Page 85 of The Prince's Mage

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Apparently the banquet had been organized because Nikias had intimated to his parents he had an announcement. Everyone assumed he was going to be announcing an engagement. At least that was the gossip Aimilia accosted Marcella and Gavril with the second they set foot in the courtyard, coming through the side like before to avoid notice.

“I can’t imagine why. It’s not like Nikias has paid attention to any woman before Faustina or any woman since,” Aimilia said, linking her arm through Marcella’s free one and falling into step on her other side.

Gavril snorted, “Believe me, our parents have been not so subtly nudging him in that direction for years and it only got worse when I came back with Marcella.”

Aimilia laughed, and Marcella didn’t quite understand the joke. She knew shortly after she’d come back Gavril had broken off the understanding with Aimilia, but it hadn’t been immediate—not with the way Aimilia had thrown herself at him.

“Even so, do they think he’s just going to walk up to some untaken Runai woman and present the names without so much as a hello?” Aimilia scoffed.

“The names?” Marcella asked.

Something nagged at her in the back of her mind.

Gavril shot Aimilia a pointed look and she just gave him a wry grin before opening her mouth and speaking before he could. She said, “Presenting the names is how Runai men propose. That’s why Gavril and mine’s understanding was just that, an understanding. There was nothing official because he hadn’t presented the names. Ask Gavril about it. I’m surprised he hasn’t told you yet.”

Oh. How strange. She hadn’t really thought about the Inimicus traditions when they proposed and got married. Presenting the names was like presenting a woman with engagement lilies.

Huh… If the Inimicus didn’t care about Asentai, why did they get married at all?Howdid they get married if they didn’t have a priest or a temple sanctuary?

“Aimilia, I swear—”

“Pointbeing,I don’t know why everyone is thinking engagement,” Aimilia continued, pulling Marcella out of her wondering about the Inimicus traditions. “Nikias is not interested in any woman alive. Not even for a pure political match just to have heirs.”

“They probably think he is interested in someone but has been meeting with her secretly,” Gavril said. “You know people, they want a salacious story—” Marcella was very proud of herself for knowing and translating such a ridiculous word. “—you’re one of them.”

Aimilia huffed. “I do when it’s not my name in the story!”

Marcella laughed. That’s what this was about. Aimilia wasn’t upset about the rumors. She was upset she was in them.

“People think you are Nikias’ secret love?” Marcella asked as the three of them came to a stop by one of the long tables covered in food. With Gavril on one side and Aimilia on the other, even with her exposed skin, no one could really see her.

Aimilia’s pale skin went as red as her hair. “Apparently servants only seem to see me enter the library and then him later, they always mysteriously never see the two of you join us, so everyone thinks it’s just us in there.”

Gavril snorted as he broke off a little bunch of grapes and held it out to Marcella so she could pick one off. As she did so and started chewing, he said, “Maybe it is justice for all the times you have been the one starting and spreading the rumors.”

Aimilia narrowed her eyes. “The Feris brat in our class deserved it for saying the reason I was after you was because I knew I wouldn’t be able to beat out the rest of my house.”

Now Marcella was confused again. “Beat your house?”

“Your people, your clans, how do you pick your leaders?” Aimilia asked.

“Pick?” What a concept. Marcella could not help her laugh bubbling through in her words. “We do not pick. Asentai picks when she blesses the main branch with their eldest. Asentai chose Hypatia.”

“It’s like our royal line,” Gavril said, turning toward Aimilia. “Whoever has the closest claim by blood.”

The red-haired girl’s expression showed she had gained no clarity from Gavril’s addition. “And what about equal claims?”

Despite having been amongst them for so long now, things like this reminded her just how different they were in culture even if not in magic. She said, “Aimilia, there is no such thing as an equal claim.”

Aimilia rolled her eyes and huffed. “Well, for us there are. Closest blood relation matters less than if you’re a commander. Only commanders can lead houses. Right now, Mitis has five other commanders who could easily beat me when my grandfather dies, including Uncle Cyprian—uncle being not a blood term. We’re related but more distantly than him being my mother or father’s brother. I might be the current closest relation, but his claim is equal to mine.”

That seemed… needlessly complicated.

“It’s about ensuring our nobles have the strongest mages as their leaders.” Aimilia rolled her eyes and reached around Marcella to grab an apple. “Oh, never mind, I can see you don’t get it.”

Marcella plucked another grape off the bunch Gavril was holding and then she spotted him. She nudged Aimilia in the side and gestured to where Nikias had just entered the courtyard, escorting his mother with his father.

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