General Morn, the King's cousin, wanted to take Meron's throne and cleanse the Kingdom from the eyesore that Verhen was.
Morn had never forgotten all the trouble that Lith had caused to the noble households and resented him for having never really bent the knee to the Crown, no matter how many resources the state had invested into him.
The General believed that making an example out of him would have raised the morale of the troops and taught all the mages of commoner origin a lesson. Either they accepted to be pawns in the game of politics or they lost their place on the board.
"The first thing we have to do is to put Verhen on trial." Morn said. "His brother is a traitor and their name is a disgrace for this Kingdom. The citizens demand justice and if we can't offer them the Dead King's head, we can at least offer them those of his parents.
"After all, he said it himself that he's doing all of this to get even with his brother and family. Maybe if we kill them, Orpal will lose his motivation and break his alliance with Thrud. Without the support of the Undead Courts, it will be easier to deal with her.
"On top of that, we can't forget that he recklessly crafted tools like the DoLorean and Thundercrash. The first allows anarchists to avoid our troops and the city arrays that guarantee our safety while the second allows a commoner to kill even a mage.
"Some may call him a genius, but I see him more as an idiot with no care for the consequences of his actions. If the two brothers join their resources, none of us is safe."
A murmur of approval spread throughout the room.
"Morn is right. We can't be sure that the two brothers are not in cahoots. Better to be safe than sorry." Said a Duchess.
"Archmage Verhen never cared for the Kingdom. Right now, he's more a threat than an asset. Getting rid of him is the right move." Said a Marquis.
"General Morn must be the victim of some Body Sculpting spell gone wrong if he spouts bullshit from his front instead of his back." Jirni said, drawing attention to her.
"Archmage Verhen and his family are the victims, here. Even as a kid, he asked Count Lark to keep an eye on his brother and that's the reason why we have so much information on Meln Narchat even though he was a nobody until yesterday."
She used Orpal's new name to separate him from the Verhens and emphasize how there was no connection between them.
"As soon as the Dead King reappeared, it was Archmage Verhen who alerted the Royal Constable office, asking me to run a deep background check on Narchat and find a way to get rid of him for good."
Jirni handed copies of everything she had found out about Orpal along with her report of the night she had arrested him to the nobles.
"I delivered him to the court of justice and I was forced to deport Narchat to the Empire due to insufficient proof. If you want to blame someone, blame me for letting the Dead King go and yourself for ignoring my request for help during the investigation."
An embarrassed murmur replaced the accusations as the nobles read their own names in the reports where it was emphasized how little they had done despite Jirni's many appeals.
"I was there when Archmage Manohar warned us of the alliance between the Undead Courts and Thrud and of the threat of the Skinwalkers. He told us how Archmage Verhen had helped him in his investigations." Princess Peonia stepped forward.
"Without Lith, Manohar would be dead anyway and there would be Skinwalkers among even us whereas now they have been eliminated from both the Royal Court and the rest of the Kingdom."
By using his first name she gave credit to the rumors about their relationship, strengthening both the position of Lith and her parents.
"Also, don't forget that Archmage Verhen destroyed two lost cities and faced Dawn alone. That his friend Tiamat defeated Night in front of many witnesses. Now that Manohar is dead, he's our best card against both the Golden Griffon and the Horseman."
The Royals nodded at Peonia in approval. As the defendants, they couldn't speak for themselves so it was up to her and Jirni to do it for them.
The Princess' words struck more than one nerve. The members of the Court realized that now the Kingdom lacked both a god of healing and a Royal Healer. Killing the person who was called the Soldier Magus and who also was the second-best diagnostician of the Kingdom was out of the question.
Especially if he was a pawn that might get promoted to King through Peonia. The faction after Lith's head disbanded as quickly as it had formed, leaving only the Royals on the chopping block.
"Fine." Morn snorted more than said after noticing how Jirni's report accused him of obstructing her investigations. "Yet this doesn't absolve our rulers from their incompetence.
"They knew about the alliance between the Mad Queen and the Undead King and yet one-third of the Kingdom is now in Thrud's hands. They left Valeron unprotected, taking away the Saefel set and the Spell Hoarding Cube without the permission of the Court.
"What if the Mad Queen launched her attack on Valeron as well? Without our leaders and our best weapons, the Capitol would have fallen, and with it the Kingdom. Their carelessness and incompetence make them unfit to rule."
Many nodded at his words, way more than Meron expected to.
The problem was that the King was no tyrant. He had no right to take the Royal Weapons whenever he wanted. The current law existed to keep another Arthan from being born and Meron had broken it.
The absence of both rulers from the capitol had slowed the reaction time of the army, playing indeed an important part in the loss of so many cities. On top of that, had Thrud conquered Valeron, she would now have access to the beating heart of the Kingdom, making any resistance futile.
Valeron held the best weapons, the entire database of the army and the Association, and its vaults contained the most precious resources that the Royal Family had stockpiled ever since Valeron the First.
The same resources that had allowed Arthan to craft replicas of the Royal Set would have made Thrud's army unstoppable.
"That's an even bigger load of bull, dear Morn. Keep up like this and your bottoms will be jealous of your face." Jirni said, making the Court laugh and the General turn to a shade of purple from rage.
"Manohar warned solely the Royals, but then they shared the news with the King's inner circle of which we are both part of. You knew everything and you agreed on the plan to keep the Royal Court in the dark until we had a way to smoke out the Skinwalkers."
She handed copies of the transcription of the meeting where Morn's signature was present. There was no record of him objecting to the Royals or proposing an alternative.
"If you want them to blame them, then you should be put on trial as well along with the rest of the inner circle."
