Chapter 116: Chapter 117: The Return of Malakor

Elara’s POV

The council chamber was already full when I arrived. The usual faces. Petrov at his usual place, shuffling papers, not looking at me. Corvus near the wall, his arms crossed, his face still. The clerks at their table, pens ready.

I took my seat at the head of the table. Arranged my hands in front of me. Kept my face still.

I had been told he was coming. I had prepared. I had told myself I was prepared.

Then the door opened.

He walked in without announcement. Without ceremony. No guard called his name. No servant announced his arrival. He simply walked in, the way a man walks into a room that has always been his.

Malakor.

He took his seat two places to the left of centre. Folded his hands on the table. And looked at me with the particular patience of a man who had been sitting in this room since before I was born and intended to be sitting in it long after I was gone.

The room went quiet.

I had not seen him since his collapse. He looked different. Thinner. The lines on his face were deeper. But his eyes were the same. Sharp. Calculating. Missing nothing.

He did not smile. He did not nod. He just looked at me, and I looked back at him, and the session began.

Malakor did not attack.

That was the first thing I had to adjust to. I had been ready for attack. I had spent the night before preparing, thinking through every question he might ask, every accusation he might make. I had braced myself for confrontation.

What he did was more uncomfortable than attack.

He asked questions.

Specific. Technical. Precise questions. The kind of questions that could not be dismissed or deflected. The kind of questions that required answers.

“The water repair funding,” he said. “Where did it go?”

“To the contractors,” I said. “The funding was allocated directly, with no intermediaries.”

“Who authorized the diversion before that?”

“Lord Ashford and Lord Mercer. Both are now under arrest.”

“What is the accountability mechanism going forward?”

“The oversight body I am in the process of constituting. It will have independent authority to audit all infrastructure spending.”

He nodded. Made a note. Then: “The grain distribution. The new oversight protocol. Who sits on the oversight body?”

“The appointees have not yet been announced. The candidates are being vetted.”

“What is their mandate?”

“To track every sack of grain from the palace stores to the people who receive it. To ensure no diversions. To report directly to the crown.”

He asked about the petition review. How many petitions were outstanding. From how far back. What the process was for actioning them. I answered each question. Not defensively. Directly.

I had numbers. I had dates. I had the petition review in front of me, and I read from it without hesitation.

Malakor listened to all of it. His face gave nothing away. But I could see him filing it, the way he filed everything.

“The oversight body’s independence from the council,” he said. “How is it guaranteed?”

“The members are not drawn from the council. They serve at the crown’s pleasure. They answer to no one but me.”

He asked about the timeline for the water repairs. I told him. He asked about the budget. I told him. He asked about the foreign intelligence concern.

He phrased it carefully. Obliquely. The kind of question that only means something if you already know what it refers to.

“Which foreign intelligence concern specifically, my lord?”

A beat.

He almost smiled. Almost.

At some point, Malakor leaned back in his chair. His questions had been answered. His notes had been taken. But he was not done. I could see it in the way he looked at me, the way he measured his next words.

“You have been busy,” he said.

“I have been governing.”

“Yes.” He paused. “And you have been doing it without me.”

I met his eyes. “Because I have been answering your questions does not mean you can question the queen’s decisions.”

The room went very still.

Malakor’s face did not change. But something moved behind his eyes. Recognition, maybe. Or recalculation.

“And I have not forgotten,” I continued, “that you were supposed to go to the north. But due to your recent illness, you might remain here. After all, we would not want you collapsing to death over there.”

Petrov shifted in his seat. The other council members exchanged glances. The clerks stopped writing.

Malakor looked at me for a long moment. His face was still, unreadable. But he said nothing. Which was its own form of acknowledgment.

The session ended.

Malakor left immediately. He did not linger. He did not speak to anyone. He walked out the way he had walked in, without ceremony, without announcement, as though he had come for a specific purpose and it was now complete.

I gathered my papers. Nodded to Corvus. Walked out into the corridor.

He was ahead of me. I could see his back, his shoulders, the careful way he moved despite his age. He did not turn around. He did not slow down.

But as he reached the corner, he spoke.

“The east corridor incident,” he said. Without stopping. Without turning. “Handle it before Petrov finds the description.”

He kept walking. Turned the corner. Disappeared.

I kept walking too. My footsteps echoed on the stone. My face was still. My hands were steady.

But my mind was moving.

Handle it before Petrov finds the description.

He knew about the east corridor. He knew about Kaelen. He knew that someone had been in the palace.

I filed it. Wondered how he knew. Wondered what else he knew. Wondered whether his presence in that council room today was a warning or a protection or both.

He had not attacked me. He had questioned me. He had tested me. And I had answered.

I reached my chambers. Closed the door. Stood in the dark for a moment.

Because I have been answering your questions does not mean you can question the queen’s decisions.

And I have not forgotten that you were supposed to go to the north. But due to your recent illness, you might remain here. After all, we would not want you collapsing to death over there.

Malakor’s face when I said it. The way the room went still. The way he said nothing.

I sat down at my desk. Picked up my pen.

There was work to do.

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