the timid bride

# Chapter 80 – Shadows at Court

The air inside the palace had grown heavier.

Though peace had returned to the kingdom, a creeping silence fell over the corridors, where once-busy advisors now walked in hushed tones. Zara felt it most at night—in the stillness of the candlelit halls, in the subtle shift of gazes from the guards, in the phantom echo of footsteps that were not her own.

The message had been clear: Not all your enemies are dead.

In response, Zara launched a quiet investigation. She entrusted no more than three people—Damon, Amara, and an old archivist named Thorne who had served the royal family since her grandfather's reign. Thorne knew the palace's every tunnel and hidden passage. If there were secrets buried within its walls, he would find them.

They started with the vaults beneath the throne room—an old catacomb-turned-storage chamber. It was here Thorne discovered an aged ledger sealed with a red wax sigil. The handwriting matched that of Queen Iliana, Zara's great-aunt, a ruler once ousted during a quiet palace coup.

"This..." Thorne whispered as he read through the document, "is proof that secret alliances have existed in the royal court for generations. Some were hidden under religious cover. Others beneath old merchant guilds."

Zara took the book and studied it by torchlight. Names leapt off the page—many were familiar, ancestors of nobles who had recently fallen in Corshal's rebellion.

One name was not.

**"Marcellus Vane."**

"He served as the king's master of coin fifty years ago," Damon recalled. "Disgraced and exiled. No record of death."

"He had children," Zara said quietly. "And one of them may still be here."

---

The next day, Zara called a formal council. But it was not for politics. It was for observation. She needed to see how her court reacted when placed under pressure. Damon stood at her side. Amara pretended to serve as guard detail, eyes scanning every face.

Zara made an announcement that shook the hall:

"A list of traitors has resurfaced," she said. "One includes a bloodline tied to the old coup that nearly collapsed this kingdom. I intend to expose every name."

Some in the court looked unsurprised. A few tried to look concerned. But one man turned pale as snow.

Lord Fenric.

A merchant baron who had gained influence quickly during the war by donating supplies. He had often gone unnoticed, a minor figure overshadowed by louder voices. But now Zara focused solely on him.

"Lord Fenric," she said slowly. "Your father's name was... Casen Vane, was it not?"

Gasps filled the room.

Fenric stammered, "That's... a common name."

"Not when it's signed in the blood ledger of Queen Iliana's downfall," Zara said. "I have your ancestor's seal. And your family's records of exile."

The man bolted.

He barely reached the door before Amara tackled him to the ground. Guards rushed in. The court erupted in stunned whispers.

Zara stood slowly. "This is not vengeance. This is cleansing. Let it be known—we are not just rebuilding walls. We are purging rot."

---

That evening, Zara stood on the old balcony outside her chambers, the ledger in her hands.

"It never ends," she said to Damon as he joined her. "You pull one weed, and ten more sprout beneath the stones."

Damon handed her a cup of tea. "Then we build with steel instead of soil. Walls that cannot be undermined. Laws that do not bend to bloodlines."

She looked out over the quiet city, heart heavy but resolute.

"This kingdom is no longer ruled by whispers," she said. "It is ruled by light. And I will not let it dim again."