Queen Elara was a woman of quiet intellect, and the appearance of the clasp unsettled her deeply. She recognized the style, the old royal insignia worn only by the King's most trusted personal guardians.
She began a discreet inquiry, cross-referencing the official reports with private diaries of soldiers who had died "mysteriously" after the battle. She was building a case, not yet of murder, but of a cover-up.
Theron, feeling the subtle pressures—Alaric's coldness, the Orrery's failure, his wife's quiet distance—became paranoid.
He increased the royal guard, trusted fewer people. His reign, built on a lie, was beginning to constrict around him.
Kaelen watched it all, a silent architect of the king's growing isolation.