Chapter 18 - THE HIGH COMMISSION TRIAL: EXECUTING JUSTICE ON THE FIVE FAMILIES
Following the coronation, Dante and I took our places on twin obsidian thrones in the subterranean tribunal hall beneath the city.
The remaining bosses of the five families—men who had secretly funded David’s mercenary attacks and tried to destroy our family—were brought forward in heavy iron chains, kneeling on the cold stone floor.
“Have mercy, Empress Maya!” Don Valenti’s surviving brother wept, pressing his forehead against the marble. “We were misled! We offer you fifty percent of our shipping territories!”
Dante leaned forward, his terrifying aura filling the vast chamber, but he raised his hand, leaving the judgment entirely to me.
I looked down at the men who had threatened my child’s life, who had viewed me as a disposable server who could be crushed underfoot.
“You spoke of mercy,” I said, my voice echoing cold and hard as iron. “When my back was bleeding on the floor of Lumina, no one offered me mercy. When my son was gasping for air from your poison, you offered no mercy.”
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I stood up from the throne, my long velvet cloak trailing behind me. “Seize their assets. Strip their families of their titles. Ban them from the continent forever. If any of them set foot on our soil again, feed them to the deep sea.”
The guards dragged the screaming traitors away, cementing our reign with absolute, unyielding authority.
