Strongest Incubus System

The meeting happened without Damon in the room.

That was decided by Ester, accepted by Morgana, and considered a moderate offense by Damon. He stayed in the room, sitting on the bed, with his wrist bandaged, listening to footsteps in the corridor and trying not to do exactly what everyone expected him to do: stand, go to the door, and pretend he was only walking by chance.

He did not.

That irritated him.

Ester, sitting near the window with the book on her lap, noticed.

"You are feeling virtuous for obeying."

"I am feeling trapped."

"It is similar."

"It is not."

"For you, it is."

Damon looked at her. "Are you going to watch me all night?"

"Yes."

"That sounds terrible for both of us."

"I agree."

"Then why are you doing it?"

"Because you are worse without supervision."

He had no way to refute that without lying.

Outside, the mansion remained in motion. Guards went up and down. Servants carried hot water, blankets, food, and boxes of documents. The children were in separate rooms in the inner wing. Lia with Mara, Elin with a trusted maid, and Toma with the doctor. Morgana had ordered that none of them be left alone. Not out of fear of them, but out of fear of what someone might try to do to them.

Shortly before midnight, Aria entered the room without properly knocking. Ester lifted her gaze.

"I knocked," Aria said.

"With intention or by accident?"

"With urgency."

"That is not an answer."

Aria closed the door behind her and raised a stack of papers. "We have a plan."

Damon straightened on the bed. "Seraphine?"

"She arrives with the Council tomorrow in the late afternoon. Lord Joren Mael sent confirmation. She will come as an observing representative of House Valcair, offering financial support for the stabilization of Arven."

Damon let out a low sound. "She kidnaps children in the morning and offers support in the afternoon."

"Politics," Aria said. "Only with more bells."

Ester closed the book. "Does Morgana know?"

"Yes. Elizabeth is preparing the reception. Morgana decided not to prevent Seraphine from entering."

Damon frowned. "Why?"

"Because if we prevent her, she becomes a victim of political hostility. If we let her in, we can surround her with rules, witnesses, and evidence. Elizabeth called it a diplomatic trap. Morgana called it returning the filth through the front door."

"I liked Morgana’s version better."

"So did I."

Aria handed the papers to Damon. Ester tried to take them first, but Aria stepped back.

"They are copies. No magical risk. I checked."

Ester took them anyway, flipped through them, and only then handed them to Damon.

He read. There was a summary of the situation: Havelock, Vara, Maeve, the bells, the marked children, Darius Kelm’s payments, the old Duchess’s letters, and the connections to Seraphine. But the document was divided into two parts. The first was official, clean, safe for the Council. The second was internal, with everything involving the Underground Heart.

"You are only showing half."

"For now," Aria said. "The half enough to arrest Havelock, Darius, Vara, and Maeve. The half that points to Valcair without mentioning there is a world root beneath the mines."

"Seraphine will notice."

"We hope so."

Damon looked at her.

Aria smiled faintly. "If she notices we are hiding part of the information, she will try to find out where the rest is. And to do that, she will move."

"You want her to try acting inside the mansion."

"With guards, witnesses, Elizabeth, Morgana, Ingrivid, and me waiting."

"And me?"

Ester answered before Aria. "In bed."

Damon looked at her with controlled contempt. "That is not a strategic function."

"For you, it is."

Aria raised a finger. "Actually, you have a function."

Ester’s expression darkened.

"A passive function," Aria quickly corrected. "Very passive. Extremely seated. Almost decorative."

"Speak already," Damon said.

"Seraphine needs to believe you are too unstable to be used, but too important to ignore. Morgana will let it leak that you are injured and isolated because of the reaction in the mine. That may make Seraphine try to confirm your condition."

Ester went still. "Using Damon as bait."

"Not exactly."

"Aria."

"A little."

Damon looked at the papers. "It makes sense."

"Do not help," Ester said.

"If she needs me as a conductor, she will want to know whether I am functional."

"You are not functional."

"Even better."

Ester stood. "No."

Aria took a deep breath. "Morgana said the final decision is yours."

"Great. No."

"His too."

"Less great."

Damon closed the papers. "I will not leave this room."

Ester immediately grew suspicious. "Continue."

"If Seraphine sends someone, or tries to use a bell from a distance, or provokes a reaction, you see how she acts. I stay still. You stay with me. If I react, you cut the flow. If I do not react, she gets no answer."

Aria looked at Ester. "That is the plan."

Ester clearly hated it.

Damon almost smiled. "Morgana thought of it before you did?"

"Elizabeth did," Aria said. "Morgana accepted it with the face of someone who wanted to break a table."

"Fair."

Ester walked to the window and looked out at the dark courtyard. She stayed that way for a few seconds. When she spoke again, her voice was controlled.

"If I accept, the conditions are mine."

"Of course," Aria said.

Damon nodded.

"No bell near the room."

"Yes."

"No child in the same corridor."

"Already decided," Aria said.

"Two guards at the door, two in the corridor, one direct signal to Ingrivid."

"That too."

"If Damon loses control, no one enters trying to help without my order."

Aria hesitated. "Morgana will not like that."

"Then Morgana can try stopping the Celestial Ice Body from crossing a wall with good intentions."

"Should I write that exactly?"

"Write it politely."

Aria mentally noted it. "Understood."

After she left, the room became quiet again. Damon read the document once more. Not for the information. For the form. Morgana was doing something different now. She was not only reacting. She was not chasing every fire Seraphine left behind. She was building a field where Seraphine would have to enter, speak, touch evidence, and perhaps make a mistake in front of the right people.

It was the beginning of resolution.

Not the clean resolution Damon preferred, with enemies on the floor and children far from bells. But perhaps a resolution that would save Arven from continuing to bleed after the fight.

"She is getting good at this," Damon said.

Ester knew who he meant. "She is."

"You sound worried."

"Because people who are good at politics still bleed."

"Everyone bleeds."

"Do not turn that into cheap philosophy."

"It was just an observation."

"It was bad."

Damon set the papers aside. "Tomorrow Seraphine arrives."

"Yes."

"Do you think she will bring a bell?"

"Yes."

"Even with inspection?"

"She will try."

"Then we need to know how to block it."

Ester walked to the bed. "No. You need to sleep. I need to figure out how to block it."

"I can help."

"You can. By sleeping."

"Ester."

"Damon."

He closed his mouth.

She took a blank sheet and began drawing something. Damon watched for a few seconds. It was a structure similar to the wrist lock, but larger, with lines turned outward. It would not be inside him. It would be in the room.

"An external containment," he said.

"A deaf room."

"For the bell?"

"For any similar vibration. Ground stone along the edges, still water in the corners, thick cloth at the door, no loose metal. If Seraphine tries to test you through sound, this should reduce it."

"Should."

"Yes. Should. Accept the honest word."

"I am accepting it."

She continued drawing. "I will also place three cut points on you. One at the wrist, one at the nape, and one on the chest. If the root tries to pull directly, I will block manually."

"That will hurt."

"It will."

"You seemed a little happy."

"I imagined it."

Damon lay down, but did not fall asleep immediately. He watched Ester work. She drew, crossed out, remade, calculated distances with her fingers. It was not only medicine. It was war on a small scale, waged against a sound that had not even been rung yet.

At some point, he slept.

He did not dream of the mine.

That was a relief.

He woke before dawn with a distant beat in his chest. It did not come from outside. Not exactly. It was a memory of the Heart, weaker than the night before. Damon remained still and breathed. He let the sound pass.

One breath.

Two.

The root did not answer.

When he opened his eyes, Ester was awake in the chair.

"Did you see?" he asked.

"I saw."

"Better?"

"A little."

"That was almost encouraging."

"Do not get used to it."

In the morning, the mansion changed rhythm.

The visible defense diminished. That was Elizabeth’s idea. Too many guards would make Seraphine retreat. Too few guards would be stupidity. So Morgana placed the mansion in an appearance of controlled normality. Servants circulated. The courtyard was cleaned. The official documents were organized in the Council room. Havelock, Vara, and Maeve were kept in separate cells, alive and unable to communicate.

Lia, Elin, and Toma were moved to different rooms, all within the same wing, with walls reinforced by ground stone and thick blankets hung near the windows. The children did not understand everything, but they understood enough to stay quiet. Mara stayed with Lia. Elin and Toma were given trusted maids and guards who pretended not to watch too much.

Morgana visited each of them before noon.

With Lia, she was direct.

"You do not need to be brave to help us."

Lia asked, "Then what do I need to be?"

"Protected."

With Elin, Morgana merely sat for a few minutes while the girl held a blanket.

With Toma, the conversation was even shorter. The boy was awake, pale, and with a low fever. When Morgana asked if he remembered the tunnel, he answered:

"I heard something big."

Morgana did not ask more.

In the afternoon, Ester turned Damon’s room into a deaf room. Ground stone in lines near the walls, basins of water in the corners, cloth folded under the door, and no metal object besides her instruments, all wrapped in leather. Damon sat on the bed, looking at it.

"It is elegant," he said.

"It is ugly and functional."

"Like your therapeutic method."

"Do you want me to add an extra needle?"

"I withdraw."

Shortly before the Council’s arrival, Morgana entered the room. She was dressed as a duchess now. Dark clothing, clean cut, Arven’s crest on her chest. She wore no flashy jewelry. Only authority.

Damon observed her. "You look ready."

"I am not."

"You looked it."

"Then it serves."

Ester stayed near the window, pretending to adjust a basin.

Morgana looked at Damon. "Seraphine will try to provoke something."

"I know."

"Do not give it to her."

"I do not intend to."

"If she speaks of Xue Lian, the Heart, the children, or you as a host..."

"I listen without answering."

Morgana nodded. "That."

Damon tilted his head. "Are you all right?"

"No."

Honest answer.

He waited.

Morgana looked at the door. "For a long time, I thought resolving Arven meant proving the old Duchess guilty, canceling false debts, and making the Council recognize my position. Now that seems small."

"It is not small."

"No. But it is not everything."

Damon stayed silent.

She continued, "Seraphine tried to turn my duchy into an entrance for a buried thing. She used my father, my stepmother, my mines, my dead, and children from families Arven was supposed to protect. If I only win on paper, she tries again somewhere else."

"Then do not win only on paper."

Morgana looked at him.

Damon held her gaze. "Catch her on paper, in public. Then take from her the chance to touch the mines. Money, routes, agents, names. Everything."

"That is the plan."

"Good plan."

"Elizabeth helped."

"I imagined."

Morgana almost smiled. Then became serious again. "And you?"

"I stay here and try not to become a door."

"That is also part of the plan."

"Humiliating part."

"Necessary part."

Outside, short trumpets announced the arrival of the delegation.

Morgana breathed once.

Damon noticed she was not trembling.

Not because she was not afraid.

Because now her fear had work.

"I am going to receive Seraphine Valcair," she said.

Damon nodded. "Have fun."

"I will not."

"Even better."

Morgana left.

Ester closed the door after her and returned to the side of the bed.

Outside, the mansion became quiet in a different way. It was not peace. It was staging. House Arven opened its doors to the Council, to Lord Joren Mael, and to Lady Seraphine Valcair.

Damon closed his eyes.

Far away, beneath the mountain, the Heart beat.

Thum.

This time, Damon listened.

And did not answer.

In the main courtyard, Morgana descended the entrance steps with Elizabeth at her side and Aria a few steps behind, carrying enough documents to bury an entire lie. Ingrivid stood to the side, armed, discreet only enough to pretend diplomacy.

The delegation stopped before them.

Lord Joren Mael descended first, smiling like a man used to being received with caution. Behind him, a woman in a pale dress and green gloves removed her hood.

Lady Seraphine Valcair smiled at Morgana.

"Duchess Arven. I came to offer help."

Morgana smiled too.

"How kind. We have much to discuss."