Chapter 125: DEPARTURE

DIANA’S POV

The Valence delegation left under clear skies while the Hollow Bridge records request remained open.

Diana distrusted the weather immediately.

For eleven days, Blackharrow had given the Southerners snow, bitter wind, a warehouse fire, an altered wardstone, repeated legal arguments, a stolen household coat, and enough stairs to make two diplomats reconsider their professions.

On departure morning, sunlight reached the lower court.

Unfair.

Diana stood beside Raigoro while the final restitution documents were exchanged.

The negotiations had solved enough to send the delegation home with actual agreements instead of another collection of promises.

Valence formally acknowledged the first completed restitution deliveries. The Third Watch compensation mechanism entered joint legal review with the core eligibility categories preserved, while financial reimbursement for documented historic supply failures had been accepted in principle.

Future troop, engineering, road-access, and ward obligations remained physical obligations unless later treaty amendments specifically changed them.

The altered wardstone remained under Blackharrow evidence control, with witnessed duplicate samples available for joint technical examination. The warehouse fire investigation remained open.

Secretary Pellor remained irritating and unarrested. The missing Valence household coat remained missing.

Lord Rovel had become an entirely different problem.

The senior commissioner signed the final departure copy.

"Grand Duke."

Raigoro signed Blackharrow’s.

"Commissioner."

The exchange ended without an embrace, and diplomacy survived.

The commissioner turned toward Diana.

"Your Grace."

She inclined her head.

"The Third Watch proposal will face resistance in Valence."

Diana took out her slate.

THEN ARGUE BETTER.

The commissioner read it.

Daric looked briefly toward the sky.

"I will remember that," the commissioner said.

The delegation entered their carriages one by one.

Lady Jessa bowed formally and asked no more questions about Diana’s childhood. Secretary Pellor gave Daric a look suggesting Blackharrow had personally invented inconvenience, which Daric appeared to find satisfying.

Lord Rovel came last among the senior officials.

He bowed to Raigoro and then to Diana.

"Your Grace."

He used only her title.

Nobody else reacted to the omission, but Diana heard it.

The carriage door closed, and the Valence standards began moving toward the gate.

Household servants waited for the final Southern baggage wagon to clear before removing the temporary route markers from the guest court. One clerk carried away the extra diplomatic key ledger while another began counting the rooms that needed inspection before Blackharrow returned them to ordinary use.

The temporary machinery required to host Valence disappeared with remarkable efficiency.

Diana watched red and gold recede along the outer road.

The quiet reached her before relief did.

For eleven days, Valence had occupied corridors Diana now considered ordinary. Its delegation had brought people who remembered her and people who remembered Selena, including some who could distinguish between them.

Their memories had made the truth no simpler.

Some remembered only fragments. Others had learned years ago which questions were safer left unasked. Lord Rovel had remembered Queen Elara singing in the west gallery and had still called Diana Selena because Selena was the name everyone had been permitted to use.

Blackharrow had continued around them as it always did.

Its officials brought Diana work. Household Relief used her office marks. Guards addressed her as they always had, and clerks accepted her corrections before carrying them into official records. Valence’s uncertainty about its Grand Duchess had changed none of that.

The delegation would carry questions south with them.

How much did Raigoro know? Why had he refused to repudiate her? Why had Blackharrow allowed her to sign a diplomatic document without Selena’s name? Why had he stopped Valence courtiers from testing her memories?

Diana wondered whether any of them had noticed something simpler.

She knew the Citadel better than they knew the palace they represented.

They had arrived believing they understood the fraud better than Blackharrow did. Diana doubted they were leaving with the same certainty.

Her place here had become difficult for Valence to ignore.

Raigoro turned toward Daric.

"Five-Crown notice."

"Already drafted."

Of course.

They went directly to Government Terrace.

Diana joined them because the altered wardstone investigation now crossed Crown jurisdictions and Household Relief’s audit work had contributed to the evidence chain.

Her presence drew no questions.

Diana still noticed.

Daric laid the notice on the table.

Blackharrow had confirmed deliberate internal alteration in strategic wardstone delivered through a cross-border restitution route. The material had passed standard short-load inspection before developing delayed instability under extended pressure.

Its route overlapped commercial infrastructure previously connected to falsified Blackharrow deliveries. After Blackharrow began tracing the overlap, someone had attempted to destroy evidence inside the Citadel.

The missing delegation household coat remained in Blackharrow’s internal investigation.

The general Crown notice requested coordinated preservation of records across Crown-linked commercial routes touching the implicated network.

Diana read it twice.

The notice identified no culprit and claimed only what the evidence could support. Everything beyond that remained outside the official record.

Raigoro asked, "Objections?"

Blackharrow’s treaty lawyer marked one phrase. Senior Ward Specialist Julius Renn requested a technical clarification, and Daric altered one timing reference.

Diana pointed to the words:

DEFECTIVE WARD MATERIAL.

She wrote:

ALTERED.

Julius Renn nodded immediately.

"Correct."

A defect could be accidental. Their evidence supported deliberate alteration.

The clerk replaced the word in the outgoing notice, and Diana watched the correction appear on the clean copy.

The document would be copied, filed, and read long after this meeting ended. Valence had taught her what could happen when an inaccurate word survived in the record.

The other Crowns would begin their own reviews with whatever Blackharrow sent them. Diana wanted the first account to say exactly what the evidence supported.

They had been in Government Terrace less than an hour when the commercial-record packet arrived.

Daric opened it.

"Northline."

Diana looked up.

He read the first page and continued into the second.

"Hollow Bridge kept more than the current manifests."

Raigoro set aside the document he had been reading.

Daric placed the packet in the center of the table.

Hollow Bridge Transfer Station had retained original incoming and outgoing wagon-weight registers for both periods Blackharrow had requested: the altered Valence wardstone shipment and the older Broken Ward hardware shipment.

The cargo and dates differed, but both shipments had passed through Hollow Bridge.

The station had also retained an old seal-reference cabinet because nobody had bothered destroying obsolete physical impressions after newer ones were issued.

Diana wrote:

ORIGINALS?

"Yes."

AUTHENTICATED?

"Copies cannot establish that."

Someone would have to examine the physical books, seals, and storage conditions at Hollow Bridge.

Raigoro looked toward Daric.

"Team?"

Daric began listing the people they would need.

"Two evidence clerks. Julius Renn or one deputy for ward material. Engineering. Station security."

Diana wrote before anyone could finish deciding:

I AM GOING.

Raigoro read the slate.

"Your office identified the weight inconsistency pattern."

Diana nodded.

"Then you have a reason."

She waited.

Raigoro looked down at the Hollow Bridge route.

"So do I."

Diana stared at him.

He folded the map.

"I’m going too."