“Ara won’t go anywhere. She is going to stay right in the temple.” Dmitri’s stern voice made everyone quiet. He gazed from Anastasia to Ileus to Nate, Paige, Kaizan and the rest of the councilmen. He had been listening to them for some time now and wasn’t liking the flow of the conversation. 

“What about Paige?” asked one of the councilmen. “She should be punished for harboring a rebel.”

“I didn’t know that she was a rebel when I met her!” Paige replied. 

“So what?” the councilman snapped back at her. “You should have checked her background. You are the sister of the General of Silver Vales. Don’t you understand the repercussions of one wrong move? And what you did was colossally wrong!” 

Paige let out a ragged breath. Yes, what she did was very wrong. She didn’t know that she would be so blinded in Ara’s love. She felt… frustrated and helpless. But the councilman was right. She should have done a background check. She just didn’t have an answer to his question. 

“Can’t people fall in love?” Nate countered. “My daughter fell in love and that is all. She had been an exemplary soldier all her life. She had fought battles for the kingdom and she had fought them bravely. How can you simply disregard all that?”

“It takes one wrong decision for the world to end,” the councilman argued. “What if you all wouldn’t have come to know about Ara’s plans?” 

In reality, what the councilman said was right. Anastasia had gone to the temple along with Ileus to check upon Ara. The sole purpose of Ileus was to sweep her cell. And what he saw there was terrifying. Ara wanted to take revenge and her main target was Kaizan. She used Paige for her deeds. Paige was only a pawn in her giant scheme. And if Kaizan died, she knew that Ileus too would be affected. Her evil mind had thought of this plan for a long time. She had calculated all her moves and then trapped Paige in her web. 

Paige lowered her head. Her hands were folded in her lap and she was fidgeting. A long silence stretched between all of them. 

The councilman turned to look at Kaizan. He said, “Why didn’t you check Ara’s background?”

At first Kaizan stared at the councilman. He was looking at him so smugly that Kaizan wanted to smother that look off his face. “I don’t go around checking the backgrounds of every person in my vicinity. However, if that has to be done, please pass a law and make it mandatory for me to check the background of every person in the capital and I will do it!” he snapped harshly. “I will even check your background and the background of every person in your family!” 

The councilman looked… shocked. “I am not saying that it should be made mandatory, but—” 

“But what?” Kaizan cut him off. “There are no ifs and buts!”

“You are the General of the king’s army, for God’s sake!” the councilman said. 

“Yes, I am the General of the king’s army, not a data collector or a spy who would go around snooping on people’s private lives. My job is to keep the borders of this kingdom secure and safe from threats and that’s what I do. That is what I have been doing with all my integrity. You dare question my morals?”

“But this was your sister—”

“What my sister does is none of my business,” Kaizan cut him off again. “And to be fair, I checked upon Ara only because she was being toxic to Paige. I wanted to save my sister from a poisonous relationship. Other than that, I had no interest in what she did.” Kaizan could never reveal how Paige’s toxic relationship with Ara affected their parents or how much of an emotional roller coaster of a ride it had been. That was still a very personal thing to share. “It was only after Ara showed weird behavior and was out of control, that I asked Finn to check upon her.”

“Which means that you suspected her,” the councilman said, narrowing his eyes. 

“Yes.”

“So? Couldn’t you suspect her earlier? You should have, Kaizan.”

“What?” Kaizan rasped. “What do you mean by that? How could I suspect her earlier?” He put his hands up in the air and said, “I don’t know where you are going, m’lord, but this is ridiculous. You don’t expect me to go in the future and know what was going on? I mean what the hell are you saying?”

The councilman looked at Ileus this time. “You should have gone to see Ara and swept her cell. This could have been prevented then!” 

Ileus just stared and stared and stared at the councilman who was looking too proud of his deduction. Ileus’s gaze slid to his father and he raised his eyebrows as if to ask how could he have such stupid people around him. He closed his eyes for a moment and when he opened his, he tilted his head and asked the councilman, “I don’t go to Kaizan’s house every day and on what do you think I should have gone? Kaizan doesn’t go around talking about everything that his family does. Does your family tell you that every little details of their lives? For example, if they have to piss, do they tell you that they are going to piss?”

“Prince Ileus!” the councilman retorted. “You cannot speak like that!” 

“It is not me who is speaking like that. This is how you are sounding. Hear yourself!” Ileus gave him back. 

The councilman gulped and became red as a tomato with embarrassment when he was ridiculed openly. He flinched. His mouth snapped shut. 

For a long time, nobody spoke a word more. Ileus and Kaizan were just too good at defending themselves or each other. One thing was clear out of this conversation—Kaizan couldn’t be pinned for what Paige did. It was like they were forcing punishment on him. He was right that he didn’t go around snooping in everyone’s lives. But that didn’t mean that he wouldn’t go if need be. When he thought that it was the need of the time to know about Ara, he set to work. And in all honesty, the situation was taken under control before it took a disastrous turn. That is why he actually came clear. He prevented Ara from employing her vicious schemes by taking quick action. At the same time, he waited for his sister to come out of the murk she was in before taking an action. 

“Are there more questions?” Dmitri asked to the councilmen? When none of the spoke anything, he said, “Kaizan averted a nasty situation by taking timely action. But from now on, he has to do background checks of all those who are near him.” He glanced at every councilman and they all nodded except the one who was asking questions. “However,” he looked at Paige. “I would like Paige to resign from the job.” He asked her to resign and didn’t suspend her giving her a smooth out. He looked at Nate whose anger was palpable, but as the king he had to take fair and just decisions and not get swayed by friends. 

When the king gave his decision, no one challenged. 

By afternoon, Paige submitted her resignation.