SSS Talent: From Trash to Tyrant

The castle had become noisier since the breach.

Recovery crews moved through corridors that normally belonged to servants and administrators, carrying tools, pressure gauges and replacement fittings toward the lower levels. Temporary notices covered half the walls, and every staircase near the eastern side had somebody checking names before allowing people through.

Trafalgar had just finished signing another movement form when Rhosyn appeared beside the doorway.

”The lower gallery is blocked.”

”Again?”

”Pressure inspection. They are sending everyone around the western stairs.”

Trafalgar folded the permit and put it inside his coat. The restrictions were irritating, but after the hearing he had little room to complain. He turned toward the longer route with Rhosyn beside him and the Myrrhvale guard following several paces back.

They reached the central crossing twenty minutes later.

The gallery was built over one of the internal canals connecting the castle district with the administrative wing. A temporary maintenance platform had been raised above the water, and three crews were working on a damaged support along the ceiling.

Ilyra stood near the far railing with two attendants.

The thirteen-year-old heir was listening to one of the engineers explain the repairs, looking more interested than the man probably expected. She noticed Trafalgar a few seconds later and lifted one hand.

”Lord Morgain.”

”Lady Ilyra.”

She moved away from her attendants and started toward them. One woman followed while the other stayed behind speaking with the engineer.

Then metal dragged against metal above them.

Rhosyn looked up first.

A suspended maintenance cradle hung from two ceiling rails directly over the gallery. It carried replacement plating, tools and several heavy pressure braces. One of the locking pins had come halfway out of the rail assembly.

The second pin moved.

”Move!” Rhosyn shouted.

The cradle dropped.

People scattered. One engineer threw himself over the railing, another fell trying to run, and Ilyra’s attendant screamed as the entire load came down toward them.

Ilyra froze.

Rhosyn disappeared.

Half the gallery saw it.

A dark circular passage opened beside Ilyra. Rhosyn came through it, caught the girl around the waist and pulled her backward as a second opening formed several metres away.

They crossed it together.

The cradle hit the gallery less than a second later.

Stone cracked under the impact. One side of the railing tore free and dropped into the canal with two of the pressure braces. The rest of the cradle collapsed across the place where Ilyra had been standing.

For several seconds nobody moved. Then guards rushed in from both ends while engineers shouted over one another.

One of Ilyra’s attendants reached her first and dropped to her knees, checking her arms and face.

”I’m fine,” Ilyra said. Her voice shook. ”I’m fine.”

Rhosyn remained beside her while the nearest guards stared. Too many people had watched her disappear from one side of the gallery and emerge beside the Fifth Heir.

There would be no hiding that ability after today.

Another group came from the administrative side, moving quickly enough that people stepped aside before anyone ordered them to.

Vaelis was at the front.

He saw the ruined gallery, then Ilyra, and crossed the remaining distance at once.

”Ilyra.”

”I’m okay.”

He took her by both shoulders and checked her himself. Her face, her arms, the side of her head. Ilyra repeated that she was fine, but Vaelis kept looking until he was certain.

Then he turned toward the wreckage.

”Who was responsible for that cradle?”

Nobody answered.

Vaelis looked at the maintenance crews. ”I asked a question.”

The chief engineer stepped forward. ”My lord, the upper rail was inspected this morning. Both safety pins were signed off before the platform was loaded.”

”By whom?”

”I have the sheet downstairs.”

”Bring it.”

The man hesitated. ”Now?”

Vaelis stared at him.

”Now.”

The engineer left at a run.

Trafalgar had never seen Vaelis speak like that. For two years he had allowed people to call him his mother’s killer without answering, yet the moment Ilyra was in danger, that passivity vanished.

Vaelis turned to the guards.

”Close both ends of this gallery. Nobody from the maintenance crews leaves until every name is recorded. Keep every piece of that assembly.”

One officer frowned. ”Lord Vaelis, the eastern route is still needed for recovery staff.”

”Then they can use another route.”

”The harbour authority may object.”

”They can object to me.”

The officer stopped arguing.

Ilyra reached for Vaelis’s sleeve.

”Brother, it could have been an accident.”

Vaelis looked down at her. ”Maybe. You’re going back to your rooms.”

”I don’t want everyone making a huge problem because I happened to be standing there.”

”You were standing under several tonnes of steel when two safety locks failed together.”

Ilyra went quiet.

Vaelis looked toward Rhosyn.

”You saved her.”

”Yes.”

”Thank you.”

There was nothing formal in the way he said it. He did not seem to care who was listening.

Rhosyn gave a small nod. ”I was close enough.”

Vaelis’s eyes moved briefly to the place where the passage had opened. He understood what she had done, but he did not ask about it.

Instead he called Ilyra’s attendants over and ordered both of them to stay with her.

Trafalgar watched the guards begin taking names while engineers carefully approached the wreckage.

The timing bothered him. Ilyra had spent two years being ignored by almost every faction in Meraval. Then Trafalgar spoke with Vaelis, the investigation moved closer to the old household records, and a maintenance cradle failed directly above the youngest heir in a crowded corridor.

Vaelis passed Trafalgar on his way toward the wreckage and stopped beside him.

”Find out who touched that rail.”

Trafalgar looked at him. ”You think someone did this deliberately?”

Vaelis kept his eyes on the broken assembly.

”I want the answer before somebody tells me it was bad luck.”

Then he walked away.

For the first time since arriving in Meraval, Trafalgar watched people move when Vaelis spoke, and everyone on that gallery had seen what finally made him do it.