Chapter 158: [X] - 158: The Emergency Seal
The Bloodworth study was a theme of red and gold.
Deep red walls absorbed the light from the suspended crystal lamps while thin lines of gold traced the edges of every panel, every shelf, and the heavy frame of the desk itself.
The trimmings caught the glow and threw it back in soft and deliberate flashes that moved whenever anyone walked past.
The air carried a faint expensive scent of polished wood and something sharper underneath, like old metal left too long in the sun.
The carpet was thick enough to swallow footsteps.
The windows were narrow and set high, they were designed more for controlled light than for any real view of the grounds outside.
Valeriana Bloodworth sat in the high backed chair behind the desk, her posture was perfect, one hand resting lightly on the carved armrest.
Her red hair was arranged with the same precision as the room around her.
She had been reading through a short stack of ordinary household reports, they were of those kind that arrived every few days and rarely contained anything that required immediate attention.
The silence of the study was complete, that was until the door opened with a knock.
A maid entered, head already lowered in the exact angle required by Bloodworth protocol.
She crossed the carpet in three quiet steps, stopped the correct distance from the desk, and bowed fully from the waist.
"My Queen."
She held out a single letter with both hands.
The seal on it was not the ordinary household mark used for routine correspondence.
It carried the sharp and layered impression reserved only for matters marked important and emergency.
The wax was darker than usual and the edges of the impression were clean enough to show that the courier had treated it with care.
Valeriana’s eyes moved from the reports to the letter.
She let the maid hold the position for a full breath.
"Leave it."
The maid placed the letter on the polished surface of the desk with careful precision, the she bowed again, and then she left quietly.
The door closed with a soft and final sound.
Now that she was alone again, Valeriana picked up the letter.
The emergency marking was unmistakable even before she broke the seal.
She broke the seal with a single clean motion of her thumb and unfolded the paper.
The handwriting inside was neat, formal and stripped of any unnecessary flourish.
The contents were brief and precise.
The Third Prince, Alexander Abyss had been spotted at the Curse Bloom Institution Headquarters.
He had entered the registration hall on the final day of Proving registration and formally placed his name on the list.
Witnesses confirmed both his presence and the completion of the registration process.
The news was already moving through the capital at considerable speed and would reach all the households and all the kingdoms within hours if it had not already begun to do so.
Valeriana read the short report twice.
The first reading was for the facts.
The second was for the implications that sat between the lines.
Then her mouth curved.
The expression was sharp, narrow, and entirely private.
She set the letter down on the desk and leaned back in the chair, the gold lining of the armrest cool under her fingers.
For a moment she simply looked at the far wall where a narrow strip of late light fell across the red paneling.
"Oh, Vespera."
The name left her lips like a soft accusation spoken to an empty room.
"I thought you were smarter than this."
She spoke as if the other woman could hear her across the distance that separated them both.
But the amusement in her voice did not reach her eyes.
Those eyes remained calculating, already turning the information over and examining it from every useful angle.
"Why would you allow your son to participate? After everything you have done to keep him out of sight and under control, after all the quiet work to limit how much of him the rest of the empire could see, you simply hand him to the Institution on the last possible day?"
She tapped one finger against the edge of the desk, slow and deliberate.
The sound was soft but distinct in the quiet room.
"Once he is inside the Proving, no one outside can interfere."
"The households, the courts, even you, no one can do anything after that."
"The CBI will not allow it."
"That is the entire point of the structure they built, and you know it as well as I do, and if you try to interfere, it will lead to something very ugly..."
Her gaze dropped back to the letter for a moment, then lifted again.
"So you have finally made a mistake I can use, this is a first."
Her decision formed without hesitation or internal debate.
Every Bloodworth descendant scheduled to enter this year’s Proving would receive new instructions before the competition began.
Their primary task would no longer be simple advancement or the collection of ranking points.
It would be the removal of Alexander Abyss from the competition by any means available inside the rules the Institution actually enforced.
Group tactics.
Coordinated pressure.
The kind of practical approaches that the more idealistic participants preferred to pretend did not exist.
To put it simply, playing dirty if they have to.
Valeriana’s finger stopped tapping.
She reached for a small recessed button set into the surface of the desk near her right hand and pressed it once.
A low and almost inaudible hum answered from somewhere inside the desk.
Thin lines of light traced a rectangular frame in the air above the polished wood and then resolved into the pale projection surface of a communication device.
The image was still empty and waiting for the linked receivers to answer.
Communication devices of this quality were rare across the entire Human Empire.
The materials required to power and stabilize a multi point link were expensive enough that most households reserved them for matters of genuine urgency.
The crystals and refined catalysts needed to maintain a clear connection for more than a few minutes made casual conversation over such a channel wasteful to the point of absurdity.
Most people only activated the devices when they judged the cost of the call truly worth the result they expected to gain from it.
Valeriana judged it worth the result.
She waited as the projection stabilized and the connection protocols began their quiet search for the linked receivers.
The red and gold of the study reflected faintly across the forming screen while painting the empty air with the same colours that defined the room around her.
The faint hum continued with a steady and expensive.
Her expression remained the same sharp and private grin.
The Third Prince had registered.
The Proving would open soon.
And for the first time in a long while Valeriana Bloodworth felt the particular satisfaction of watching an enemy walk willingly into a place where she could finally reach him without the usual layers of protection and political distance.
She settled back in the chair with her hands resting lightly on the armrests and waited for the faces to appear.
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End of Chapter 158: The Emergency Seal
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