She chuckled with delight at his sarcasm. He sounds like his old self today. Perhaps he does have the strength to see this through. Silently, she willed this to be true, firing every positive thought she could at her brother’s back.

Heads held high, the two of them entered Lord Rochant’s throne room at a stately pace. All evidence of the previous night’s festivities had been cleared away. No longer packed full of revellers, and with the tables gone, the space appeared massive. Fresh new hangings divided the grey of the walls in blocks of rich blue, and the stone floors had been polished until they shone.

House Sapphire’s Deathless were already in attendance. The one pretending to be Lord Rochant stood to one side, displaced from his throne by the Sapphire High Lord. In his winged armour, there was no way Yadavendra could sit in it comfortably, which meant not only could no one enjoy the throne, but all of the others were forced to stand as well.

If only they could see themselves.

It was obvious now that Rochant had not truly returned. There was something indefinably young about the imposter that no amount of paint and posing could hide. She wondered that the others could not see it too. Perhaps they do, or perhaps they lack my intimate knowledge.

The other Deathless were at least dressed appropriately, each face aged up or down to make them ageless. They gave respectful nods, even Lady Yadva, though it took a prompting glance from Pari to get it. She and Lord Taraka Tanzanite had witnessed and recorded Yadva’s humiliation in Pari’s previous lifecycle, and she wanted to be clear that it had not been forgotten.

They stopped at a respectful distance, the servants laying their gowns artfully and retreating from the room. She knew that Arkav wanted to flee with them. When he glanced at her, as she knew he would, she turned her head to whisper, ‘I am with you.’

He nodded, and when he addressed the Sapphire, his voice was clear. ‘My sister and I come before you today on behalf of our High Lord, Priyamvada Tanzanite, and the High Lords of Jet, Spinel, Peridot, Opal and Ruby. We demand that Yadavendra, High Lord of the Sapphire, leave here with us to face the judgement of his peers for breaking our sacred laws and threatening the eternal order of the Deathless.’

Well, thought Pari, that was direct.

‘You see?’ replied Yadavendra, gesturing towards them with his golden glaive. ‘This is the tone they take. Ordering me like some common criminal in front of my own family. Strutting about as if this were some Tanzanite hall. But we knew this day would come, didn’t we? And we are ready for it.’

Arkav leant backwards as if blown by a breeze, and Pari sensed, as her brother did, the sudden threat of violence.