Karis steeled himself for another fight with his council. Every session started with the same two arguments, and he expected this one was going to be the same. It had been that way since he’d turned down the women they’d tried to press him to choose from and put his foot down about marrying Sayana.

“Your Imperial Majesty, have you changed your mind about telling us which of your courtesans you are going to marry?” Veselin, his second Minister of Transportation, asked.

“No, Veselin. You will find out next year, when I am ready to inform the entire court. I will not open the lady in question up to more assassination attempts than the courtesans are already facing,” Karis told him firmly.

“Then perhaps Your Imperial Majesty will tell us which of your sons will be your heir,” Harish prompted, just as Karis expected.

“I will announce who my heir after the youngest of the princes turns eighteen,” Karis reminded them.

“And which prince is the youngest?” Metis asked.

“Ethian is the youngest, and he was born the twenty third day of the second month of fall,” Karis informed them. “I will announce my heir after his eighteenth birthday.”

“Will you consider making the crown prince’s birthday a high feast once you name him?” Lidia asked.

Karis shook his head. “I am trying to minimize the high feasts, Lidia. Not add to them.”

“Your Imperial Majesty,” Mikhah, the third Minister of Transportation, began.

“Is this about something to do with your bureau, Mikhah?” Karis asked sharply. Mikhah shook his head. “Then I do not want to hear it. I am not changing my mind on any of these issues. I am not going to tell you anything until the appropriate time. You hound me every council session. Either cease with this constant pestering or I will start looking for new ministers.” He glared at all of them.

“Yes, Your Imperial Majesty.” Geraint glanced at his pad. “That lord you sent to speak to Metis and me, we have a report on that.”

Karis made a motion with his hand, and the business of the empire began. Several issues were discussed and Karis dealt with them all. It was a brisk hour, and the session ended better than it had begun. He returned to his suite and found Lord Durden waiting for him.

“Please do not tell me we have an incident we need to deal with, Durden,” Karis told the man with a sigh.

“Unfortunately, Your Imperial Majesty, we do.” Durden’s grim expression told Karis it was serious.

“What is it this time?” Karis sat down on the couch.

“Pirates again, Your Imperial Majesty. Only it runs a bit deeper. We captured a few of them and they seem to be in the employ of two of your lords,” Durden explained.

“Which two?” Karis asked sharply.

“Lords Savin of Tugneter and Wilden of Thoutov,” Durden informed him.

Karis thought for a moment. “Savin is a high lord, and Wilden is his cousin, I believe. Savin convinced the Lord Governor of Thoutov to give Wilden the posting to court because of his wealth and connections.”

“Tugneter and Thoutov are also in the same system, so it would make sense the two are connected,” Durden added. Karis nodded. “From what we were able to get from the prisoners, Lord Savin is funding their operations. Lord Wilden, who has some kind of connection with the transportation bureau, is feeding them when and where the prime targets are going to be. The pirates hit the freighters, seize the cargo, sell it on the black market, and the two lords get a share of the profits.”

“Imre, could you please have Demetrios send some inquisitors and guards to apprehend the two men? I think we need to have a private chat with them. Seize their pads and search their townhomes and rooms here at the palace for anything that can be useful,” Karis instructed.

“Yes, Your Imperial Majesty.” Imre’s fingers flew across his pad as he sent the message.

“I think I should talk to Trenor to find out where Wilden gets his information from.” Karis frowned. “I do not know why he has unfettered access to the transportation bureau. He is not, as far as I know, aligned with it in any way.”

“I’ll leave this in your hands, Your Imperial Majesty. I’ll move some more troops in to deal with the pirates now that we know what their next target is going to be.” Durden bowed and left.

“I have asked Lord Trenor to come speak with you, Your Imperial Majesty.” Imre tucked his pad back onto his belt.

“Thank you, Imre.” Karis tapped his fingers on his pad and waited.

Trenor arrived a few minutes later. “Your Imperial Majesty? How may I be of service?”

“Trenor, as first Minister of Transportation, it is your duty to make certain information does not leave the bureau without your authorization, is this true?” Karis asked.

“Yes, Your Imperial Majesty. I have the final authority on who is alerted to what shipments are being sent out,” Trenor confirmed.

“Can you tell me then please why Lord Wilden of Thoutov has access to information that should not be leaving the transportation bureau?” Karis asked with one raised eyebrow.

“Lord Wilden?” Trenor frowned in thought. He pulled his pad off his belt and looked something up. “I have one request from him three months ago asking for information on schedules for certain shipping lanes, which Mikhah gave him our standard non-answer for because we do not let that information out. Beyond that, I have nothing in my files that we gave him any information, Your Imperial Majesty.”

“Someone in your bureau is filling him in on when prime shipments are being shipped because he is feeding that information to a group of pirates.” Karis gave him a significant look. “Find me that leak, Trenor.”

Trenor’s expression turned dark. “Immediately, Your Imperial Majesty. I will have Veselin and Mikhah assist me, and we will put this as a priority.” Karis nodded and Trenor bowed before leaving.

“Do you think it’s one of the clerks taking a bribe?” Imre asked.

“This goes higher than a clerk. I am concerned one of the men’s aides has been compromised.” Karis glanced at the chronometer. “I am going to check on my sons, and then I will begin the paperwork. Unless I have somewhere I need to be?”

“Not for an hour, Your Imperial Majesty. You have a meeting with Lady Egeria to discuss her family’s desire to ascend and the seneschal’s reluctance to allow them to do so,” Imre reminded him.

“Yes, I remember now. The seneschal does not like letting anyone ascend beyond their status at court and that annoys me.” Karis got up and made his way to the princes’ enclave.

He could hear the sound of shouting and sighed. It sounded as if Rhys was up to something again. He came in and found Rhys on top of Meinard, beating on him. Nuri had just come into the room. He caught Rhys in a choke hold and dragged him off Meinard.

Benedikt, Meinard’s warmaster, went to check on him. “Meinard, are you all right?”

“No. I think the bastard broke my nose,” Meinard told him angrily.

“I’ll call for an Imperial doctor.” Reynard was standing in the doorway between the practice area and the living area. He pulled out a pad and sent the message.

“We’re going to need one for Rhys by the time I’m done with him,” Nuri growled. “You were warned what would happen if you couldn’t leave your brothers alone.”

“He started it,” Rhys whined.

“I doubt that.” Nuri continued with the choke hold and dragged him into the practice area. Fallon and Jair were standing there with their servants.

“What happened?” Karis asked sharply.

“Rhys was whining about missing the Founding Day feasts,” Fallon told him. “Meinard began poking fun at him, telling him he did not need the extra sweets because he was putting on weight. Rhys lost his temper and started beating on him.”

Karis looked at his injured son. “Meinard, why did you antagonize Rhys?”

“It is one of the few things I can do that is halfway entertaining,” Meinard muttered as he tried to stop the blood streaming down his face. “I know, I know. I usually end up on the receiving end of a beating for it. It is still funny to see his face turn purple.”

“You’ve been told not to antagonize him, Meinard,” Benedikt told him sternly.

“Yes, and I ignore that. It is about the only rule I do not follow, so you cannot say I consistently break every one I am given like he does,” Meinard countered.

“Meinard, he could kill you one of these days,” Benedikt pointed out. “Is that what you’re aiming for?”

“Of course not. However, I hope that if it looked that serious, Fallon and Jair would not simply stand around and stare.” Meinard turned rapidly blackening eyes towards his older and younger brother.

“I would step in,” Jair admitted.

“As would I,” Fallon agreed.

“If Nuri had not come in, I would have come to your rescue shortly,” Jair added.

“He would have had help.” Fallon was usually the least likely to get in the middle of a fight. It seemed the warmaster was already having a positive effect on him.

“You see, Benedikt? We protect each other.” Meinard shrugged, then winced. “I think I took a little more damage than I thought.”

An Imperial doctor walked in and sighed. “Again, Prince Meinard? Do you and Prince Rhys never stop fighting?”

“No, we do not,” Meinard told the man. “I think I took more damage than I thought this time though.”

The doctor ran a scanner over him. “Broken nose, cracked skull, what was he hitting you with?”

“His fists, but he was really angry,” Jair helpfully told the man.

“I hope he is being sufficiently punished.” The doctor shook his head. “He needs to lie down so I can get the regenerators on him, and he’ll need to be watched after they’re done for signs of a concussion. He’s showing all the symptoms now on the scan.”

“I’ll watch him, and then we can turn him over to his scholar this evening,” Benedikt assured the man.

“Jair, Fallon, back to your training,” Reynard ordered. The other two princes said nothing but retreated to the training room.

Karis walked over to the door and watched his sons train for a few minutes. Nuri was mercilessly pummeling Rhys into the ground for his violent acts towards Meinard. Hanzo was working his way up the climbing wall. Jair was being set to spar with Fallon. Ethian was lifting weights. Karis observed them quietly for a few minutes before heading back to his suite and the first of his meetings.

Karis was ready for lunch by the time the last of the meetings was over. “Your Imperial Majesty, Prince Ethian is wondering if you could spare him a moment before the audiences,” Imre informed him. “Reynard is aware of his request and told him it was up to you. He’s not going to prevent him from talking to you if he’s that concerned about something.”

“Tell Ethian I have a little time to spare him. He can join me for lunch.” Karis wondered what Ethian wanted to talk to him about.

A short while later, Ethian joined him. “Hello Father.” Ethian was still quite shy with him, though he was obviously warming up to his brothers.

“Hello Ethian. What can I do for you?” Karis looked inquisitively at his son as Imre served them both food.

“Do you know how my mother is doing?” Ethian asked.

Karis smiled. “You are concerned about her I take it?”

Ethian nodded. “Timur tells me the gossip. No one is happy with the courtesans right now and they might be trying to assassinate them. I know the others are worried about their mothers too, but I don’t – do not – think they would consider asking you about them.”

Karis looked startled at that. “First, all of your mothers are fine. I am keeping close watch over them, as is Arken. We will keep them as safe as possible.” Ethian nodded. “Second, you think your brothers would not come to speak to me?”

Ethian frowned as he tried to figure out how to say what he was thinking. “They are almost scared of you, Father. I don’t – do not – know why. Perhaps I have not been here long enough to see what they do. I mean, I have only been here a few months. I do not know you that well. But how they talk about you tells me they would never even think of doing what I am.”

“I have tried to make myself open to them.” Karis was worried. If his sons didn’t feel they could come speak with him, what else could be simmering under the surface in the princes’ enclave?

“I will have to ask Fallon why they are all so afraid of you. We do not have much time to talk during the day. Can I come have lunch with you again another day and let you know what he tells me?” Ethian asked.

“I would greatly appreciate it, Ethian. I need to know so I can figure out how to help your brothers feel more comfortable approaching me,” Karis told him. They chatted a little longer before Ethian left to return to the enclave and Karis got changed for the audiences.

He wasn’t able to focus, so he cut the audiences short. He returned and changed and sat brooding over what Ethian had told him. “Your Imperial Majesty, let Prince Ethian ask his questions. He’ll get an answer for you,” Imre suggested, breaking into his thoughts.

Karis sighed. “You are right, Imre. I worry though that I have done something to alienate my sons. I have been trying not to do that. I do not want them to feel I do not care about them.” He paused. “The only one I struggle to find any empathy for is Rhys.”

“He’s hard to feel anything but contempt for, Your Imperial Majesty,” Imre commented wryly. “The others are fundamentally good young men who just needed some direction in their lives. Even Prince Ethian is finding where he fits in with his brothers, and he was struggling with that in the beginning.”

Karis nodded. “His friendship with Fallon is part of what is helping him, I think.”

“That is why Adem and Lucan are so close, and why you will often find the two of them together when they aren’t serving you,” Imre told him. “The two are very close friends. In fact, it was Adem who helped Lucan when he first started working as a member of the Imperial household and the two have been nearly inseparable since.”

“I suppose I should try to finish more of this blasted paperwork before court this evening.” Karis picked up his pad and got to work.

It was a few days later before Ethian requested another lunch interview with his father. Karis welcomed his youngest son’s visit. “I spoke with Fallon, and out of curiosity, I asked the others as well. Well, all the others I am willing to talk to. I sort of ignored Rhys.” Ethian looked a little ashamed he skipped the oldest prince, but Karis didn’t blame him.

“You were simply avoiding the risk of getting hit, Ethian. I do not blame you for avoiding Rhys.” Karis handed his son a glass of juice. He’d learned from Imre that Ethian refused to drink wine except at court.

Ethian smiled in thanks. “So, after talking to everyone, they all agree it’s – it is, I am never going to get this right – you are the emperor first and their father second. That is how they have seen you all their lives. Where I saw my father first and the emperor second and I cannot see it the way they do. Fallon sees it both ways but has been influenced by the others.”

Karis blinked. “I always tried to let them see me as their father before they ever saw the emperor.”

Ethian shrugged. “I cannot tell you why they saw you that way. They did not explain. They just said that is how they see you.”

“You see me differently?” Karis asked.

“When I look at you, I do not immediately see the emperor. I see a man who came to Covus to get me and my mother. I see the man who spent fifteen years looking for us when everyone told him to stop looking. I see a man who cares about me even though he knows so little about me.” Ethian smiled shyly at his father. “I do not see the emperor, though I have seen you as the emperor when we are at court. I see my father.”

Karis felt his eyes burn. Of all his sons, the one he most wanted to find, the one he so desperately wanted back over all the others, was the one who saw him as his father when none of the others seemed to be able to see past his face as the emperor. That was more than he’d expected.

“It bothers me that they see me first as the emperor and second as their father,” Karis told him finally, once he’d gotten himself under control. “I will have to make more of an effort to let them see their father over the emperor.”

“I think part of it is Rhys.” Ethian chewed thoughtfully.

“Rhys?” Karis looked at him inquisitively.

Ethian swallowed and took a sip of his juice. “You kind of have to be the emperor almost all the time when dealing with him. He does not get the loving father because he is a sadist and a bully and none of us like him any more than you do. Did you know his servant quit this morning?”

Karis looked sharply at Imre. Imre nodded. “Josia handed in his resignation this morning, citing abuse by Prince Rhys as the reason. I convinced him to let me keep him employed in the palace, but I promised him I’d remove him from service to Prince Rhys. I’m having a hard time finding a permanent replacement for him. I could barely talk one of the usual backups to go to him today. They all know what to expect.”

“I think Rhys is part of the reason the others see you as the emperor and not as their father. Because the emperor is always present because of Rhys, they do not see the softer side of you very often. I think if Rhys were dealt with – either by getting the arrogance beaten out of him or by being sent away – they would have an easier time seeing their father instead of the emperor,” Ethian continued his thought.

“Nuri is working on breaking down the arrogance,” Karis pointed out.

“Yes, and you would think he would have made some kind of progress by now. It did not take long for Azariah and the rest to make an impression on my other brothers. Rhys seems immune to whatever Nuri does to him.” Ethian scowled. “He is so supremely convinced of his own superiority he calls the rest of us inferior for giving in to the new way of doing things. I have not bothered telling him this is not new to me.”

“What do you think of your scholar teacher? Are you getting along with them?” Karis asked.

Ethian grinned broadly. “Adjira is amazing. She is very much like my mother in the way she teaches me, so I am never bored. It is very easy to pay attention to her, and I am learning a lot.”

Karis smiled. “I am pleased to hear that.” The smile faded into a frown. “I will think about what to do with Rhys. And how to better approach your brothers. I hope your opinion of me never changes, Ethian.”

“I do not think it will.” Ethian hesitated and then asked wistfully, “Do you suppose I could, maybe, have a hug? I know it is not something usually done, but my mother hugged me a lot and I miss that.”

Karis stood and held out his arms to his son. Ethian wrapped his arms around his father. Karis hugged him tightly, remembering all the times he’d embraced his own mother and how affection starved he was when he went to stay with his father. He didn’t want that for Ethian, or any of his sons.

Karis held Ethian until the young man pulled away. “I hope you will ask again if you need that, Ethian.” Karis smiled at him. “I remember how much I needed that when I left my mother. I had no one. You do have someone who will gladly offer the affection you crave when you need it.”

“Thank you, Father.” Ethian glanced at the chronometer. “I had better get back before Reynard comes hunting for me. He hates tardiness.”

Karis chuckled. “Go, and if he gives you a hard time, tell him I kept you late. He can come yell at me.”

“He probably would.” Ethian laughed and hurried out the door.

“Perhaps a private meal with each of your sons, except for Rhys?” Imre suggested. “Unless Rhys shows a marked improvement in his attitude? That way each of your sons gets some private time with you away from the others, they can see your softer side, and no one has to go to court.”

Karis laughed. “I think all the boys would appreciate that one. Start arranging dinner with me every few days for the boys. We will cycle through each of them once a month.”

“I’ll arrange the schedule and let their warmasters and their scholar teachers know, in case dinner goes long,” Imre told him. “Then I’ll block out that time in your schedule so you can’t be bothered.”

“Thank you, Imre.” Karis thought long and hard about what Ethian had told him. He needed to improve his relationship with his sons, sooner rather than later. The last thing he wanted was for his sons to only see him as was a cold, hard man. And he needed to figure out what to do with Rhys. He sat back down with his paperwork and let the thoughts sit in the back of his head as he went through reports and petitions.