Rivers of the Night

Chapter 743: Abdicate

Patriarch Umbra looked up slowly. He didn’t seem to react to his wife’s grief. Instead, when he spoke, his words carried a chill that crept into her very bones.

"Why have you come?"

Analisc was taken aback before her eyes burned with rage. Fear was one matter, but there was only so much a wife could fear her own husband, especially when the other side of the ledger held not just one, but two dead sons.

She had carried them, raised them, changed their diapers and led them on their first steps. This wasn’t a pain that she could explain in a few words, and that was without even considering the implications it had for her future standing in the family.

Who knew if Patriarch Umbra would give her another child or not? And what if she was as unlucky as Lyrah and birthed a girl this time? When would she have a claim on the throne? What would happen when the other wives pounced on her weakness and chose to kill her silently?

She had done many things with the thought that her legitimate son had one of the strongest claims to future leadership. BUt now that those chances were gone, what else did she have but her own madness?

The worst part of it all was that even if she did birth a son in the next year... so what?

They would be too young and the timing wouldn’t work out at all. If he didn’t lose his life to his else half-brothers, he would certainly be barred from any attempt at a power grab. By the time he grew up, there would be no territory, no resources, no hope to fight for at all.

It was no wonder Analisc had thrown caution to the wind. She had lost absolutely everything in a single afternoon. She had barely managed to hold onto her own life.

"Don’t you care?!" she shrieked, her Mana flucutating wildly and out of control.

Winds blew against Patrairch Umbra’s face, his hair dancing against the hard stone of the throne. His gaze, deep and crimson, seemed unmoved and unbothered by it all.

"You went to Vesti City."

Analisc froze as though a bucket of ice cold water had been thrown over her head. The shock erupted through her body, and for a moment she didn’t know what to do or say.

"I remember, quite specifically, telling you not to. But these days, no one seems to want to listen to the Patriarch. Tell me, is that because I’m too soft, too kind? Do you take my words for air because I’ve never harmed or punished you? Are you under the impression that I have no ability or stomach to do so?"

BANG.

Analisc fell heavily to her knees under the pressure of a vast aura. It was so suffocating and violent that her barely bandages wounds all tore open, blood leaking to the once pristine flooring.

"I made it quite clear, I think. You refused to leave my daughter be. You refused to leave Lyrah be. And moments after I spoke to you, you left not long later to do exactly what I told you not to. Had you not been such a fool, I wouldn’t have lost an heir.

"Did you think yourself clever, believing that if you sent Venicin alone that I wouldn’t be alerted to what you had done?"

"I... I..."

Analisc didn’t have a response, and the pain was making it hard for her to think. This pressure alone would ahve been enough to deal her great damage, but considering her injuries, she was flirting with death already, her head getting extremely light.

At the same time, she was shocked. In a way, Patriarch Umbra was right. There were some lines they never crossed because they knew even the weakest of men had their breaking points, but she didn’t think that after all this time, Patriarch Umbra would finally reach his like this.

Lyrah hadn’t even been hurt. She was perfectly fine.

But it seemed that the matters surrounding Lyra and the current predicament she was in had taken a far heavier stone to the Patrairch heart than any of them knew.

It was clear... he had completely run out of patience.

He was also correct. The only reason Analisc had been there was to make certain that Lyrah didn’t find a chance to escape or find help for Lyra. She iddn’t plan to actively do anything, just monitor. But that was when the shocking change to the assassin’s guild happened and then her son went off to investigate, only to return dead.

Technically, yes. If not for her Venicin would still be alive. But she hadn’t actually meant to harm Lyrah directly, that wouldn’t be worth the risk for exactly this reason now.

But it was already much too late for regret.

The matters with Lyra weren’t even her fault either. She had no ability to move the needle so much. At worst, she could nibble around the edges.

The reason the Patriarch had been strong armed into this action was because of the elders, Grand Elders, and, most importantly, the Ancestor. He had many heirs, but just a single daughter, and she was of the lowest value of all of his children according to them.

There was no chance at all.

"You will spend the next 10 years in confinement. If you survive, fine. If you don’t, you’ll have gotten what you deserve. Take her away."

"No—! No, please!" she shrieked, but the shadows had already descended. She iddn’t even have a chance to resist.

The throne room fell to silence once more and Patriarch Umbra went back to reading his documents.

"Doing this to an official wife is unbecoming of a Patriarch." An ancient voice echoed.

Patriarch Umbra didn’t reply.

"I see. You’ve chosen to be a child about this. In that case, you will abdicate this throne in the next five years. Choose one of your heirs."

The voice faded away without waiting for a response, and Patriarch Umbra still didn’t react.