Lirian walked up to the podium and gave a friendly smile, "Thank you for the gift my Lady," he said simply and looked at the reporters with a devilish smile, that looked totally adorable to anyone that didn't know him.
"I don't have much to say really, an assassination attempt is part of my daily routine and I've been taking care to schedule around them," he started thoughtfully raising a hand to his chin as the cameras increased their focus on him.
"It is just a few minutes of my time every day, perhaps I should thank the fools for keeping my life interesting." he laughed and the reports, laughed along nervously, wondering how a child so small speak about assassinations as if it was no big deal.
Taliyah was glad the cameras weren't on her because she rolled her eyes and almost did a facepalm, Lirian really knew how to be checky sometimes and it left her feeling slightly embarrassed by his actions.
"Oh, that's right," he feigned remembering something important, "I forgot to say the most important thing," he shook his head like he was disappointed in himself and then continued to grin at the cameras.
"I would like to offer my most sincere thanks to..." he paused deliberately and let a small smirk creep onto his face, "The Lady in the shadows, if not for your gracious plans how could I ever have gotten such a lovely gift from the Jane family."
The reporters didn't understand what he was saying, but without a doubt it had some hidden meaning to the nobility otherwise he would just sound stupid.
Lady Elizabeth looked at him with a tight frown, then she glanced at the empress, only to see her calm face.
She naturally knew what, 'the lady in the shadows', meant and she couldn't understand how it played any role in what happened.
She cast a dreary glance at the cause of this fiasco, Alastor, only to see that he looked more confused than her.
She had naturally agreed to pay the ransom for Alastor, but that was only because she had to maintain face for her family.
When they returned he would be facing a private execution with the families higher-ups, for his actions.
In fact, the only reason she thought that the empress had chosen to spare the Jane family was due to their long-standing friendship and support.
However to her surprise and shock after paying the ransom the prince candidate had insisted that the family spare Alastor.
However, his plea for mercy on Alastor's behalf came with the condition, that Alastor ought to be banished from the family in all but name.
Meaning that Alastor would still hold the family name, but hold none of his rights as a member of the family.
And lastly, he requested that Alastor be stationed in the school, to continue acting as a combat training teacher.
She thought that it was ridiculous, until to her shock, the empress approved of his idea and implored her to do as she was suggested.
The whole thing made her feel confused and now them dragging the 'the lady in the shadows,' which was the secret identity that Efrideet used to use when she was young.
She slowly shook her head as she tried and failed to make sense of the situation,
---
As Lirian finished his short speech he glanced at Telamon who was a part of the crowd and mouthed a few words.
'Is that where you're watching from?' he mouthed in amusement and turned to leave the podium without bothering to answer any question from the raging journalist.
Alastor climbed onto the stage shortly after and began a very long apology speech to Lirian and the residents of Xelia.
When Lirian got back to his seat he glanced at Telamon and could see his body shaking slightly.
Initially, there was something that Lirian had overlooked, he was so used to using his power as a god for reference, that he forgot that, even diviners had a limit as to how far they could manipulate someone from.
Needless to say that for a diviner 100-star zones away, it was an impossible task, she was no great diviner and she most certainly was no fate spinner.
The only possible method for her to manipulate someone from so far away was by using a living conduit.
When he thought of that he remembered that the message of Efrideet observing him only happened after he spoke to Telamon, and when he looked at it that way there was no way that anyone could convince him that Telamon wasn't working with Efrideet.
Telamon was acting as the conduit for her to manipulate Alastor, and he did it full well knowing what the consequences would be for him and his mother.
Whether the plan succeeded or failed the consequences would have been dire, had it been anyone of his mother's past children, Efrideet's involvement would have remained unnoticed and Taliyah would have taken serious action against the Jane family.
He thought on Telamons motives but couldn't place it after all he did raise Taliyah and turn her into someone worthy of being an empress.
'I'll just have to shuffle around in his history,' he thought, there were tons of stories in history talking about The Rise of Empress Taliyah Clovis and Telamon was a pivotal character in that piece of history, and there were numerous tales of the many emperors and empress's he served.
Lirian thought that he'd start with the second emperor Telamon served, Emperor Albert Clovis he was an emperor that committed suicide after handing over the reins to his successor, it seemed like the juicier history could be found there.
It was going to be a chore, after all, the history books he had access to were definitely too biased and he'd have to make conjecture after failed conjecture just to find a common thread, without the system verifying his conjectures it would be an impossible task for sure, but it was something he had to do.
---
A hundred-star zones away light moved around and took form, reflecting the images of the press conference on Xelia, it all happened in what appeared to be a glowing bowl, but if anyone who knew the secrets of the seven great civilizations history saw it, they would recognize the historical piece for it what it was.
One of the lost basins left behind by the great diviner Quaria.