Page 77 of Gift from the Nexus

Oh sweet, sweet Primary…

Draken’s snicker at her assumption draws her attention and he attempts but fails to hide his bloodthirsty smirk.

“What the hell? The trials would still be to the death today if we had to have one?” she shrieks.

“Yes, child, especially with the five families on the council now. But obviously, there hasn’t been another Realm Trial since, and there won’t be one in our near future, Elementra willing. Once the Vitos took over, they formed a new council made up of those not from the elite families but from the overlooked families. One from each of the territories and one from the central. The elite then, and unfortunately now, had a skewed belief that they were far more important than everyone else.”

“But the five we have now weren’t the five then.”

“Yes and no, Primary. The sitting council now is the heirs of the past council members. Their seats are passed down just like the throne. But the elite doesn’t just consist of the five families. When we say elite, we aren’t even talking about the five. The elite are the powerful families below them. They’re the power that builds up each territory, and they have sway, always have, when it comes to the opinions and actions of the council families. And we know for sure the Everglows are spineless swines who gave in to the Mastery’s elite that’ve been corrupted,” I grit out angrily.

How pathetic they are to be able to give in to such fucking trash beliefs.

“Well, that whole same council, only it’s their heirs’ shit won’t be happening when we take the throne,” my Primary states firmly, casting her eyes over to Corentin as if my brother would disagree with her on this.

“No, it won’t, princess. When we take over, we’ll be replacing the entire council. Even the two that my parents will have to replace when we get rid of Gima’s family and the other betraying us,” he agrees easily, which earns him a naughty little bloodthirsty smirk from my Primary.

I’ll admit, I do love when the more vicious side in her comes out to play.

“So somewhere down the line, the elite started to influence the five families on the council,” she says, turning her attention back to the old man.

“Yes. For many years following the new council the Vitos put together, it was peaceful, no hierarchy nonsense being thrown around, exactly what the Vitos wanted, but it didn’t take long for the elite society to get into the minds of the new council, and by the time, Corentin’s, Tillman’s, and Caspian’s grandparents began their rule a thousand years ago, half the council felt the way the higher society families did. And they still do now, probably all of them in some sense. They’re just not as loud about it as they used to be,” Gaster tells her.

The council we have now, in my opinion, is absolutely useless. The whole lot of them. Why my mother even insists on keeping them, I don’t know, but she needs to replace the whole group as soon as we pin down who the second traitor is.

“That’s helpful to an extent, but with how old we know Franklin is, we can easily assume the Summum-Master is probably older. We know the Mastery was formed before your mom took the throne, so I think his issue with the Vitos goes back to the beginning or possibly your grandma did something.”

Snorting, I shake my head. “That wouldn’t surprise me. She was a cold, old bitch.”

“Caspian,” my brother says exasperatedly, pinching the bridge of his nose.

I know his disapproval is coming from a place of not wanting to tell the Primary what happened, not my lack of love for the heartless cunt. None of us had a good relationship with her, a relationship at all honestly. She hated her own children. There was no doubt she was going to hate her grandchildren. And we hated her.

“She’s…”

“Dead? Yeah, Primary,” I say callously, earning myself another firm glare from Corentin.

“I have a feeling this is a touchy subject, but was she killed? Could her death be pointed in the direction of the Mastery?”

“The Mastery did not cause her death, princess,” my brother says ominously as if that’s going to sate her need to know. If anything, it causes her curiosity to rise. I feel the questions pumping through her blood.

“Okay, I sense the apprehension thrumming through all of you. It can’t be that bad. I’m pretty sure I’ve been through and heard worse.”

Yeah, she has.

I have no qualms about her knowing the truth. Draken doesn’t either. He wasn’t directly affected by this, so it doesn’t matter to him. It’s Corentin and Tillman who have the issue. This is a piece of history I know Corentin didn’t talk to her about, simply because he doesn’t want to admit that this one accident had a lot of influence over how messes make him feel. It also probably has a lot to do with why he absolutely destroys shit when his emotions truly get out of control.

There’s no doubt they’re worried for some reason this will make her think less of our family, but I know it won’t. If there’sanything my Primary isn’t going to tolerate, it’s a child being abused.

“Our mother sentenced her to death, Primary, and our fathers carried out the execution,” I blurt out, not giving anyone a chance to steer her away from the conversation.

“What?” She gasps, turning around in my lap to look at me.

“Our parents were leaving for a week trip around the realm. It’s something that should be done every so often to see the people, the territories and what not. Aunt Tilly and our uncles went as well, just for a vacation and a break, so we were left in the care of our grandmother.

“She despised me. Plain and simple. I wasn’t as structured as Corentin, calm as Tillman, and I was a tad too high-spirited for her. The first day my parents were gone, I got the three of us in trouble because I was up to my normal nonsense, and I accidentally broke a portrait of her that hung in the Central quarters of the palace. When she asked what happened, none of us answered. Both Corentin and Tillman knew if they told on me, my punishment would be fierce. So when she began screaming at us, at the same time we all took the blame. Which royally pissed her off because that meant two of us were lying, one of us was telling the truth. So she gave us three lashes each with vines and for that entire week, she locked the three of us away in the prison below the palace.

“We were treated as prisoners the entire time. Told we were going to learn our lessons for destroying her things and being dishonest. There was nothing anyone could do about it. We got one meal a day, our wounds were never treated, and we sat in the dim lit cells for the remainder of the week. We could see each other, but she cast a silencing bubble around each of us, so we couldn’t speak to one another,” I tell her.

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