His subordinate, Pale, rushed over to help him up, because his body had not remotely recovered. Talin brushed him off.
Pale told him that he had been in a coma for over two weeks, and that he could collapse again at any moment. Talin insisted on seeing the young duke, Flynn, and while he dragged himself upright he asked what the current situation of the Feitus family was.
Pale explained that all of their business partners had cut ties with them. Many of the castle staff had already left. The family was in dire financial straits, and there was no possibility of asking the royal family for help, since Agoni had been branded a traitor.
As Talin struggled down the corridor toward the young duke's rooms, Flynn appeared in the hallway to meet him.
Talin hurried over and greeted him humbly, and Flynn asked after his health.
Talin assured the boy that he was fine, and apologized for having worried him.
Flynn told him that a great many problems had arisen in the family, and that even Agoni's funeral arrangements were still on hold.
Before Talin could answer, they both overheard a pair of servants around the corner, talking trash about Flynn and blaming him for jinxing his own father. A rumour had spread through the duke's estate that Flynn was a vagrant taken in off the street, and that this was why Agoni had done something as insane as standing against the royal family. Everyone believed it, because the duke looked far too old to have a child of Flynn's age.
The servants finished by agreeing that they should flee the estate before they too were branded traitors of the empire.
Talin was devastated to hear it, because the brand of traitor was not something that could easily be erased once it took.
"Pale," he said. "Capture them. Cut out their tongues, and make an example of them, so that everyone understands what happens to those who spread false rumours about the young duke."
Pale was taken aback by the order, but one glare from Talin was enough, and he went to comply.
Then Talin announced that there would be no funeral held for Agoni at all.
Flynn tried to protest.
"Agoni will no longer be considered a member of the Feitus family," Talin said.
Flynn demanded to know why he would make such a decision.
"Because as acting head of this house, my duty is to protect it until you come of age and take it over," Talin said. And he declared, firmly, that he intended to use any means necessary to protect the honour of the Feitus family and ensure its survival.
Elsewhere, the first prince was throwing a massive tantrum.
Rasia had been stuck inside his own castle thanks to this strange illness, and he blamed every hour of it on the seventh prince, vowing to tear him apart limb from limb the moment he had his health back.
At their previous meeting, Ran had told him to inform everyone that he, the first prince, would be entering the imperial forest, when in reality he would be shut in his room the whole time.
Rasia could not understand why he should do anything so ridiculous.
Ran explained that he had business to handle inside the forest and did not want anyone disturbing him, which was why he intended to borrow Rasia's name. Nobody in the empire would dare set foot in the imperial forest once they learned the first prince was inside it.
Rasia wanted to know what he was scheming.
"Treatment," Ran said. "That's all. Stay quietly in your room."
He did not get to the end of that sentence. Rasia seized him by the neck and slammed him into the wall, cursing under his breath.
He had had enough. Enough of this black-haired nothing speaking to him so impudently simply because he had a way to relieve the symptoms of an illness. Tightening his grip and letting water manis run into it, Rasia threatened to summon every scholar in the empire to uncover the treatment that was being withheld from him. And then, unable to tolerate the disrespect any longer, he began in earnest to choke him to death.
Ran remained completely unfazed. He even smiled.
"Go on, then. Hurry up and find your scholars," he said calmly. "Your lifespan just got shorter again, by the way. That's what using manis to attack me costs you."
At that very moment Rasia's hand failed him, and he began to cough up blood, profusely, all over his own floor.
Ran stretched his neck.
"If you stop the treatment, you won't be able to move for a week," he said. "And think about how the imperial family will react when they discover that their next emperor has fallen gravely ill. They won't look for a way to save you. Somebody else will simply take the throne."
Even though he knew perfectly well that the boy was probably right, Rasia remained stubborn and hurled insults at him from the floor.
"Use that tiny brain of yours, unless you want to drop dead," Ran said sternly. "I don't have the patience to babysit you." He turned to leave, and paused. "And stop sending people to follow me. Disappearing without a trace happens to be my specialty."
It was true. Every attempt Rasia had made to track his movements had failed, every single time.
"Stop fussing. It only delays the treatment and exhausts us both."
Before Ran could step out of the door, Rasia asked him what his goal was in all of this.
Ran did not answer him. But as he flew out over the walls as a crow, he admitted it to himself readily enough. His only purpose was to survive the fate that had been written for him.
He landed inside the imperial forest with a small bag, after circling the trees from above to be sure that there was nobody around.
That was the real reason he had wanted the forest emptied. He intended to experiment freely with his shape-shifting.
Ever since he had turned into a horse, he had suspected that he might be able to change into other animals too, which would make this ability genuinely sick. Today he was going to study it properly and find out what it could really do.
The main thing he needed was the condition. What determined which animal he became?
The first idea that came to him was contact. He had touched the crow, and he had touched the horse.
To test the theory, he began setting a trap to catch some small animals to experiment on. It was a crude trap, he admitted, but it ought to work well enough given that he had brought top quality berries from the imperial kitchen to bait it with.
Before he could finish, something rustled in the tree above him and a squirrel appeared.
The trap was still in pieces. Ran wondered whether he had any chance of catching the thing by hand, and in the next moment the squirrel came fearlessly down the trunk and helped itself to the berries in his palm, which took him completely by surprise.
He wondered why the little guy was acting so chummy when for all it knew he was a bad guy out to get it.
Putting that aside, he tried the transformation, since contact had certainly been made.
Nothing happened. No matter how hard he concentrated, he could not become a squirrel.
So he went back to his thinking board and considered whether the situation mattered. When he had desperately wanted to fly, he had turned into a crow. When he had desperately wanted to run fast, he had turned into a horse. What action, then, was he supposed to need so badly that it would turn him into a squirrel?
While he was working on that, the squirrel who had been his best friend a moment ago snatched his bag and bolted up the tree with it.
Ran shouted after the little guy and gave chase, and managed to catch the handle of the bag on the way up. For reasons he could not explain, he could not drag the animal down. That squirrel was far stronger than anything its size had a right to be.
So he settled in for a serious tug of war to see which of them would outlast the other. The strap snapped, and Ran went down flat on his back in the leaves.