Episode-787
Chapter : 1573
"Justice isn't about what you did lately," Lloyd said. "It's about what you did. Period. Vorian didn't care about Malachi's redemption arc. He cared about the two hundred years of slavery. He cared about the mines. He cared about the whippings. He looked at Malachi and he didn't see an ally. He saw a war criminal who had managed to switch sides at the last minute to save his own skin."
Lloyd leaned back. "And then, Vorian gave his ultimatum. He said Altamira would join the alliance. They would open their borders. They would feed the north. They would bring peace to the continent. But there was a price. A fee for entry."
"What was the price?" Jasmin asked, dreading the answer.
"An extermination," Lloyd said coldly.
"Vorian Altamira didn't ask for gold," Lloyd said, his voice echoing in the quiet archive. "He didn't ask for land. He asked for heads. Specifically, Ferrum heads."
Jasmin shivered. The air in the room seemed to drop a few degrees.
"He laid out the condition very clearly," Lloyd continued. "He demanded the total, absolute erasure of the Ferrum bloodline. He wanted Malachi executed. He wanted Malachi's brothers executed. He wanted every cousin, every uncle, every distant relation who bore the name Ferrum to be put to the sword."
"But... that's genocide," Jasmin whispered.
"It was justice, in his eyes," Lloyd said. "Old Testament justice. An eye for an eye, a bloodline for a bloodline. He said that the Ferrum family was a cancer. You don't leave a little bit of cancer in the body, Jasmin. You cut it all out. He argued that if even one Ferrum was left alive, the rot would return. The tyranny would return. He believed it was in our blood. That we were genetically predisposed to be monsters."
Lloyd tapped the table with his index finger. "And he didn't stop there. He knew Malachi had a son. A young boy named Roy. My father."
Jasmin gasped. "He wanted to kill a child?"
"He demanded it," Lloyd said brutally. "He said, 'The wolf cub grows into a wolf.' He demanded that Roy be handed over to the Altamirans. He wanted the head of the father and the head of the son. He wanted them delivered in baskets to the capital of Saber, as proof that the old world was truly dead."
Lloyd stood up and paced, his agitation mirroring the tension of that long-ago meeting. "Think about the position he put Liam in. Vorian was offering world peace. He was offering a united continent. No more wars. No more starvation. Prosperity for everyone. All Liam had to do was sign one death warrant. All he had to do was betray one man."
"But Malachi was his friend," Jasmin said.
"Malachi was more than a friend," Lloyd said. "He was the reason Liam was alive. Malachi had saved the rebellion a dozen times. He had risked everything. He had killed his own father for Liam's dream. And now, Liam was being asked to butcher him and his innocent son to secure the peace they had both fought for."
Lloyd stopped pacing and looked at the portrait of Liam. "It was the ultimate test of character. A pragmatist would have done it. A purely logical ruler would have weighed the lives of thousands against the lives of a few dozen Ferrums and made the trade. It makes sense, on paper. Sacrifice the few to save the many. It's the math of kings."
"But Liam wasn't just a king," Jasmin said.
"No," Lloyd agreed. "He was a man. And Vorian underestimated that. Vorian thought that because Liam was an Austin—a family known for cold calculation—he would take the deal. He thought Liam would see the logic of it. He didn't understand that the rebellion wasn't built on logic. It was built on loyalty. It was built on the idea that people matter."
Lloyd sat back down, his expression heavy. "The scribe wrote that the silence in the room lasted for five minutes. Five minutes where the fate of the world hung in the balance. Malachi didn't say a word. He just sat there, waiting. He didn't beg. He didn't argue. He knew his sins. He knew why they hated him. He put his life in Liam's hands and waited to see if he was going to be the sacrifice."
"And Roy?" Jasmin asked. "Did he know?"
"He was a child," Lloyd said. "He was playing with toy soldiers back at the castle. He had no idea that a man in a hunting lodge was deciding whether he would live to see his next birthday."
Chapter : 1574
Lloyd rubbed his face with his hands. "It's a terrifying thing, Jasmin. To realize how fragile your existence is. My entire life, my father's life, my grandfather's legacy... it all came down to one man's decision on a snowy afternoon a hundred years ago. If Liam had blinked... if he had been a little bit weaker, or a little bit more 'pragmatic'... I wouldn't be here. You wouldn't be here. This archive wouldn't exist."
"But he didn't blink," Jasmin said confidently.
"No," Lloyd said. "He didn't. But the cost... the cost was high. The ultimatum wasn't a negotiation. It was a binary choice. Peace with blood, or war with honor. There was no middle ground. The Altamirans made sure of that. They wanted their pound of flesh, and they wouldn't settle for an apology."
Lloyd looked at Jasmin, his eyes dark. "That is the root of it all. The hatred isn't vague. It's specific. It's a demand for extermination that was never withdrawn. They don't just hate us, Jasmin. They believe our existence is a crime. They believe that every day a Ferrum draws breath is an insult to their ancestors. That is why they will never stop. That is why they kidnap children and plot with devils. Because in their minds, they are the heroes trying to finish a job that King Liam was too weak to do."
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Lloyd leaned back in the creaking wooden chair, the shadows of the archive seeming to lengthen around them. He stared at the portrait of King Liam Bethelham, the man whose split-second decision had defined a century of bloodshed.
"The silence in the lodge broke," Lloyd said softly. "Liam Bethelham stood up. He didn't look at the treaty. He looked at Vorian Altamira. And he didn't look like a King negotiating a deal. He looked like a man who had just been insulted in his own home."
Lloyd cleared his throat, adopting a tone of regal, quiet fury. "The scribe recorded his exact words. Liam said, 'You ask for the head of my brother. You ask for the blood of a child. You speak of justice, Vorian, but you sound like the Emperor you claim to hate.'"
"Wow," Jasmin whispered.
"It gets better," Lloyd said with a dry smile. "Liam placed his hand on Malachi's shoulder. It was a simple gesture, but in that room, it was a declaration of war. He said, 'Malachi Ferrum is not a bargaining chip. He is the Sword of the North. He is the reason we are not all dead or enslaved. His sins are the sins of the war we all fought. If you want him, you have to come through me.'"
"He protected him," Jasmin said, a smile touching her lips. "He chose friendship."
"He chose honor," Lloyd corrected. "He chose loyalty. He told Vorian, 'The Kingdom of Bethelham is built on a foundation of trust. If I betray my greatest ally to buy peace, then this Kingdom is rotten before it is even born. I will not build a throne on the bones of my friends. If you want the Ferrum bloodline, you will have to burn Bethelham to the ground to get it.'"
Lloyd stood up and walked to the map, pointing to the border between the north and the south.
"Vorian Altamira didn't take it well. He stood up and overturned the table. Literally flipped it. Ink and wine went everywhere. It was a dramatic exit. He pointed a finger at Liam and Malachi and shouted, 'Then you are all monsters! If you stand with the devil, you are a devil too! There will be no peace. There will be no alliance. As long as the Ferrum line exists, Altamira will never rest. We will be the wolf at your door. We will be the knife in your dark. We will not stop until the last drop of Ferrum blood is spilled into the dust!'"
"And then he left?"
"He stormed out," Lloyd said. "He took his delegation and rode to the great bridge at the Mouth of the Coil—the only pass leading into the valley—and burned it behind him. It was the end of the United Front. It was the birth of the Cold War."
Lloyd sighed. "Think about the weight of that choice, Jasmin. Liam saved his friend. He saved my family. But in doing so, he condemned his kingdom to a hundred years of conflict. He chose a war that has killed thousands of people over the last century, just to save a few dozen lives. Was it the right choice?"