Chapter 384: Casual

Chapter 384: Chapter 384: Casual

The gathering was casual in the way only nobility could make something casual.

There was no throne, no receiving line, and no announcer announcing names at the entrance, which apparently qualified the evening as informal despite nearly a hundred people occupying one of the restored palace salons in clothing that had probably required several attendants to fasten correctly.

Liam paused just inside the doors.

Tall windows stood open to the evening gardens, carrying in cool air scented with flowering vines from the terraces below. Small tables had been arranged between clusters of cream-and-gold furniture, while musicians occupied an alcove near the far wall without being loud enough to interrupt conversation.

Everyone was pretending not to stare.

Arik leaned closer.

"You are reconsidering every decision that brought you here."

"I am wondering whether Rubis would notice if we left through that terrace."

"Yes."

"You answered too quickly."

"He has people."

Liam sighed.

Arik smiled and placed a hand at the small of his back.

They had been dressed formally enough to be unmistakably imperial without turning the gathering into a court ceremony. Arik wore black with muted gold embroidery at the collar and cuffs, while Liam’s dark violet coat fell almost to his knees over a simpler black shirt and trousers. His mate stone rested at his chest, gold and violet light moving faintly beneath its polished surface whenever Arik stood close.

Which meant constantly.

"Two hours," Liam reminded him.

"I remember."

"You are not disappearing."

"I agreed."

"You also enjoy these things more than I do."

Arik looked around the room.

"I enjoy watching people panic when you ask them direct questions."

"That is not the same thing."

"It improves the evening."

Before Liam could answer, several nobles approached.

So began the performance.

Liam knew how to do this.

That was the irritating part.

Being introverted had never meant being incapable of speaking to people. He had survived Wrohan’s court, engineering conferences, imperial negotiations, a Trial, and enough ceremonial dinners to develop several distinct smiles depending on whether he was genuinely interested, politely listening, or wondering how long it would take for someone to stop talking.

He greeted an elderly countess whose family controlled several northern agricultural districts, remembered that her eldest daughter had recently returned to Deira, and asked the appropriate question.

He listened to a younger lord explain the rebuilding of a provincial school system and managed not to make the conversation sound like an audit.

He even laughed at something involving a hunting lodge he did not understand well enough to find funny.

Arik watched him with increasing amusement.

Liam waited until the current group moved away.

"Stop."

"I said nothing."

"Your face did."

"My face is admiring my husband."

"That is worse."

"It is true."

Liam was about to answer when someone appeared beside them carrying a glass of wine and the expression of a man attending under protest.

Cassian.

Liam had seen him perhaps four times since Nuria returned to the outside world.

That was four more than Cassian apparently preferred.

He looked nowhere near his actual age. The Core had preserved him as ruthlessly as it had many of Nuria’s older generation, leaving him with only streaks of silver through his hair and the face of a man perhaps in his late fifties rather than someone approaching two centuries.

His formal coat was impeccable.

His expression was not.

"I have been informed," Cassian said, "that retirement requires social participation."

Arik’s mouth curved.

"Who told you that?"

"Kamal."

"Then you should know better than to believe him."

"I did. Unfortunately, Rubis agreed."

Liam laughed.

Cassian looked at him.

"You understand my suffering."

"I was ordered here too."

"Excellent. We can resent them together."

Arik lifted an eyebrow.

Cassian’s gaze shifted toward him.

"No."

"I did not ask anything."

"You were about to ask why I vanished the moment Nuria resurfaced."

"I know why."

"Then we have saved time."

After Arik raised the empire back into the world, Cassian had taken one look at the returning sovereign, decided the country had an emperor again, and disappeared the moment everything was stable enough.

Arik still found that personally offensive.

Cassian considered it survival.

A voice called Arik from across the salon.

Liam saw the resignation enter his husband’s face.

Several senior nobles had gathered near one of the open terraces, one of them already moving toward them.

Arik tightened his hand against Liam’s back.

"I will be five minutes."

Liam looked at him.

"You promised."

"I am not leaving the room."

"That is a technical interpretation."

"It is a very good one."

Cassian took a sip of wine.

"I will keep him."

Arik looked at him suspiciously.

Cassian stared back.

"I kept your empire alive for more than a century. I believe I can manage your husband for ten minutes."

Liam folded his arms.

"I am standing here."

"I noticed."

Arik kissed Liam’s temple before moving away.

Liam watched him go.

Cassian waited until Arik had been intercepted by the waiting group.

Then he said, "Good. Come with me."

Liam turned.

"What?"

"You need to meet people."

"I have been meeting people for forty minutes."

"You have been meeting whoever is brave enough to approach the imperial couple."

"That counts."

"No."

Cassian started walking.

Liam stared after him.

Then followed, mostly because he was curious.

They crossed toward the quieter side of the salon, where several smaller conversations had formed near the open windows.

Cassian lowered his voice.

"You will learn the difference quickly. Some people approach because they want something. Others stay away because they assume approaching the Empress Consort without invitation would be presumptuous."

"And you are going to identify them?"

"I am going to introduce the ones worth knowing."

Liam glanced sideways at him.

"That sounds dangerously like work."

Cassian’s expression darkened.

"Do not insult me."

Liam laughed.

The first was Lady Seraphine Orel, a compact woman perhaps sixty years old who managed three western estates and had apparently spent the Gate years quietly financing provincial clinics without placing her family name on any of them.

Cassian introduced Liam, exchanged exactly three sentences, then abandoned them.

Liam realized why almost immediately.

Seraphine did not flatter him.

She asked whether he had found Deira comfortable since the reopening and, when Liam answered honestly that the palace remained too large, informed him that everyone with sense thought so.

He liked her immediately.

The second introduction was Lord Teren Gale, whose family oversaw several historical archives and had spent the past year sorting records damaged during the old regime.

The third was a younger noblewoman named Elira Castren, recently returned to the capital after managing reconstruction work in the south.

By the fourth, Liam understood Cassian’s method.

No one was chosen because they were the richest person in the room.

They were people who did something.

People who had survived the sealed decades by becoming useful rather than merely important.

Cassian eventually guided him toward an empty section near the terrace.

"You are doing well."

Liam gave him a flat look.

"I am not twelve."

"I know."

"You sounded surprised."

"I am nearly two hundred. Everyone sounds twelve eventually."

Liam nearly choked on his drink.

Cassian smiled faintly.

Then his gaze drifted toward Arik across the room.

The emperor was still trapped in conversation, although his attention kept returning to Liam every few minutes.

Cassian noticed that too.

"He looks for you constantly."

Liam’s expression softened.

"Yes."

"Goliath never had that."

The words were quiet.

Liam looked at him.

Cassian’s face had changed.

Not grief exactly.

Something older and more settled.

"He loved," Cassian continued. "Deeply. But he spent too much of his life carrying everyone else."

Liam followed his gaze toward Arik.

"He still tries."

"I know."

"That is why I drag him to social gatherings."

Cassian looked at him.

"So he suffers with you?"

"Marriage requires equality."

Cassian laughed.