For a brief moment, Aurelian said nothing.
Orvain's words sounded simple, but there was too much weight behind them to answer carelessly.
A senior branch head of the Arcturus family had just told him that he was willing to shift the future of his branch toward the Crownward March and place its assets under Aurelian's authority in the region.
That was not a small favor.
That was not even normal support.
That was a branch looking for a new road and offering to walk it under his banner.
Aurelian looked toward the pond beside the garden path and let his thoughts settle.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, he felt almost apologetic toward his father, because Orvain had clearly once treated Cassian as the branch's safest future pillar.
Now, Aurelian had returned from the frontier and accidentally stolen that position before he even knew it existed.
He could almost imagine Cassian's expression if he said that out loud.
That thought made Aurelian want to sigh.
