However, they were all waiting for exactly the same thing.
For him to grow old.
For him to die.
For House Dawnriver to finally become theirs.
"Not while there’s still Aether flowing through my veins!
The Emperor wants to make House Dawnriver his puppet?
Oh hell no!
Not my house....
No!"
He declared, as after standing silently before the chamber for several long moments, he finally resumed walking before eventually arriving outside the doors of his private study.
Inside, stacks of official reports already awaited his inspection.
Normally, he would have ignored them until morning.
However, tonight, since sleep had abandoned him once again, he decided to go through them at once.
At first, the documents were routine.
Tax records.
Military reports.
Border disputes.
Requests from subsidiary clans.
One document after another passed through his hands without leaving the slightest impression.
Until...
His fingers suddenly stopped.
The seal pressed into the wax belonged to someone House Dawnriver had quietly financed for decades.
The Imperial Anatomist.
However, this was the first letter that the Anatomist had sent in over five years, as just looking at it, Drew’s tired eyes narrowed ever so slightly before he calmly broke the seal and unfolded the letter.
"To the Patriarch of House Dawnriver.
I’m happy to announce that your funding behind my project for all these years....."
The letter began, and as Drew continued reading, one of his eyebrows slowly rose.
"Interesting...."
He muttered eventually, as the emptiness within his eyes gradually disappeared, replaced instead by something that had not been seen there for months.
A desire for vengeance.