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Lio cleared his throat. “Never mind. I think we are finished with this subject.”
But Hypatia charged into it headfirst. If Lio had been a mortal, he would have broken out in a cold sweat. Kia sat on the edge of her chair, her whole aura alert with indignation.
“Sophia Eudokia,” Lio said amiably, letting her hear his warning in the Union, “I know you have strong opinions regarding this problem, but I think perhaps we ought to allow the elders to move on to other topics.”
“She’s not going to,” Kia hissed. “She’s not.”
Kia was right. Hypatia was not going to move on.
Cassia leaned closer to Eudias. “Apprentice Eudias, which mage of Anthros are the Hesperines critiquing?”
“Not a mage of Anthros, Basilis,” Eudias murmured. “A Hesperine. Phaedros, who perpetrated the Phaedric Terror.”
Lio had hesitated too long. Eudias’s explanation stung him. He cursed himself for letting an apprentice war mage beat him to it.
But Cassia’s aura was one big scoff. She didn’t believe Eudias. She glanced at Lio. “Ambassador, can you shed light on this unusual subject?”
“Yes, although it grieves me to do so.” Lio made himself say it. “Phaedros is indeed a Hesperine and a criminal. During the Last War, he caused unimaginable suffering to countless mortals, which brought grave consequences to your people and mine. Orthros in no way condones his actions.”
“He was also one of the most brilliant mages ever to walk the streets of Corona,” Kia retorted.
Lio shook his head to caution her.
But Kia wasn’t going to drop the subject, either. “His works deserve to be read alongside my mother’s.”
“The Queens reserve a place for his writings in the royal library,” Lio reminded her.
“Yes, in a veiled corner we aren’t allowed to enter until we’re of age,” Kia shot back.
Lio sensed them heading into one of their heated debates about censorship and hypocrisy.
Thankfully, Eudias interrupted with a question. “Do you mean to say some of Phaedros’s writings survive as well?”
“None of his original writings,” Kia explained. “But he has been prolific in exile.”
Eudias looked startled. “Oh. Ah, yes, I suppose he would still be writing, wouldn’t he? Since he’s still alive. But of course his landmark works dating from the Great Temple Epoch really are gone. All of those were in the library of Hagia Notia, which did not survive.”
“No,” Kia said, “only Phaedros did. Every last man, woman, and child in that temple was—”
Lio reached around and put a hand on her shoulder. If looks could kill, her glare would have sentenced him to death with the victims of Hagia Notia. But she didn’t say anything else. Lio resolved to thank her later, whether it was her loyalty to her Trial brother or her concern for the greater good that inspired her to not jeopardize the embassy.
“I know,” he said. “We are all grateful your mother left Hagia Notia for Hagia Anatela before the Last War. We all grieve for her friends and colleagues who were not so fortunate.”
Kia’s jaw clenched. “Whatever one’s opinion on Phaedros’s actions, we can all agree they were retaliation, not aggression.”
Hypatia’s gaze flicked to her daughter, and they all fell silent. Lio resumed translation, holding strictly to Hypatia’s words.
“A madman?” Hypatia raised her brows. “No, I cannot offer insanity as his defense. He was in full possession of his faculties when he commenced the Terror. The night we call grief madness is the night we declare we are all mad.”
“Then what defense do you offer?” Chrysanthos demanded.
“None. Although he is no longer one of our own, he is one of our kind, and for that reason, we take full responsibility for his wrongdoing, which he committed in blatant disregard for all our most sacred beliefs.”
Konstantina made the circle petition. “Even now, the offense he committed is known in our laws as the Phaedric Crime, and it carries the sentence of eternal exile from our people and imprisonment behind a ward of the Stand’s making. In all our long history, we have had cause to sentence only one Hesperine to that fate: the crime’s namesake.”
Hypatia nodded to her ally and extended her hand once more. “He acted in ways so vile they weigh on the spirits of our entire people. When he violated the Will of mortals and forced the Gift on them, he committed sacrilege against both the human and Hesperine natures that we hold in reverence.”
It had been some time since Lio had worried about Cassia’s opinion of his people, and his fears had seldom been justified. Until tonight. The doubt he felt uncurling inside her made him ill. How would he ever explain this to her? How would he ever justify why he had not told her?
