Martin spoke up at last, for my sake. “Caesar, Mycroft domum ferendus est. (Mycroft must be taken home.)”

Black-fisted MASON glanced at me with rage’s crimson still darkening his cheeks. Then he turned to Spain. “We will discuss this more another time.”

“Why?” The quick, light question would have sounded natural on other lips, but coming from the king, who fashions his words so gingerly, it sounded like a curse. “In this matter we are not people but peoples. Neither Europe nor your Empire can compromise on this. Discussion will not resolve it.”

MASON’s brows furrowed. “What will?”

Gentle, still so gentle, the king, as if he sees with every breath the millions that a king’s too-hasty word can ruin and so, Leviathan among the Lilliputians, steps on tiptoe. “Hopefully not violence.” His eyes beamed empathy. “I owe you an apology, Caesar. I let harm come to your Familiaris when you kindly lent them to me. I gave you my word of honor that I would return Mycroft Canner safely as soon as we completed the transport of the duke, and I failed.”

“The fault was not yours.” MASON would not look at Madame.

“The promise was mine,” the king answered quickly. “The stain is on my honor.”

Caesar frowned long at the king. “You can’t maintain this, Isabel. You can’t be an honorable gentleman and be with Joyce. They’re a whore. I don’t mean prostitute—you and I both know prostitution can be an honorable profession in its way—but Joyce actively wants to live up to the old archetype and be a filthy, treacherous, honor-destroying whore. Right now you’re the only evidence the world has that there can be a morally pure leader anymore. Joyce will tear that all down. For fun. To prove they can.”

The king smiled, soft. “Joyce has the right to tear it down; they built it up.”

“What do you mean?”

“When Madame and I convene for our… trysts… Madame plays Vice and has me play Virtue, and we’ve been doing it for twenty years; after enough play a part becomes habit.”

The Emperor shook his head. “I don’t believe you’re a good man just because of that. I think you always had this in you, Madame just brought it out more.” He limped a step toward the door. “Same as with me.”

Martin did not yet help me to my feet. “Caesar, may I address Madame a moment, before we go?” he asked.

MASON had a smile for a Guildbreaker scion, even here. “Of course.”

Madame herself perked, adjusting her skirts as if to get the rustling over with before the next scene of an opera. “What is it, Martin?”

“It would benefit you at some point to recognize that, like the Porphyrogene, I too have grown up. My Emperor has given me literally unlimited resources, public and clandestine, and the trust of Romanova gives me even more, all dedicated to the service and safety of Domini Jehovah. I could likely have captured Sniper today if you had made me your accomplice instead of, or in addition to, Dominic. I caught you, after all.”