Final Offer

Everyone in the crowd exchanged looks of fear, but having gone this far none of them wanted to give up either. They had grown more and more audacious with the other families of the fourteen not making a move to protect Richard, but now they had attracted the attention of the Fourth Prince.

These minor nobles only dared to try and kill Richard because they knew the Archerons were in a rather unique position in all of Faust. They were perhaps the only family with no clear heir, and their reliance on Richard meant that they would likely fall days after he died. Any other family in the entire city, even those without islands, had the history and pedigree to survive. This courage fizzled away in the face of Nyris’s appearance. Offending a prince without reason was certain death.

“Richard killed more than a dozen of us!” a noble called out from the crowd.

“And I’d kill a dozen more if they dared step foot on my island,”...