Chapter 147 - Assassination Attempt

The dessert course was served at the fourteenth hour — honey cakes soaked in Shimmerfields wildflower syrup, a Festival tradition dating to Year 38 AF. The inner ring's conversation had mellowed through the predictable stages of a political dinner: guarded courtesy (first hour), cautious exchange (second hour), wine-assisted candor (third hour). Grand Duke Sarvek was telling an old story about the Green Basin's founding-era harvest festivals — a story that Callister listened to with the patient courtesy of a man who had heard it before and Brogath listened to with the genuine interest of a Minotaur who valued tradition.