The invitation arrived at Veskara Keep barely a week after Kael's confrontation with Halvard, carried by an official courier bearing the crown's seal rather than the careful, indirect channels their correspondence had relied upon for months, and Elira understood immediately, reading its formal, unusually gracious language, that something about its arrival demanded considerably more suspicion than its polished wording suggested.
Lady Elira, the letter read, in a hand she recognized as belonging to one of the dowager's own secretaries, the crown wishes to extend an invitation for you to attend a private audience regarding recent developments concerning your circumstances. Given certain irregularities that have come to light involving Minister Halvard's conduct, His Majesty and the dowager b
