"I despise presenting suspicions rather than evidence," Rafael said, grimacing. "But I have had very little time to pry. Duke Caldimore's behavior has changed over the past months. Large loans made without investments to justify them, erratic traveling patterns, and, though I can't imagine what this implies…the Wardens' vault has been frozen."
-nothing but evidence was presented.-
 
Oooh yeah shit's going to explode. And I have a horrible feeling that 'sabbatical' line indicates he knows who Vivi actually is. Tobin i suspect might have been eyeing up his next target.
 
Guess something big is probably going down in the next few days, but of what type is hard to say. Some huge political plot, or perhaps something more on the magical side.

Can't quite figure out which way it might go.
 
What are the odds it ties into the dimensional anomaly, I wonder? No overt connections, obviously, but fate and narrative do tend to enjoy that kinda thing...
 
..... Welp.

Not sure I can say to that, a lovely tying together chapter to drive up the suspense ahead of everything exploding. The next chapters are going to be fun.
 
This raises the question of who the Fell Apostate is and why the Duke would work with him. It also sounds like Mizar knows who that identity was set aside for if not the fact that the identity was in active use. The reference to the Shattered Oracle suggests that whatever ritual at hand is related to temporal magic because the more natural Cataclysm to cite for ritual magic would be the Umbral Regent.
 
Huh. Apparently Vivi's scrap with the Deputy Headmistress wasn't just typical behavior for Vivisari but for demon nobility in general. If anything, she was more restrained than Primus Keresi.

E: If the Duke's opinions are normal, it explains why the nobility would be worried about Vivisari above and beyond just what her levels and inaccessibility would warrant.

Wonder what the demons are going to do now that they know 'Nysari' is back.
First, they're going to prepare "the full might of our collective ire" just in case, and maybe not just House Keresi's ire but demonkind's in general.

Second, they need to contact her to confirm what's actually going on, since the Duke obviously doesn't know the whole picture and might not be honest anyway.
 
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I wonder if Mizar would have been more understanding and less judgemental about the minor conflict if he had been told that Isabella and Saffra were rivals and the Duke had Saffra expelled over said rivalry escalating to assault.

I can't imagine that demon society doesn't exalt rivalries both friendly and not.

Edit: heck that would even explain why "Nysari" was willing to be so accommodating with her bribe. The issue is the Duke not understanding how important a good rivalry is to his daughters growth.
 
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I dunno, interfering in a proper rivalry between children by just getting rid of the rival to "protect" your child seems like it would be frowned upon.
And not because of anything he did to Saffra (before the learn about the whole apprentice of The Sorcerer bit), but because he is coddling his child.

edit-
This guy came to an official meeting covered in blood over a what was basicly a complaint about a promotion.
Some violence is only to be expected.
 
Yeah. But it still moves it from an issue between "Nysari" and the Duke, to a difference between how demons and humans view things and organize themselves. Which is just sort of the cost of doing business with outsiders, and demons don't seem isolationist.
 
Yeah. But it still moves it from an issue between "Nysari" and the Duke, to a difference between how demons and humans view things and organize themselves. Which is just sort of the cost of doing business with outsiders, and demons don't seem isolationist.
When the duke decided to attack, however at remove, Saffra, it became an issue between him and Nysari Keresi.
Two kids having a rivarly, all good clean fun.
An adult attacking someones apprentice, well, that's a very different situation.

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Also, demons are not isolationist, but neither are they subservient to humans, so a human going "that's just how we do things" is not going to be accepted as an excuse to assaulting an apprentice of a demon noble, even if that noble was not The Sorcerer.
 
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Law shmaw, when Vivisari Vexaria, The Sorcerer, of the Primogenitors Blood, Magus Prime and Usurper of the Ashen Throne has beef with you, no amount of "but technically" is going to help. :D

That said, yes, within the role of "Nysari", that would be a reasonablish excuse for why his actions can be ignored in general.
But then "Nysari" was here to settle things so they can move on without any possible repercussions, not demand amends, quite the opposite in fact, so the Duke being insulting asshole becomes the issue, not if Saffra was the apprentice at the time.
 
You misunderstand. An ex post facto law is one that applies retroactively, so that you can be punished for doing something that was entirely legal at the time.

These are real things that existed.
 
You misunderstand. An ex post facto law is one that applies retroactively, so that you can be punished for doing something that was entirely legal at the time.

These are real things that existed.
I don't misunderstand, i know the term.
But my point is that what the actual law is is irrelevant in the face of someone who soloed a calamity.

And it is actually kinda irrelevant in the end because Nysari was not seeking any redress, but was instead offering insane amounts of money for everyone to pretend nothing ever happened and moving on, instead of making it a possible future political headache.
Any actual beef here would be over Caldimore's treatment of a Keresi noble.
 
I'm actually surprised that when Rafael 'activated' the Nysari Keresi cover, the Primus wasn't informed.

Though it actually does speak more to their relationship with Vivi and how much they trust or revere her. That is, rather than having to get any kind of approval or permission (no matter how loosely), Vivi can do whatever she wants with the cover and the Keresis will clean up behind her.
 
I'm actually surprised that when Rafael 'activated' the Nysari Keresi cover, the Primus wasn't informed.

Though it actually does speak more to their relationship with Vivi and how much they trust or revere her. That is, rather than having to get any kind of approval or permission (no matter how loosely), Vivi can do whatever she wants with the cover and the Keresis will clean up behind her.

I mean... she only saved the world 7 times over.
 
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