The Alpha Kings And Their Stripper Mate

Chapter 229: Chapter 229: Cassius

Eve looked at the wall ahead of her.

Seven days.

"What does the hearing actually determine," she said.

"Formally.....whether your claim meets the legal threshold for consideration. Whether you have standing to pursue the succession." Seraphine glanced at her. "In practice...it’s a public assessment. Everything on record. Your lineage, your capability, your fitness to rule. Malachai controls two of the five voices on that panel. He’ll use them."

"And the other three."

"One is genuinely neutral.....Elder Vassin, been on the bench for sixty years, decides based on evidence and nothing else." A pause. "One is Merchant faction. Cassius’s people."

"Cassius who came to us yesterday," Eve said.

"Yes."

"And the fifth."

Seraphine was quiet for a moment.

"The fifth seat is vacant," she said. "Has been for three years. The previous holder died and the appointment has been.....contested." Something in her voice that was careful. "Malachai has been blocking the appointment. The seat will likely remain empty for the hearing."

Eve processed this.

Two seats Malachai controlled. One neutral. One Merchant faction.....unconfirmed. One empty.

He only needed the panel to split. A tie went to the existing power structure. Which meant Malachai.

"He doesn’t need to win," Eve said. "He just needs to not lose."

"Correct," Seraphine said.

They’d reached the end of the corridor. Seraphine stopped and turned to face her.

"I want to be honest with you," she said.

"Please," Eve said.

"Seven days is not enough time." Seraphine held her gaze steadily. "Not for the case I would want to build. Not for the witnesses I would want to call, the documentation I would want to present." A pause. "He chose seven days specifically because it isn’t enough time."

"I know," Eve said.

"You’re going to walk into that hearing at a disadvantage," Seraphine said. "Malachai on his own ground, his own timeline, two votes already in his pocket before anyone opens their mouth." She paused. "I want you to understand that before you decide how to proceed."

Eve looked at her.

"Are you asking if I want to contest the acceleration," she said.

"I’m asking what you want to do," Seraphine said. "There are grounds to challenge the timeline. It would delay the hearing....likely another thirty days while the challenge is processed." A pause. "It would also signal that you’re not ready. That you needed more time."

The corridor was quiet.

Eve thought about Malachai at his desk this morning.

Then she said....."We don’t contest it,"

Seraphine looked at her.

"He wants me to look unprepared," Eve said. "Contesting the timeline gives him that for free." She held Seraphine’s gaze. "We accept the seven days. And we use them."

A long moment.

Something shifted in Seraphine’s expression. Not surprise exactly. More like.....confirmation of something she’d been waiting to see.

"All right," she said. "Then we start today."

She turned and started walking back.

"One more thing," Eve said.

Seraphine stopped.

"The fifth seat," Eve said. "The vacant one. Who has the authority to fill it."

Seraphine turned slowly.

"The current sitting panel," she said. "Majority vote. Three of the four remaining seats." A pause. "Why."

Eve looked at her.

"Because Malachai controls two," she said. "The neutral elder makes three if we can get him. And Cassius’s seat makes four." She paused. "If the panel votes to fill the vacancy before the hearing.....that seat doesn’t stay empty."

The corridor was very quiet.

Seraphine looked at her for a long moment.

"Your father," she said finally, "used to do that too. Find the door everyone had forgotten was a door."

She turned and kept walking.

"Come," she said. "We have seven days." frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓

Eve followed her out of the room.

****

They assembled at nine.

Seraphine’s war room was smaller than Eve had expected....a round table, six chairs, maps and documents already spread across the surface like Seraphine had been working since before the knock on Eve’s door. Probably had been.

Raphael was already seated when Eve arrived. Damian beside him. Damon leaning against the wall in the way he did when he was too restless to sit. Elena near the window, quiet and present.

Eve sat down.

"Seven days," Seraphine said, and the room went still. "The acceleration was formally approved twenty minutes ago. Elder Vassin cast the deciding vote." A pause. "He approved the timeline, which tells us nothing about how he’ll vote at the hearing itself. Vassin doesn’t telegraph."

"What do we know about him," Damian said.

"Sixty years on the bench. Never been bought. Never been pressured successfully." Seraphine looked at her hands on the table. "He decides based on evidence. Documentation. Precedent." She looked up. "Which means our strongest play with him is the lineage record. Unimpeachable proof of Eve’s bloodline, her parents’ standing, the legitimacy of the claim."

"I can build that," Raphael said. "I was there. I have primary documentation....letters, formal records, testimony I can put on paper." He paused. "I need two days."

"You have one," Seraphine said.

Raphael looked at her.

"Malachai will file preliminary motions the moment the hearing is confirmed," Seraphine said. "He’ll try to establish the evidentiary framework before we can. If our documentation isn’t submitted first it gets treated as responsive rather than foundational." A pause. "Foundational carries more weight."

"One day," Raphael said. Flat. Accepting.

"The fifth seat," Eve said.

Everyone looked at her.

"Seraphine told me the panel can vote to fill the vacancy," she said. "Majority vote. Three of four." She looked around the table. "If we move on that before the hearing, the seat doesn’t stay empty. That changes the math."

Silence.

"It also requires Vassin," Damian said.

"Yes," Eve said. "Him and Cassius. Malachai’s two seats vote no automatically. We need both remaining seats to vote yes."

"Vassin won’t move on it before the hearing," Seraphine said. "Not without process. He’ll say the vacancy has been pending for three years and appointing someone in the week before a contested hearing looks like interference." She paused. "He’d be right."

Eve sat with that.

"Then Cassius," she said.

"Cassius is the hearing," Damon said from the wall. "If he votes with Malachai it’s two-two with the empty seat and the tie goes to existing power structure." He looked at Eve. "If he votes with us it’s two against two confirmed votes and the neutral seat deciding."

"Which is Vassin," Damian said. "Who decides on evidence."

"So we need Cassius," Eve said. "And we need our documentation strong enough that Vassin can’t look away from it."

"Yes," Seraphine said. "That’s the hearing."

The room was quiet for a moment.

Raphael looked at Eve. "You’re going to Cassius yourself."

Not a question.

"Yes," she said.

Damian looked at her. She looked back at him.

"I go alone," she said. Before he could say it. "Merchant faction. He’s been watching since I arrived....he’s already decided I’m interesting. What I need now is for him to decide I’m worth the risk." She paused. "That’s a different conversation. It doesn’t happen with backup in the room."

Damian’s jaw was set.

"She’s right," Damon said quietly, from the wall.

Damian looked at his brother.

"She’s right," Damon said again. "You know she’s right."

Damian looked back at Eve. "I’ll be outside the building."

"Fine," she said.

"Not down the corridor. Outside the building."

"Damian."

"That’s the offer," he said. "Take it."

She held his gaze for a second.

"Fine," she said.