. He had an easy smile on his face, like he was supposed to be there.
?There wasn't anything inherently wrong with a king's guard being in the records room at night— there Alex was— but Riley should have been fast asleep in the dorms, he'd already skipped out once before. It was even weirder that he had locked the door behind him.
?"Patrolling in the archive?" Alex raised an eyebrow. "How did you get in here anyway?" he asked, wagging Riley's key in his hand.
?Riley watched him for a moment, something turning inside his head. Alex had always found his green eyes somewhat reptile, like they belonged to something cold-blooded.
?"I heard the king is sending you on another expedition." Riley said, approaching him.
?Alex didn't say anything.
?"Please take me on it." Riley requested. His usual smiling act was dropped, his tone was hard. "I promise you it'll benefit you, Your Lordship."
?After a moment passed, Riley nodded to himself when he realised Alex wouldn't speak a word back, unoffended that he'd roused Alex's suspicion.
?"You don't trust me right now and I get it. But, it's that suspicion that makes me think I can trust you somewhat. I know where this expedition is taking you and you know how valuable I'd be for it."
?Riley was right, out of all the other candidates on paper, he was the most valuable. Although distant, his Theos royal blood would serve as an easy ticket into Korcaster's most private records.
?"I've never trusted you as long as I've known you." Alex stated. He watched every twitch, every blink from the carefully crafted man.
?Riley smiled. It was similar to the way James would sometimes, a smile that was performatively plastered on the face to serve as a way to disarm someone, the goodwill not reaching the eyes and leaving the gaze soulless.
Most people seemed to relax to that kind of expression, fooled, but Alex had always seen through them.
A poisonous snake could only conceal their vivid colours in dust until an observant wind passed.
?He wondered if it was a royal thing or a psycho thing.
?"That's fine with me." Riley shrugged. "I prefer you that way. If you want me to talk, you know how to make that happen."
?Riley squeezed past him to get to the door, Alex refusing to step to the side for him.
?"Oh, by the way, you can keep the key. It was never actually mine in the first place." Riley laughed before shutting the door behind him.
?As soon as Riley out of earshot Alex immediately went to where he'd seen Riley appear from, examining the shelves of documents. He looked down at the shelf that would have been at Riley's eye level and scanned the labels, skimming a finger over each file, looking for anything that would stand out.
?His hand halted over a file named: Disappearance of Llwyd Straton; The Duchy of Corbella.
?Out of all documents, this one was dislocated, slightly pulled out more than the rest. It had caught Alex's finger since it poked out. It seemed like a newer document, with very little damage done to its binding nor any peeling parchment, no more than a few years old.
?Alex had actually heard of this case during the time it had happened. Shortly after the old Duke of Corbella passed, his son, Cedwyn Straton, took over; Cedwyn's first born son, Llywd, had then vanished suddenly in the middle of the night without a trace.
?It had stroked the hidden underbelly of paranoia that sat deep within most of the nobility.
Llwyd Straton had been a strong capable man, trained from childhood to become a military leader, only twenty eight years old at the time of his disappearance.
If a young man in his physical prime could suddenly vanish, what did that mean for the older declining nobles?
Even his own father had a bout of manic anxiety during this period despite his reserved character.
The nobles eventually calmed down and the whole event was swept under the rug, never again mentioned out of collective embarrassment.
Alex had never found out what had happened in the end.
?It was likely that this was the document Riley had been looking at.
Most notably, the Stratons were a cousin family to the Theos royal house.
Riley's blood was more distant to the Theos king's than the Stratons but he still held enough to be allowed certain privileges.
It was doubtless that Riley would have known Llwyd since childhood since they were related and close in age.
It was weird that this document was in the Drykas archive rather than the Theos one though.
?Now that Alex thought about it, it was even stranger that Riley was a part of the Drykas royal knighthood instead of Theos'. He would have been a much higher rank in Theos' royal guards, perhaps even equivalent to Alex's current place in the hierarchy.
?Alex read the file at the shelf, not wanting to stray with it like he was worried about getting caught. If Riley didn't want to be seen with this document then maybe Alex shouldn't want that either.
?It quickly became apparent why this was in Drykas possession; Llwyd hadn't disappeared in his home duchy in Corbella under Theos jurisdiction, but rather, he'd vanished in the Drykas territory of Edobury.
The paranoia surrounding it suddenly made sense to him.
Edobury was where Ino had been from, it had the highest concentration of slaves in the kingdom, many runaways.
As a result, a lot of anxiety was associated around it; the slaves had already tried revolting once and their geographical closeness to their home country of Ashad only made it riskier.
Many believed Ashad was behind Llwyd's disappearance.
?Alex read on. There had been no signs of struggle at the house Llwyd had been staying at.
The knights then theorised that he had run away but no clothing or belongings were missing, only a pair of shoes and the outfit he'd already had on.
The only thing of note was the remnants of a letter Llwyd had burned in a fire, no writing visible except random words and the knights hadn't been able to trace the handwriting.
They assumed him dead shortly after, finding blood under a disturbed rug.
?The interviews they'd transcribed with Duke Cedwyn Straton were a little odd. His answers were very curt and he'd replied in very little words, despite the situation. He'd appeared troubled, but rather than heartbroken over his missing son, he'd been described as jittery and reactive to noise.
?Normally in a case like this, the parent would provide as much information as possible, Duke Straton's quietness was strange and he'd somewhat retreated from the social sphere soon after these events. In the report, they had justified this as a trauma response.
?Alex frowned. Why was Riley interested in this?
?He gave the bookcase another sweep of his eyes but no other document stood out to him other than this one. This was the only file he could connect to Riley in some way.
?What was important about Llwyd Straton?
?Riley wasn't an emotional man, he doubted Riley's interest was a heartfelt wonder about what happened to his dear cousin, nor was he pining after his family. Riley could have hidden this document if he'd wanted to but instead he'd made the decision to leave it poking out for Alex to find.
?Despite Riley's shiftiness, he had revealed some important information to Alex already, no doubt deliberately.
There was no way he could know about their expedition since Alex hadn't selected his candidates yet.
The fact that Riley was aware of it either meant that someone was secretly including Riley in their plans without Alex's knowledge, or that there was a leak.
?Only Riley could tell him which one it was.
?Alex groaned. This was too complicated for him to figure out on his own. He hated mind games and he seemed to be surrounded by people who wanted to prod and poke his brain. Whatever happened to having a direct conversation?
?He hated Khearians.
?What Alex really needed was a person to bounce ideas off of. It was too difficult to organise information if it was stuck in his head, he needed another perspective.
?Fletcher was very intelligent but he wasn't an option, he was loyal to King William.
He'd no doubt report Alex's suspicions. Ino was a good candidate, she was generally quite secretive and mistrustful, but she was far away and she would sell Alex out in a heartbeat to save herself.
Thomas wouldn't allow himself to be burdened with this information, he'd stop Alex as soon as he realised what he was hearing.
Alex didn't have any people he could call his own and it was becoming a greater problem.
His mind hesitated when it came to the next person on his list.
?James?
?James was good at mind games and, as a royal in his own right, he would probably have better insight into these things than Alex, even if he claimed his knowledge was outdated.
James would likely appreciate the extra information rather than shy away from it.
Most importantly, he had no loyalty to anyone.
James was secretive even about harmless things, there was no way he'd rat Alex out nor would he tell the truth about it if confronted.
?Respect him but don't trust him, his father had said before.
?Trust wasn't a binary thing. Alex wouldn't trust James to save his life, the man acted on his own unpredictable whims, but he did trust James to keep secrets and lie simply because it was in his nature. It had nothing to do with his relationship with the man.
?Don't trust him, was what he'd been told. Alex grinned to himself. The words echoed in his mind in his father's voice. No one trusted James and that was precisely why he could.
?It was a gamble, it was risky, but Alex had never gotten anywhere by playing it safe. Perhaps this was a sign to change his tactics.
?He left the records room in a good mood, no longer caring about James' real name or his identity.
Who he was didn't matter, the thing that mattered was who he was to Alex.
James was already trying to make Alex a personal asset by manipulating him and now Alex would do the same to him.
With any luck, they could strike a symbiotic affair.
Whether James knew it was two-ways or not was another matter.
?He buried the archive key in a plant pot on his way back to his room, dirt clinging to his fingers.
It would have been valuable to keep it but he didn't know where it came from.
If he was caught with it, or if Riley reported him as a thief, things could go awry.
As long as Alex kept the paths steering clear of him, he'd win.
?It was time to change his strategy.
A/N: Current word count: 78,423