As Tadayoshi follows the guards who escort him to the Audience Chamber, he is restrained with extremely well-knotted ropes, shackles, and a ball and chain to prevent him from having any chance of flying. As Tadayoshi is slowly taking all of this in, the king sits on his throne, contemplating and then finally speaks and asking how old are you?
Tadayoshi tries to respond, but one of the guards hits him with the pommel of his sword. Tadayoshi, bleeding from his mouth, responds, three years old, as blood drips down while he speaks.
The queen, in disgust, asks for someone to clean it up, but the king says no, that's unneeded. As he looks at Tadayoshi, he says, you were a mistake, you should not have been born, you useless hybrid.
As he is saying this, he suddenly stabs Tadayoshi in the neck, aiming for his vocal cords. As Tadayoshi is bleeding out, he starts to feel woozy, his consciousness fading in and out, wondering why he was targeted, why someone like him was the only one out of the many who worked for the king that got stabbed.
With some shred of will still left, Tadayoshi remains barely awake and hears the king say, magician, heal him, but keep his throat from fully healing, I don't want a failure of a bloodline ever talking.
The magician, visibly confused, asks what failure and the king responds, the Veilbound clan.
The magician, shocked asks, didn't that clan die out, and the king responds no, they are just well hidden.
But as for my firstborn son, he is to be executed publicly, and take him to the dungeon.
With some shred of will, Tadayoshi makes a few sounds before passing out, and when he comes to, he finds himself in a dungeon.
Bars sit in front of him, his legs chained to the ground, and his wrists chained to the wall behind him. Hay lies scattered beneath him damp and rough.
Water drips slowly from the bars just behind his head. Tadayoshi bends his neck back and opens his mouth, trying to catch the droplets, though the small amount does little to quench his thirst.