When I saw Asellio’s manor house, I thought that was what nobility looked like. A shadow of the imperial palace, to be sure, but still impressive.

Pictor’s estate disabused me of that notion.

His mansion looked more like a cathedral, with stained glass windows (mostly shattered) and shining spires (mostly corroded). It sprawled its way down a hill, tapering to a point where pearly gates hung open. Little flickers of ghostly light were scattered across the dead fields surrounding his palace. A wide canal circled the entire estate like a moat, and the only way into the area was a single bridge equipped with fortifications.

“Paranoid, much?” I muttered.

Strix smirked. “Not paranoid if everyone’s really out to get you. All the Lords have estates like this, guarded against other Lords seeking to eliminate rivals or climb the glorious ladder. A useful excuse for why a Lord’s levies might not all join the legions abroad.”

Strix detached from our unit as we approached the bridge, promising to wait with Asellio while we went about freeing Cossus.

We arrived at the bridge proper and two burly ghosts in blue livery crossed their pikes. “State your name and business.”

“Valerian, sent here by Marquis Asellio for a meeting with Lord Pictor.” I contorted my mouth into the illusion of a charming smile and handed lefty the letter. It fell through her hand.

She stared at her hand and her eyes darted in lines like she was actually reading the letter, which was currently sitting in her foot. “Checks out. Have a pleasant day, Valerian.” They uncrossed their pikes.

I gave them a breezy wave and stepped over their corpses, making my way up the brick road that led to Pictor’s cathedral. I made sure to scoop up the letter as well, just in case I still needed it.

Gavin snickered as we walked. “Well, that was easy. Let’s hope all of Pictor’s ghosts are that dense, eh?”

Duncan made a little concerned buzzing noise in her throat. “Not dense, just stuck in their fantasy world. Remember what Strix said: the more we interact with these ghosts, the more they start to shake off that stasis and change. We won’t be this lucky forever.”

“She was reading the air in front of her hand. I think we’ll be fine for at least a few more days.”

We reached the doors (which hung open) and I knocked on one of them. A loud tapping sound reverberated through the once-opulent entry hall. For a haunted palace, it was surprisingly empty and tame. When no one came out to greet us, I stepped inside.

Lord Pictor’s taste in art was no less ostentatious than his taste in architecture. There were at least seven portraits of the same man in the entry hall, which I surmised to be the noble himself. The others were of fruit.

As we examined strange sculptures and loitered in the lobby, a ghostly servant emerged from a shadowy passageway, saw us, and hurried over. “Hello! Are you here to see Lord Pictor?”

I projected my best ‘above it all’ attitude. “I’m Valerian, a friend of the Marquis Asellio and new arrival to Aurelion. This is my bodyguard, Maia, and my doctor, Felix. We were told Lord Pictor would be happy to host us for a few nights and tell us about the city.”

The servant nodded hastily. “Of course, of course. I’ll inform him at once. Feel free to wait in a sitting room, tea will be served shortly.”

She gestured at the hallway she’d come from and then bustled off in the opposite direction. We entered the sitting room and found it just as lavish, but with armchairs and low tables. I sat and Felix sat. The guards stayed standing, and Maia followed their example, staying in arm’s reach of me.

The servant spoke truthfully, as only half a minute later someone came in with a teapot and began pouring it into cups. Pouring air, more precisely, but I appreciated the sentiment. I had Maia lend me a water canteen from her satchel and poured us all drinks.

Felix gave Maia a wry glance. “Comfortable standing?”

She raised an eyebrow in response. “No worse than chantry training. Though I do find my position as ‘bodyguard’ ironic. Meat shield might be more accurate.”

I smiled thinly and sipped my water. I let them joke and focused my thoughts inward, preparing the persona I would present to Pictor. I let that cold detachment creep back into me, and immersed myself in glamour.

I needed Pictor to think me harmless, or perhaps even a useful pawn. An idle rich visiting the city as little more than an expensive tourist, but with political connections that might serve his interests. Someone sympathetic to his loyalties.

Asellio’s loaned guards displayed little emotion. The most I could sense out of them was boredom, but not active boredom, more a glazed apathy. They were operating on automatic. Maia felt nervous, with an undercurrent of anticipation. Felix was just dully amused. I tried to focus in on Maia’s emotions, like I had before, digging for that tension underneath the surface, the strange tinge I’d noted previously. I slipped past her anxiety and felt a lingering sense of amazement at the city, and disbelief at our situation. There was more, more waiting for me in her thoughts and fears.

Someone nudged me, and I started. “What?”

Maia frowned at me. “Were you using glamour again? I asked you what our plan was going to be.”

“Oh. Well, yes. Practicing for Pictor.” Looks like going too deep into glamour carried the risk of not noticing less ephemeral details. “As for a plan, I think I’ll just chat him up, score some info, then sneak around to find the dungeon and free Cossus. Then run.”

Felix rolled his eyes. “Elegant simplicity.”

“Exactly.”

Anything else he had to say was interrupted by the arrival of the palace’s ruler, Lord Pictor. I could tell it was him because he was flanked by guards in livery, and because he wore opulent robes, and because through my glamour I could feel the arrogance radiating off him without even trying.

I rose to greet him and he just smiled and waved at me. “Please, please, no need for formalities or handshaking. A friend of Kaeso is a friend of mine.” He sat down in a chair facing me and took a sip of not-there tea.

I adopted my fakest smile and said, “I’m glad to hear that. The Marquis speaks highly of you. He insisted I visit, and told me you were an excellent host.”

He chuckled – false, my glamour told me – and shook his head. “Oh, please, you flatter me. I love a good compliment as much as the next noble, but I’m really just average. I used to be brilliant at it, believe me, but my party-throwing skills have grown rusty with the recent… troubles.”

“I’d think slave revolts would encourage more parties, just to get away from the squalor.”

He chuckled again, this time more genuinely. “Yes, so did I, but everyone’s hiding away or currying favor with the emperor. Only two parties in the last month, can you believe that?”

I put my hand to mouth dramatically. “Really? Two? How does the city survive like this? Something simply must be done to revitalize spirits.” I was slowly getting into the character of the vain noble. It was actually kind of fun.

“Alas, there’s little to be done. I’ve tried. No, they will scurry about, and some of them will hide in the palace and beg Nero for protection, but even those above such base simpering don’t have the stomach to risk their hides in public on more than one occasion a week.”

I arched an eyebrow and gave my best innocently-curious face. “And you? No interest in the emperor’s affections? Abandoned local politicking for the time?”

His mouth twitched into a smile and through glamour I felt the restrained excitement of someone with a secret to hide. “My connections to the court are still strong. Nero knows where my loyalties lie, and that is far more important than any ballroom appearance.”

I nodded appreciatively. “In trying times it is important we stay true to our oaths, and to the good of the empire. Actually,” I leaned in as if sharing a secret, “that’s part of why I came here. There are those on distant shores who, in the chaos, have not forgotten the importance of a strong, united empire. They’ve sent me to do what I can helping fix this mess.”

Intrigue twinkled in his eyes, and I felt that restrained excitement building, morphing. He was wary, too, but sensed a potential ally.

“If there’s anything I can do to help you, and help Nero, I’d be happy to lend my resources. The empire’s enemies are many, and we must stick together to resist them.”

At the mention of enemies, a dark thread twisted through his emotions. I risked focusing on it, the world around me bleeding away for a single moment. It didn’t feel like resentment at the slaves – I’d felt that earlier, and it was a dull fire. This burned hot and cruel. It had to be Cossus.

To my luck, Pictor hadn’t said anything during my lapse. He was just nodding and sipping his tea.

“Yes… my sentiments exactly, Valerian. There are many who would risk our empire for personal benefit.”

“More than just the slaves?” I inquired with a knowing look.

He smiled, and this time it was more irritated and sarcastic. “Yes… perhaps Asellio told you, then, of the serpents in our court.”

I waved a hand and shrugged. “Only vagaries. He seemed concerned to speak of it too openly.”

“Of course, of course. Really, I shouldn’t either, but this is my domain. I will not be intimidated, especially not by self-important fools.” His mask of charm fully slipped for a moment, and I heard the bitterness in his voice. “There is a threat to our empire within the emperor’s own advisors.” He paused for dramatic effect. “The Triumvirate.”

I acted surprised. “The Triumvirate? Truly? All of them? Have things gotten that bad?”

He nodded. “Indeed. Caria, I believe, is only involved incidentally. Cossus harbors ill intentions, and has more sway over the military than I’d like, but,” that I-know-a-secret feeling flared up, “I don’t think he’s a true threat. I have ways of opposing him. No, the true threat is their leader, the First Consul: Strix.”

What.

Pictor interpreted my shock as being about the accusation, rather than learning who Strix was, for which I didn’t have time to be grateful. “Yes, it’s hard to hear, but I speak truth. I think the First Consul harbors a hatred for the emperor, and a lust for his throne. She may well represent the gravest threat to our empire in all the world.”

I recovered from my stupor, barely, and stammered out, “I believe you. I… I think I believe you. It makes a twisted sort of sense.”

Relief surged in him, more than I would have expected. “Thank you. Strix and her lackeys have much of the nobility wrapped around her finger, so finding allies is not an easy task. In truth, Kaeso has been my closest confidante these past months.”

Kaeso, the man who had just pledged his loyalties to Strix, and to me. I made a note to watch him more closely. You can’t trust a spy, even one working for you.

“It vexes me that they can’t see her treachery, but she has entrenched her position well. Strix and her cabal.” He spat the word.

I frowned. “You said both Cossus and Caria back Strix in this. Isn’t that unusual, for a Triumvirate to be so… closely aligned?” I didn’t know that for certain, but it seemed like a logical guess.

He nodded. “Yes, yes it is. It made me suspicious too, so I began looking into their histories more closely. To my horror, I realized, far too late to do anything, that the three of them have been working together since before they were Consuls.”

My eyes widened. “A conspiracy. The three of them had a conspiracy to take power as the Triumvirate.”

“Yes. A successful conspiracy, which they are now reaping the rewards of. They are second in power only to the emperor, and when they act unanimously – which they only do when it has extraordinary benefit, to preserve the illusion of being fair and distinct – the entire nobility obeys. Now you see why I consider them a greater danger than the uprisings.”

I slowly nodded, and sank back a little in my seat.

Strix was part of the Triumvirate, the one she claimed was vital to my bid for the throne. Cossus was an old friend of hers, who she had worked with to secure the second greatest seat of power in the fallen empire. Before the world died, she had already been working to usurp Nero, working alongside the other Consuls and stringing along the nobility of Aurelion.

And she had told me none of this. A lie of omission, if nothing more blatant. Anger began to build in me, burning away the cold. My glamour failed. I didn’t try to restore it.

I hated being lied to. I hated being manipulated. Strix had insulted me, and it was an insult I wouldn’t forget. But I still needed her. I needed her Triumvirate. Her corruption would serve me, and that was, for the moment, more important than personal strife.

Outwardly, I let out a breath that lay between a snarl and a sigh. Pictor nodded sympathetically.

“Yes, that’s about what my reaction was. It doesn’t look good, Valerian.”

“It really doesn’t. This is a daunting problem you’ve laid before me, Lord Pictor. But… perhaps not an impossible one. My backers will be sympathetic to your cause, and their resources may prove useful in whatever your plans are.”

He smiled. “Thank you. May I ask, what resources they have to offer?”

“Whatever is needed. They’re a diverse collective. Armaments, supplies, political strings. They won’t commit their personal retinues or anything of that like, but they can support any effort you make with your own tools. Their only concern is being exposed to retaliation. They’re far more comfortable in the shadows, at least until we have a greater handle on this threat.”

“It is appreciated all the same. Though… ‘we’? Do you intend on staying long?” It sounded more friendly than wary, but I didn’t have glamour to make sure.

“If you’ll have me. A concern of the empire is a concern of mine, and my backers will appreciate having a liaison here in person.”

He seemed to weigh those words for a moment before smiling even wider and calling for wine. “To celebrate this partnership. Together, we just might save the empire.”

I smiled back at the long dead ghost, drank a cup of ancient wine, and made a toast to an empire that had fallen centuries ago. “To saving the empire.”