You Will Not
CAELAN
Crown arrived a day early.
I stood at the estate gates and watched them come through the city.
Twelve riders in Crown colors—white, beige, gold-trimmed.
And at the center of the procession was a man I did not recognize.
He wasn’t part of my father’s usual envoys.
Not a diplomat, administrator, or even any of the senior advisors who would have attended these matters.
His robes were deep crimson with a gold collar, strained slightly across the middle where he carried weight. When he was close enough, the light caught a sigil on his left chest.
A judge.
I had sent word to Mallas the day I received the trial notice. His last correspondence placed him about half a day’s ride out. Crown had arrived a day early with their own judge. This was planned.
Riven appeared at my shoulder as the procession dismounted.
I smiled when the judge bowed.
“Your Highness,” he said, steel-gray eyes lifted to mine. “My name is Aldric Vaene. High Magistrate of Crown for four centuries.”
High Magistrate. I had never seen him because he did not travel for minor matters.
I already knew what that meant.
“You are early,” I said factually.
He studied me for a moment, the smile on his face shifting from practiced to sly. “The king wishes this matter to be settled promptly. I apologize for any inconvenience, but I have been ordered by the king to start the trial immediately.” He bowed again, apologetic as if I was to believe it.
“Of course,” I forced out. “Let us proceed.”
I looked at Riven, who nodded once, already understanding the order.
Two hours was all they gave us to prepare a defense for a trial that was expedited without notice.
It was going to be judged by someone the Crown had elected personally.
They didn’t send a mediator, which would have suggested a negotiation.
They sent a judge to execute a verdict that they likely had already decided.
We wouldn’t have had enough time if we hadn’t spent the last couple of days already preparing. We just had to put it all together.
The evidence was laid out in the council room before the first hour was done.
Maelor had the witnesses arranged. Brie had brought the seal documents that nearly half of Twilight had signed in support of Sera’s continued presence.
The other half of my people were unfortunately protesting at the gates.
Riven had sent guards toward Winter, hopefully meeting Mallas somewhere on the road. They were to ensure he arrived in Twilight without incident. And if by some miracle, Mallas was close enough to get here before a verdict could be passed. We just needed to buy as much time as possible.
We could not afford to lose the trial. The bond still existed. If an execution were to be recommended, I’d have no choice but to make Father be aware of the bond.
If she died, I died. Distance could not be placed between us. There was no verdict that the bond would easily accept.
The throne room was rearranged for a trial.
Four rows of chairs were brought in and angled to face the dais, each filled with councilmen with varying degrees of anticipation.
A raised platform where Vaene sat was placed at the base of the dais stairs to my right.
Crown soldiers lined the back walls, spines straight, hands on their hilts as if waiting for a reason to draw their blades.
Twilight guards stood at intervals along both side walls.
Riven stood to my right. Maelor to my left. Brie sat in the front row with my advisors.
Sera sat on a chair on the opposite side from Vaene. She wore a deep blue dress today, her hair pinned back from her face, the necklace I gave her at her throat. She sat with the professional composure of a woman who had been in dangerous rooms before and knew exactly how to survive them.
When her eyes met mine, she gave me a subtle nod. I wanted to move down the dais and take her hand. I gripped the armrest of the throne chair instead.
Vaene called the proceeding to order, and I presented what I had prepared.
First was my magic and the documented history of it.
Over a century of border defense conducted without incident.
The containment protocols developed by me.
The kingdom’s stability assessments signed by Magistrate Kaelric and three other senior magical officers.
The record of each time my power had been deployed intentionally and with precision.
Then Vaene had called for Sera’s records. There was no hiding who she was. Crown had done their own investigations, as any competent kingdom should have. They knew she was from the Obsidian Hand. Knew she had originally been sent to kill me. However, they had no evidence of the actual attempt.
No one knew about that night except for me, Riven, and his guards, who we had made sure were loyal.
Their loyalty wasn’t only to Riven, but to Sera.
She had apparently found a way to them the same way she found a way into all of us.
Unintentionally and thoroughly. Dice and wine, however, were mentioned specifically.
I had presented that Sera was caught by Riven before an attempt was made and I had offered her a position, which she had accepted for coin. The fact that she had protected me against five assassins was also given, though the reason for our travels was not.
I presented it clearly and without emotion and felt the room listening.
Vaene listened and made notes. He asked three questions, all of them procedural. Then he called for a witness.
“Magistrate Kaelric,” he said.
I looked at him.
The room shifted as everyone turned toward Magistrate Kaelric, seated in the back row with the senior magical officers.
He stood and crossed the room with the slow pace of a man who was deciding what to say.
“Magistrate,” Vaene started. “In your professional assessment, did the Prince of Twilight reach for the untamed magic stored above this kingdom during his stay in Winter?”
“Yes,” Kaelric said.
“And in your assessment, was it intentional?”
The silence grew thick in the room.
Kaelric folded his hands in front of him, but I saw a subtle tremor.
“N—No,” he finally said. “The prince was not in control of the reach, but he was in control of the containment.”
“But he did reach, did he not?”
“Yes.”
The room reacted in cycles of quiet murmurs as the people adjusted their understanding.
I could feel Brie looking at me. My eyes remained on Aldric.
Vaene made a note. “And the stimulus.” He glanced at Sera. “Your conclusion on the trigger for this incident.”
Kaelric was quiet for a moment. Then his eyes moved to me and stayed. Something passed through them. Fear, regret, a mix of both.
“The human,” he said carefully, “appears to be a catalyst for the prince’s connection to the untamed.”
“A trigger,” Vaene said.
Kaelric looked at him. “A catalyst,” he corrected. “The distinction is—“
“Thank you, Magistrate.”
Kaelric closed his mouth and stood there for another breath before he returned to his seat.
I dug my nail into the warmed wood of the chair.
Vaene set his pen down. “I want to draw the court’s attention to something that was not formally entered into the record.
” He reached for a stack of documents one of the Crown guards produced for him.
“For the past week, the citizens of Twilight have gathered at the gates of this estate in protest. In sustained numbers that required military and arcane response to manage.” He read from the document without looking up.
“Thirty-seven petitions have been filed by senior advisors and houses within this kingdom. All of them citing the same concern.” He looked at me.
“All of them naming the same human woman here in this room.”
More murmurs rippled through the room.
Sera didn’t react. Her expression didn’t change. Her posture remained immaculate.
Neither did I. Internally, however.
Vaene turned to the room. “These are the concerns of this kingdom. Subjects of the crown. The people are at these gates because they are afraid.” He looked at Sera. “The people of Twilight have already given their own judgment. This proceeding is simply a formal verdict.”
He placed the documents into the hands of the awaiting Crown guard and stood.
“The evidence presented by the prince is acknowledged. The magic containment record is commendable. The human woman's contributions have been considered.” He folded his hands. “However.”
The word landed in the room like dropped glass.
“The testimony of Magistrate Kaelric confirms that the human is a direct and documented risk to the most dangerous magic in Primoria. A power which, if released, poses a threat not to a kingdom but to the realm.” He looked up.
“The recommended verdict is indefinite imprisonment within Crown custody.”
Silence did not follow. The room broke almost immediately.
First, a sound from the back. A chair scraped as someone stood.
Three house representatives spoke at once.
One of the senior advisors was on his feet already, and I couldn't tell if he was objecting or agreeing because the blood in my ears was too loud.
I didn’t remember deciding to stand, but I already had.
Maelor had both hands clenched, knuckles white, jaw set as if he was holding himself back with sheer will.
Brie’s hands went to her mouth, eyes wide.
Riven didn’t react and only looked at Sera.
Sera didn’t take her eyes off Vaene. Her expression blank.
The assassin's face. Completely devoid of any fear, any reaction to the sentence that was just given to her.
The face she wore when Riven had pulled her from my study that day she had tried to assassinate me. It cost me to watch her wear it.
“Guards,” Vaene called. “Arrest the woman.”
Crown soldiers moved in immediately.
Sera lifted her chin in quiet defiance.
I took a step forward.
Maelor's hand closed around my wrist like a vise. His eyes were red and bloodshot. He shook his head once, quietly reminding me who I was.
There was nothing I could do. The fact lodged in my chest painfully.
I was the Prince of Twilight, and there was nothing I could do because Crown outranked me, and going against them in my own throne room would hand them everything they needed to finish this differently than Vaene had just proposed.
I tasted copper.
Before I could pull my arm from Maelor, he had let go. His eyes caught on something behind me. I followed his gaze and found nothing. Riven wasn’t there.
I turned back to the center of the room.
Riven stood between Sera and the Crown soldiers, hand on the hilt of his blade. He hadn’t drawn it. He didn't need to. The hand on the hilt was the statement.
His controlled expression he always wore had turned into one far more dangerous.
Riven had been with me for almost two centuries.
From a soldier, to a spy, to the captain of my guard.
He had been with me through the Primorian War.
When we lost every man and the only people standing were him, Maelor, and I against an entire battalion of Thalvarnan soldiers.
That was the only time I’d seen that face.
I was seeing it again now.
It was treason. If he drew that sword in front of Crown soldiers in a formal proceeding, it would be treason. He knew that.
He would do it anyway.
“Riven,” I ground out.
He didn't turn and stood there as the Crown soldiers tried to carry out their orders to arrest Sera. Stood there with an expression and stance that said, you will not.
Vaene rose from his seat.
Maelor said something under his breath that I didn’t catch.
The Crown soldiers had stopped moving. Deep in calculation of what would happen if they moved for Sera.
Vaene drew breath and spoke. “You dare—“
“Guards.” It came out before I could stop it.
The moment a Twilight guard laid hands on a Crown soldier, Twilight would be lost. It would give the king every reason to remove me from the throne.
I didn’t look at Brie as she stood.
I didn’t look at Maelor as the clink of armor from the Twilight guards moving in carried across the room.
I only looked at Riven, and he looked back.
Yes, we are doing this.