A Dangerous Destiny: The Pure One Book I

Chapter Twenty-Three

Hello readers! I hope that last chapter gave you a bit of context for Henry's actions (that's the intention at least). Now you get a new POV to add to the conversation....Council Leader Avery Trenton. Surprised? This chapter will add a little twist to Henry's relationship with the Senmin and Avery's view on the events of the story is quite different from any you have seen yet...I am very curious to see what you think of it. This chapter is on the longer side but hopefully you will find the information contained within adds some  interesting complications to the story for some of our MCs...

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Avery

The hall echoed with the sound of their footsteps, those of Avery Trenton and the escort who lead him down the quiet passages of Prince Henry's Chestershire residence.Though Avery knew the castle was small for a member of the royal family, even as a man of considerable means he found the estate quite grand. He could not help but notice, however the unnatural stillness that seemed to pervade the residence. With the King still in Auresir, rumored to be ill and confined to his chambers, the majority of the royal staff had likely remained in the Capitol to care for their sovereign. Still, as they passed by room after unoccupied room, he found the lack of activity in such a grand home unnerving.

Instead of rooms filled with servants and gentry, a ghostly silence seemed to hover in the air, as if echoing the lack of activity that should have filled the lavish home. Perhaps the somber mood he felt was a sign of the Prince and his staff's vigil for the ailing King, Avery mused. But whatever the reason for the castle's current abandoned nature, he knew it was for the best. Avery's audience with the Prince was meant to be secret after all.

Avery had felt a certain smug sense of satisfaction, when the Nita's decision to comply with Henry Bastario's invitation to Salam Palace backfired over one year earlier. Fiona had been exceedingly determined to ignore the Council's reservations, and, on some level it had been vindicating to find that he had in fact been correct to assess that the Nita's lack of diplomacy skills coupled with the Prince's famed temper, were bound to clash.

While Avery had never had any particular issue with Manna Sayers, The current Nita was, to say the least, quite difficult. Fiona had a certain aloofness he did not like, and a noticeable contempt for the Council that he found infuriating. Unlike her predecessor, she seemed unable to correctly grasp her place in Senmin society. It was Fiona's job to cooperate with and serve the Council, not the other way around. Nita Amoral's decision to ignore the Council's recommendation to abstain from meeting with Henry Bastario was all too characteristic of her problematic tendency to act on her own.

When Fiona returned from her meeting with the Prince and gave her report to the Cainell Council, Avery immediately demanded that the Nita write a letter expressing both her gratitude for the Henry's invitation to the Capitol, and her contrition for any miscommunication they might have had during their time together. True to her obstinate nature Fiona had been resistant to even that sound advice, expressing the belief that such a message would only confirm in writing that she had something for which to apologize. The Nita maintained that they were best to leave the situation as it was.

"To admit our weakness to the Prince would be folly," she insisted. "Though our discourse was tense, I assure you, there was ultimately no offense committed for which we need apologize. Henry did not invite me to the palace to confer friendship upon our people. He wished to assess my strength. To show him that we are fearful of his potential rise will only serve as an admission of guilt and make us targets the moment he takes the throne."

The Council, however, had sided with Avery. Fiona had been granted the chance to obtain peace with the Crown in her own manner. She failed. The Nita was made to acquiesce to the Council's greater wisdom.