Chapter 112: Old Problem

Chapter 112: Chapter 112: Old Problem

Lucas arrived with three folders.

Sebastian recognized the problem before his father even placed them on the low table.

Not because the folders were labeled, but because they had already discussed this weeks ago, shortly after the medical team finally cleared Sebastian to begin handling work again.

Fitzgeralt.

Of course it was Fitzgeralt.

Sebastian sat back against the sofa, dressed simply in a white shirt and dark trousers, while Nero occupied the space beside him in cream, his long white-blond hair falling loose over one shoulder. Trevor took the armchair opposite them, and Lucas remained standing long enough to arrange the documents before eventually sitting beside him.

Nero’s hand settled against Sebastian’s thigh.

Lucas looked at it briefly.

Then at Sebastian.

Sebastian ignored both.

"We already knew this was going to become unpleasant," he said.

"We knew," Trevor agreed. "It has become louder."

That was different.

The inheritance issue had existed from the beginning, long before Sebastian accepted Nero, long before Saha, even before Sebastian’s transition complicated every other part of his life.

It had been one of the practical reasons Sebastian had refused to consider Nero for years.

The visions had terrified him.

Politics had given him something rational to hide behind.

Sebastian was Trevor’s heir to the Grand Duchy of Fitzgeralt, while Lucas’s title of Duke D’Argente, inherited through Serathine, would also eventually pass to him. D’Argente created no particular constitutional crisis.

Fitzgeralt did.

The grand duchy was not simply another hereditary estate under Palatine. It had its own military structure, extensive internal authority, ancient agreements with the imperial crown, and enough autonomy that, technically, Fitzgeralt could function almost independently if those old provisions were ever pushed far enough.

Putting its future Grand Duke beside the future King of Saha had always been politically uncomfortable.

Putting Dean beside Arion had made the optics worse.

Both sons of Fitzgeralt were now tied to foreign ruling houses.

Sebastian looked at the folders.

"So what changed?"

Lucas opened the first.

"Nothing legally."

"Politically," Trevor added, "several noble blocs have decided your return to public life means the question can no longer be postponed."

Sebastian sighed.

He had expected that too.

When he had been ill enough that everyone’s priority was simply keeping him stable, succession arguments had been indecent even by noble standards. Now Sebastian was traveling again, attending events beside Nero, and had been formally introduced as the Crown Prince’s fiancé.

The vultures had apparently decided recovery meant business hours had resumed.

Lucas pushed the first set of papers toward him.

"They are circulating proposals again."

Sebastian skimmed the page.

His expression hardened.

"The renunciation proposal."

"Still alive," Lucas said.

That particular solution had been insulting six months ago and had somehow not improved with age.

Sebastian would relinquish Trevor’s line entirely, retain D’Argente through Lucas, and Fitzgeralt would pass elsewhere.

"No."

Trevor’s mouth curved faintly.

"That was my response."

Nero leaned slightly toward Sebastian to read the page.

His expression remained calm, though Sebastian felt his fingers tighten once against his thigh.

Lucas opened another file.

"The alternative is still to separate the military authority from the hereditary title when you inherit."

Sebastian stared at him.

"They are still proposing that?"

"Yes."

"That destroys the structure of Fitzgeralt."

"Yes."

"And implies the Grand Duke cannot determine his own succession because Parliament dislikes who his son is marrying."

Lucas’s green eyes cooled.

"That is why I found the suggestion insulting."

Trevor looked considerably calmer than Lucas, which Sebastian knew meant very little.

Someone proposing to dismantle generations of Fitzgeralt authority because both heirs had inconvenient marriages was unlikely to find Trevor sympathetic.

Nero turned another page.

"The prenuptial structure doesn’t solve their concern?"

"It solves the sane part of it," Trevor said. "Property separation, jurisdiction, inheritance barriers, military noninterference, clear rules around any children. All of that can be written."

Sebastian nodded.

They had already discussed most of it.

If he married Nero under normal noble circumstances, an aggressive prenuptial agreement and carefully separated legal identities would have been sufficient.

Nero’s position made everything larger.

A foreign Crown Prince could not be allowed to gain control over a Palatine military duchy through marriage.

Nobody in this room disagreed with that.

The problem was proving the separation strongly enough that nobody could weaponize suspicion anyway.

Lucas handed Sebastian another sheet.

"And now there is this."

Sebastian read the first paragraph.

Then stopped.

"Oh, for fuck’s sake."

Nero leaned closer.

Trevor rubbed his forehead.

The rumor claimed Sebastian’s six months in Saha had never been primarily medical.

According to whichever bored aristocrat had invented it, Sebastian had been perfectly capable of returning earlier and had remained under Sahan protection while secret negotiations took place regarding some form of political union between Fitzgeralt and Saha.

Sebastian stared at the paper.

"I nearly went berserk."

"I know," Lucas said.

"I spent months undergoing medical conversion nobody fully understands."

"I know."

"And apparently that was political theater."

"Very elaborate political theater," Trevor said dryly.

Nero read farther.

"I’m almost impressed."

Sebastian turned toward him.

"No."

"They gave us an entire secret treaty."

"They gave you Fitzgeralt."

Nero looked offended. "I already have a kingdom."

Lucas’s mouth twitched despite himself.

Sebastian dropped the paper onto the table.

"This is exactly why I avoided you."

Nero turned his head so slowly that it made Lucas turn his head not to laugh.

"What?!" he asked, the tone carrying enough offended menace that Sebastian could practically hear several anonymous nobles being assigned to unpleasant administrative consequences.

Sebastian looked at him.

Nero looked back.

Lucas turned his head toward Trevor and pressed his lips together, very obviously trying not to laugh in the face of a future king who had just discovered constitutional anxiety had contributed to seven years of romantic rejection.

"This," Sebastian said, tapping the folder with two fingers. "Fitzgeralt. Palatine. You being Crown Prince of Saha. Dean already being tied to Alamina. The fact that both heirs eventually ending up beside foreign rulers was always going to make people nervous."

Nero’s expression darkened further.

"You stayed away from me because of Parliament."

"Among other entirely reasonable considerations."

"I would like names."

Trevor finally looked up from his tablet. "Nobody personally instructed Sebastian to avoid you."

"They created the circumstances."

Sebastian laughed despite himself. "You cannot punish an entire political class because they made my life inconvenient."

Nero turned toward him. "I can inconvenience them back."

"That is precisely the attitude they are afraid of."

Lucas lost the battle and laughed quietly into his hand.

Nero gave him an offended look before returning to Sebastian.

"You barely spoke to me."

"I was trying to avoid giving you encouragement."

"You attended events with me only when escaping would have been more suspicious."

"Yes."

"You once spent an entire diplomatic dinner speaking to a seventy-year-old ambassador about agricultural subsidies because I was sitting two chairs away."

Sebastian paused.

Trevor’s eyebrows rose.

Lucas stared at his son.

"You noticed that?"

"My moon, I noticed when you changed tables."

That silenced Sebastian for a moment.

Nero leaned back against the sofa, his hand still resting on Sebastian’s thigh, but the outrage had softened around the edges into something almost wounded.

"Seven years."

Sebastian sighed.

"You survived."

"Barely."

"You were perfectly functional."

"I was yearning."

Lucas made another strangled sound.

Sebastian rubbed a hand over his face. "Can we return to the constitutional crisis before my fathers learn anything else humiliating about my courtship?"

Trevor’s mouth curved.

"Gladly. Sirius and Zion want to meet tomorrow before this reaches the lawyers."

That succeeded in pulling Nero’s attention away from his historical grievances.

His thumb still pressed once against Sebastian’s thigh as he murmured, "I’m still getting the names later."

Sebastian ignored him.