Chapter 1370: Stricken cowards(3)

Despite Tiberius wishing otherwise, he knew that his dear wife was right on every single account.

He was without friends.

He was without gold.

And he was without much of a plan, either.

Guilty on all counts, a far heavier burden than he cared to carry all in one bundle. His earlier self-contempt had been spot on: what he was doing was no grand campaign of treason. It was a toddler throwing a tantrum at the edge of a cliff.

Would Julian find it amusing? Tiberius wondered for a brief second. Perhaps he’d view it as a harmless bout of mischief and spare my neck. Who takes a son’s head over a bit of rebellion?

Except, of course, he was not Julian’s son, and this was no simple mischief.

Mischief was dropping rat dung into a someone’s boots, not attempting to unravel a web of empire-shattering intrigue the old man had labored over for decades. It was sheer, desperate wishful thinking to believe he might survive his own failure.

Tiberius had long since burned his bridges with hope, he was a melancholy creature by nature, (it was not his fault, he was born like that !)and unfortuantely melancholy men knew better than to trust in happy endings. And besides those that dined at the table of empires and wars, rarely came across one.

Even Vrivius the red had been assasinated after all....and he was the greatest emperor they had ever known.So , what hope did he really have?

It all depended on his utility, really. Did Julian have another bastard lurking in some dark corner of the realm? And if he didn’t... perhaps the old ghost would simply force Tiberius to bed his wife. Once she delivered a child,a proper, malleable heir....well, she would be delivering his death sentence right along the newborn.

Yet another way for Eloir to kill me, he supposed. Though with that method, at least he’d get laid before they cut his throat.

"No smart words now? Did the cat catch your tongue?" she asked, a cheeky, triumphant smile curling her lips as she revelled in the sweet joy of trapping him. She lounged across the silk sheets, one hand propping up her chin, the other tracing the edge of a secret ledger.

He couldn’t fathom what grand satisfaction she derived from breaking him. It wasn’t as if beating him was a victory.

Every triumph his reign could boast, even the grand military march, had been handed to him on a silver platter by the Old Ghost of Arlania. All Tiberius ever did was pluck the ripe fruit someone else had cultivated and bash in unworthy glory. A trained dog could have done as much for half a treat.

And perhaps, who knew? That trained dog would soon be replaced by his unborn son.

What success did he have to boast of?Take away Julius, and the seams holding him up came apart too....

"I was merely reflecting on your words," Tiberius said quietly.

"And?" she pressed, her dark eyes narrowing when he let the silence stretch.

Why was she being so damn weird?

He gave a small, defeated shrug. "You spoke nothing but the truth. The sheer hopelessness of my position has finally settled into my bones, I suppose. I am without haven deep in a storm, and the ship has just started taking water" He took a long, heavy breath, his brows knitting together.

"Oh." Eloir blinked, genuinely taken aback by his sudden, unreserved surrender. "I expected a rather snarkier reaction."

"Why? You pointed out the obvious." What was there to be angry about? The house was on fire, and she had simply pointed out the smoke.

Eloir stared at him, looking for a second as if she were the bewildered party in the room. Then she caught her bearings, her lips twisting into a faint pout. "I thought you possessed a bit more pride than this.You are taking the fun out of this....truthfully."

"Oh, well. I am many things," Tiberius sighed, the full weight of his pathetic existence crashing down upon him.That he had not need to fake. "I am an hopeless fool of grand proportions. I have no achievements to my name that were not gifted to me by a monster. My greatest accomplishment, I suppose, was becoming the ultimate puppet.I am sure when my father fucked my mother, I was not what he thought would come out. "

If he really thought anything more than: UH PRETTY NAKED LADY.

The sheer absurdity of it all bubbled up in his chest, and he let out a short, bitter laugh. "A man bursting with pride? Hardly.I came from the sperm in an undesired womb, really what pride is there to be found?"

He paused, looking at her as she sat surrounded by his death warrants. Yet, as he stared at the mountain of parchment, a cold, desperate spark flared in his mind. There was still a way out, a thin, bloody needle to thread that might turn a total catastrophe into an unthinkable alliance.

Perhaps was this what she searched for too?

"So... in light of all this," Tiberius said,his mind working overtime, taking a step toward the edge of the bed. "In light of everything you know about me, and everything you now hold in your hands... would you like to partner up?"

Eloir arched a dark eyebrow, a low laugh escaping her throat. "Oh? Now you wish to involve me?What? Wasn’t it too dangerous? What brought about this grand shift in heart?"

The fact that you are sitting on my secrets like a dragon on gold, he thought bitterly.All she needed to do was give one order to a maid , and there his life went....it was weird how calm he was taking all of this. Perhaps he really was born for this life.

He didn’t say it, of course. If a man intended to steer a wild bull, he had to grease the chute first.

It was Claria who had told him that.....she always knew much and more about husbandry.

"Why not? You are clearly far better suited for this than I am." Her dark eyes widened just a fraction, perhaps at the admission? He continued on"You possess everything I lack: the gold to grease the wheels, and the aristocratic web of blood and alliance that you hold as Empress."

"Relationships that the Emperor himself lacks?" she asked, arching a delicate eyebrow, though the subtle puff of her chest revealed how deeply the flattery had struck home.

She almost seemed cute, in a horride sort of way.

If one forgot how dangerous she was.If one forgot about her husband.... Actually thinking back, no, she was not cute.

"Oh, please," Tiberius scoffed dryly. "There isn’t a single lord in this realm who doesn’t despise my very guts." Or, more accurately, the bastard blood flowing through them. "Every high-born bastard who bows to me only does so out of sheer terror of the shadow standing directly behind my chair. Julian is the one who holds the iron and commands the realm. I am merely the mask he wears to keep the court looking respectable. I know it, you know it, and every lord from here to the Finger knows it. It’s hardly a secret."

Besides, the second Tiberius started holding private audiences with powerful lords left and right, the Old Ghost would be the first to hear of it. Julian was a monster, but he was far from senile; he could put two and two together and get the answer was probably not five.

If Tiberius were to accomplish anything, he had to work through proxies. The real trick was managing those proxies without Julian catching so much as a whisper of it. Right now, he was taking small, desperate steps just to spin his own little web. But the moment his ambitions grew, the real peril would begin. He had to play his hand perfectly, and more importantly, he needed Julian to believe he wasn’t even sitting at the damn table.

Easier said than done. The plain, unvarnished truth was that he needed her.

Yet the real obstacle lay right in front of him on the bed.

"Well, it is rather nice to be properly appreciated for once," Eloir purred, dripping with all the arrogant confidence her new station afforded her.Julian had forced him to learn what his stepsbrother had forced her to go through.

He knew it, and the fact he was weaponizing made him a bit sick.But did he really have the opportunity to mind his options? "I could indeed prove to be a tremendous asset to your little crusade... although..."

Here it comes, Tiberius thought.

"Why would I help you?"

And there it came.

What in the five hells did he actually have to offer her? What could a power-barren puppet with half a plan possibly trade to convince a woman like Eloir to gamble everything? And he meant everything, her title, her lands, her very head, on a man who had only just started walking while their enemy was already riding a warhorse at full gallop?

Yet Tiberius possessed the one currency that could move even the coldest heart. Information.Information Julius was not willing to disclose...

He took a slow step closer to the bed, his shadow falling over the scattered secrets between them.To reveal something that he know that she didn’t , but she would very well crave.

The very thing that allowed him and Julian to take this power.And that now would allow him to usurp Julian’s.

"I can give you your revenge."