✦ Chapter 7: Brothers in Discord ✦
356 Words
The knock at my chamber doors came sooner than expected.
I did not need to ask who it was.
“Enter.”
Colton and Ashton stepped inside, their expressions set, the air shifting the moment they crossed the threshold. The chamber felt smaller with them present, walls pressing in beneath the weight of unspoken tension. Neither bowed. Not out of disrespect—but because we were brothers before we were anything else.
That truth had once been a comfort.
Tonight, it felt like a fracture.
They stood where generals once stood to receive orders, yet neither waited for instruction. Silence stretched between us, heavy and deliberate, thick with restraint, until the subject we all avoided finally surfaced.
The engagement.
Colton broke first, his voice edged with barely restrained contempt. “This alliance is an insult. The Qing offer us weakness wrapped in silk and expect gratitude in return.”
Ashton scoffed, arms crossed, his gaze sharp and unyielding. “And do not look at me to solve it. I will not marry her in your place.”
Their words overlapped, arguments colliding as tempers rose. Pride. Strategy. Appearances. Each of them convinced he spoke for the empire’s best interests. Each unwilling to shoulder the consequence himself.
Perhaps they were right.
But with every word, the distance between us widened.
Where I sought unity, I found resistance.
Where I expected support, I met refusal—measured, reasoned, and unwavering.
It was not betrayal.
But it was isolation all the same.
I raised a hand.
Silence fell at once.
I straightened, the familiar weight of command settling into place, steady and unforgiving. If this burden could not be shared, then it would be borne alone—as so many others had been.
“I will address this directly,” I said. “There will be no more delays.”
Neither brother objected.
That, more than their earlier protests, told me everything.
I turned toward the window, the city lights flickering far below, already anticipating what lay ahead.
I would hasten my audience with the Qing Emperor.
And I would face the princess at the center of this farce.
- Writer
