Chapter 379: Have you lost all shame?

"He suppressed every Vampire registered to it, he sealed the entire Estate, he activated your defensive formations, detonated weapons buried beneath your own ground, used the suffering caused by your own formation to feed his Authority and...

And your answer to me is..."

Aurelia’s words became colder the more she spoke.

"You are investigating?"

Then, when she spoke those final words, a very uncomfortable silence filled the Hall.

The Ancient’s expression darkened, he couldn’t say anything else. He was... too embarrassed to even open his mouth.

That was when Cassian stepped forward and shifted the conversation to himself.

"What answer would you prefer us to invent?"

Aurelia looked at him, the Arcelis Patriarch kept a calm appearance and gave an honest answer.

"We do not know.

At least... not completely."

Aurelia narrowed her eyes at those words.

So they did know something?

Cassian glanced toward the Ancient responsible for the Hearth, the man nodded before turning towards Aurelia.

"Varek was born Arcelis, he was part of the Main Branch, his blood was recognised by the Hearth since he was a child."

Aurelia nodded.

She already knew that.

The Ancient knew that, so he continued.

"Crimson Crucible altered his blood repeatedly over decades, Neroth’s blood became deeply integrated into his body.

Our current theory is that Neroth used that connection to somehow take over the Hearth."

"So anyone with Arcelis Blood can control the Hearth?"

Aurelia raised an eyebrow.

"They cannot."

The Ancient shook his head.

They obviously couldn’t give every single family member control of their strongest formation but...

"It might have given him access."

He spoke.

Aurelia kept staring at him.

None of it made any sense, this was nowhere near a proper explanation and the Ancient knew that.

The Arcelis had nothing.

"As mentioned, we are investigating it."

Cassian spoke as he looked into Aurelia’s eyes.

He wanted to end this topic.

Aurelia stared at him, Cassian stared back and the silence became increasingly uncomfortable.

"We will determine what happened."

Cassian repeated.

"That isn’t particularly comforting."

Aurelia wasn’t having it and just then—

Another one of the Arcelis Ancients, a tall woman with dark crimson hair, finally stepped forward.

"And while we are discussing things that aren’t comforting...

Perhaps House Veyr would like to explain how many agents it has operating inside our territory."

She spoke, looking right into Aurelia’s eyes.

She did not wish to bring this up, but this conversation wasn’t going anywhere. So she played the cards she had.

The Veyrs became still, Aurelia, however, wasn’t surprised.

She knew this was coming.

Valerian turned toward her.

"You infiltrated my House."

Cassian spoke as he stared at her.

And Aurelia—

"Yes."

She just nodded.

The direct admission actually caused the Arcelis woman to pause.

"For how long?"

Cassian narrowed his eyes and Aurelia showed a faint smile.

"You don’t seriously expect an answer, do you?"

That didn’t work, Cassian’s face became colder.

"You placed spies inside sovereign Arcelis territory, circumvented the Crimson Hearth, entered restricted sections of my Estate and you brought Lucian Cross into an underground section of my House that even members of my own family were forbidden from entering."

"I did."

Aurelia nodded.

"He was the one who found the Heart."

She spoke truthfully.

There was no point in hiding that, the Arcelis would know eventually, especially considering how the Archdemon was screaming Lucian’s name while he rampaged through the Arcelis Estate.

In fact, the Arcelis already did know, more than Aurelia thought.

"He didn’t just find it."

Cassian spoke up.

"Neroth’s Heart was sealed. Even if it was conscious, it couldn’t have had that big of an influence because of how strong the seals on it were.

Lucian Cross opened the Seal and that was how Neroth was able to resurrect."

The Arcelis Patriarch presented the facts.

This was no longer a defence, the Arcelis were demanding an answer instead.

That made one of the Veyr Ancients look at Aurelia.

Aurelia kept staring at Cassian, waiting for him to continue and he did.

"You speak as if tonight was entirely House Arcelis’s doing but you and Lucian Cross are equally responsible for what happened, Aurelia Veyr."

He threw an accusation.

And Aurelia—

"Was it me or Lucian who preserved Neroth’s Heart for nine hundred and eighty-three years?"

She already had an answer ready.

"Did we spend generations feeding Neroth’s blood to Vampires?"

The woman then looked into Cassian’s eyes and with the same coldness, she shot back.

"If you had done what you promised me nine hundred and eighty-three years ago, none of this would have happened, Cassian Arcelis.

All of it is yours and House Arcelis’s fault, do not even attempt to pin this on us."

She spoke as her crimson eyes glowed dangerously.

Cassian and the other Arcelis Ancients stared at those eyes and... Cassian’s words very quickly turned much calmer.

"Your infiltration still remains a violation."

"I know."

Aurelia nodded at that.

"And House Veyr will answer for it."

Valerian spoke from behind her. Everyone looked at him, the Veyr Patriarch’s expression remained calm, fully supporting his sister.

"When the larger matter is resolved."

"And you decide which matter is larger?"

Cassian asked as he looked at him.

Valerian met his gaze and then—

"No."

He shook his head as he looked around.

Then—

"Neroth did."

Those words silenced the Arcelis Patriarch almost instantly. What could he even say against them?

That was when Aurelia started speaking again.

"There were hundreds of confirmed subjects before Varek."

She spoke, looking at Cassian.

"Failed adaptations, degeneration, loss of reason, blood collapse, mutation and even death, these were the results of centuries of research and experiments you did.

Then you found Varek, a talented man from the main line, with an obsession with strength so strong that convincing him to take part wasn’t even difficult.

You continued the research on him, you fed him Neroth’s blood until his body learned to survive it, you worked on him for decades, you even lied to the entire world for the sake of your research.

And do you know the worst part?

You actually thought it was working."

Aurelia snapped.

"You thought you were mastering Neroth’s blood, while in truth...

It wasn’t you using Neroth—

It was him.

Neroth, a dead Archdemon, managed to fool you and your entire House and tricked you into making an ideal body for him.

And after a blunder this large, you still dare to blame it on me and a man who’s barely two decades old?

Have you lost all shame?"