Chapter 409: Pay Attention
Liam laughed under his breath.
Arik looked up immediately.
They were sharing the smaller office beside the imperial library that afternoon, mostly because Liam had refused to spend another four hours in the main administrative wing while Arik worked through parliamentary reports. Rain tapped steadily against the tall windows, blurring the western gardens into muted autumn colors, and the fire had been lit despite it being barely past three.
Liam sat curled into one end of the sofa with a tablet balanced across his knees, reviewing foundation expenditures.
Arik occupied the desk.
Or, more accurately, Arik had buried the desk beneath enough documents to make Liam wonder whether parliament produced paper purely to justify its own existence.
"What?"
Liam looked up innocently.
"Nothing.
"You laughed."
"I am allowed."
"At what?"
Liam glanced toward the door.
Mezos had passed through less than a minute earlier after delivering a security update. Rubis had followed shortly afterward, carrying the amended schedule for the following week.
Neither had looked at the other.
That had been the problem.
Rubis normally had something to say whenever Mezos appeared, even if it was only a complaint about his tendency to rearrange security meetings after Rubis had already finalized everyone’s schedule.
Today, nothing.
Mezos had also left unusually quickly.
Then Rubis had discovered a reason to leave approximately forty seconds later.
Liam returned his attention to Arik.
"Just pay attention."
Arik stared at him.
"To what?"
"Things."
"That is deliberately useless."
"Yes."
Arik leaned back in his chair.
"You know something."
"I know many things."
"You are becoming irritating."
Liam smiled.
"Pay attention."
Arik narrowed his gold eyes.
Then, apparently deciding that whatever game Liam was playing ranked below the election reform document currently open on his screen, he returned to work.
Liam shook his head.
For a man capable of noticing that a provincial minister had altered one sentence in a forty-page budget proposal, Arik was astonishingly bad at recognizing anything happening directly beneath his nose when it did not involve Liam, national security, or parliament.
Liam had decided intervention was necessary. Not because Mezos and Rubis required exposure. Their relationship was their business. But because watching Arik remain completely unaware had become too entertaining to end quickly.
—
The opportunity arrived two days later.
Arik had been halfway through reviewing a security problem concerning the temporary parliamentary annex when he discovered that one of the access protocols contradicted the emergency evacuation plan.
That was the sort of administrative stupidity he despised.
He read the relevant paragraph twice, swore once, then stood.
Severin was in a military briefing.
Mezos was not.
Arik crossed the administrative wing with the document in hand, barely noticing the aides who stepped aside as he passed. He had already begun rewriting the protocol mentally by the time he reached Mezos’s office.
The door was closed.
Arik opened it without knocking.
"Mezos, whoever approved the secondary—"
He stopped.
Mezos was standing beside his desk.
Rubis was standing considerably closer than professional scheduling requirements could reasonably justify.
Very considerably closer.
Mezos had one hand at Rubis’s waist.
Rubis had both hands against Mezos’s chest.
And their mouths had apparently been occupied until approximately half a second before the emperor entered.
Silence filled the office.
Arik looked at Mezos. Then Rubis. Then Mezos’s hand, which was still resting at Rubis’s waist.
Mezos slowly removed it.
Rubis straightened his jacket.
Arik remained in the doorway.
No one spoke.
Finally, Rubis said, "You usually knock."
Arik looked at the door as though this were somehow its fault.
"It is Mezos’s office."
"Yes."
"I do not knock on Mezos."
"That sentence could have been constructed better," Rubis said.
Mezos shut his eyes.
Arik looked back at them.
His mind, normally rather efficient, seemed unwilling to process what he had just seen.
He lifted the document in his hand.
"The evacuation protocol."
Mezos cleared his throat.
"Yes."
"It contradicts the secondary security route."
Mezos took the document.
Rubis stepped away and picked up a tablet from the edge of the desk with remarkable composure for someone Arik had just caught kissing the chief of imperial security.
Mezos scanned the paragraph.
"This version should not have been approved."
"I know."
"I will fix it."
"Good."
Another silence.
Arik looked between them once more.
Rubis raised an eyebrow.
"Was there anything else?"
Arik stared.
"No."
He left.
The door closed behind him.
Arik walked approximately twelve meters down the corridor before stopping.
He turned around and stopped again.
His eyebrows drew together.
"Oh."
An aide passing with a stack of documents wisely continued walking.
Arik looked back toward Mezos’s office.
Then toward the corridor leading to Liam’s rooms.
"Oh."
This time considerably more offended.
—
Liam was reading when Arik found him.
The afternoon had cleared, leaving weak sunlight across the private sitting room and brightening the gold edges of the leaves outside. Ayla and Samuel had returned from another academy visit and disappeared somewhere with an instructor who had promised Samuel access to an old ether laboratory, which meant the imperial suite was temporarily quiet.
Liam looked up when Arik entered.
One look at his face was enough.
Arik stopped in front of the sofa.
"You knew."
Liam set his tablet down, smiling.
"Knew what?"
"Do not do that."
Liam laughed.
Arik pointed toward the corridor behind him as though Mezos’s office were somehow visible through several walls.
"Mezos and Rubis."
"Oh."
"Yes. Oh."
Liam’s smile widened.
Arik stared at him.
"How long?"
"I am not entirely sure."
"How long have you known?"
"That there was something between them? A while."
"A while."
"Yes."
Arik sat beside him.
Liam shifted his legs out of the way.
"You told me to pay attention."
"I did."
"You could have simply told me."
"I could have."
"Why didn’t you?"
Liam folded his hands over his stomach.
"Because you do not notice anything anymore unless it concerns parliament, the election, national security, or me."
Arik frowned.
"That is not true."
"Mezos and Rubis have apparently been hiding a relationship directly inside your household, and you walked in on them kissing before you realized."
"They were hiding it."
"They were doing a terrible job."
Arik stared.
Liam began counting on his fingers.
"Mezos knows exactly when Rubis skips meals. Rubis keeps spare gloves for Mezos. They leave dinners at suspiciously similar times. Rubis knew about Theron moving here before nearly everyone else. Mezos once spent forty minutes in Rubis’s office after midnight because, according to both of them, they were discussing schedules."
Arik leaned back against the sofa.
"I thought they were close."
"They are."
"Apparently."
Liam laughed.
Arik looked offended by the entire concept.