The Rogues Who Went Rogue
Chapter 112

As soon as the vigils returned to vampire territory after the investigation of the hut and hideout in mid-afternoon, they made their way to the castle once again. Outside Pellethia's study, Duica took a deep breath, knocked twice, and waited. "Who is it?" Pellethia's familiar voice came from inside.

"It's VIG 001, Your Majesty."

"Come in, Duica," came the reply.

Duica was surprised. That was the first time the empress had said his name. Dominic nudged him and teased through their mind-link, 'She might have a favorite after all!'

After Duica rolled his eyes, he opened the door and Pellethia, who was seated looked up from the map spread open on her desk, Octavia was half-seated on the armrest of the empress's chair with one leg on the floor as her furrowed brows flattened just slightly to acknowledge the vigils' presence.

They were trying to guess where the tunnel of the hideout from the Forest of Oderem could lead to before Duica's knock came. The lycans had moved the rocks and boulders but it just led to a dead end because Klementine demolished her accommodation after everyone left her place, thus covering her end of the tunnel.

"Your Majesties," the vigils addressed the rulers in unison.

Pellethia did a mental headcount and asked, "What did you replace, and why are there only twenty-four of you? Where are the other two?"

Duica responded, "One of our own was injured, Your Majesty, and the other one brought her to the hospital. Her leg went right through the floorboard of a dilapidated hut in the forest behind the beach we were sent to, and the accident was actually how we found this." He came forward, placed the pen on her desk and stepped back to wait. Pellethia glanced at the pen before her eyes scanned the vigils again, and she asked, "Who's injured? Portia or Bernadette?"

"B-Bernadette, Your Majesty. My apologies, I should've been clearer."

"It's no issue." Pellethia muttered monotonously.

When did the empress even learn their names?

The truth was that Pellethia and Octavia had always known their names, all twenty-six of them, but because of the constant need to make their authoritative position clear to the vigils and the ministers watching Pellethia instructing them, the empress had chosen to address them by their code ever since she ascended the throne.

Recently, Pellethia had watched how Lucianne and Xandar addressed everyone by name, regardless of their position, and the empress liked the fact that everyone, even her own people tended to speak more freely when they were addressed by name, so she decided to give this change a chance.

Pellethia lifted the pen that Duica placed on her desk to study it. Out of curiosity, she opened the cap and scribbled on the square notepad, which was when Duica said, "I tried that, Your Majesty. The ink dried up long ago. But what is peculiar is the carving." "Yes. A...patterned-circle," Pellethia murmured as she studied the carving with her consort.

"Anything else?" Octavia prompted them to continue.

They gave information about the smell, the covered trails and the hideout underneath the abandoned car. Pellethia groaned aloud when they said whoever was there escaped. Again. And how the downpour only made things worse. "How long do we have to keep doing this?" Pellethia murmured to herself.

As Octavia stroked her tense shoulders, Duica said, "We're d-doing everything we can, Your Majesties. Finding the abductees has never been anything but our top priority, I can assure you."

The rulers realized that there had been a misunderstanding. The vigils thought they were being blamed when Pellethia was just complaining out of fatigue and frustration. She said, “We've never doubted that, Duica. We know you're all doing your best."

Her sights returned to the pen that meant absolutely nothing to her before she declared, "I'll ask their Highnesses about this, and we'll see if there are any leads from there. For now," her eyes went to the grandfather's clock as she said, "I only need two of you to stay behind to help with the talk I'm going to have with Maddock in fifteen minutes. The rest of you can go home after checking on Bernadette. Send us a status on her condition once you do."

A shocked pause before they snapped out of it as they uttered, "As you wish, Your Majesties."

Duica and Dominic stayed behind, and they were asked to stay in the study when custom dictated that they waited outside. They stood around awkwardly until Octavia gestured them to the chairs in front of Pellethia's desk.

Their immediate, conventional response would be to refuse such a gesture since they weren't going to be the one who was going to be questioned soon, but seeing that the consort insisted and the empress didn't object as her eyes returned to the map, they sat in the very comfortable sapphire-colored chairs.

Dominic was even beginning to get very comfortable feeling the velvet of the seat with his fingers, and where he sat offered a very good angle of the grandfather's clock that was passed down from the late Emperor Kosh. It fascinated him because he had the same one given to him by his parents.

Octavia handed the vigils the file that would concern Maddock's matter when he arrived, and the two vigils combed through the papyrus pages together, realizing very quickly that it wasn't as thick as it was made to seem. A third of the thin document had been redacted. At two minutes to 5 pm, there was a knock on the door. After Pellethia gave permission, the servants allowed the former Viscount to enter. He bowed, and took the only empty seat left after Pellethia gestured him there. Maddock didn't even bother masking his surprise when he saw the vigils seated. Had their Majesties forgotten yet another royal custom that they were allowing such disrespect from commoners?

Pellethia began by going straight to the point, "Maddock, what do you know about hybrids?"

Maddock made a wild guess, "It sounds like what the word suggests, Your Majesty. The product of two different species."

"Like a vampire and a lycan, yes?"

"I suppose."

Pellethia then asked, "Do you remember any vampire being with a lycan by any chance?"

The vigils were watching his reaction as well. Maddock checked his cards and said, "Once."

"And what happened in that case?"

"If memory serves me, the late Emperor Kosh ordered the execution of Lady Luisa Lybarth and her mate, a lycan official named Heros Pas."

"And?"

"That's...all I know, Your Majesty. I suggest studying the file containing this particular c—"

"I have studied the file, Maddock, and do you want to know what I found?" Pellethia lifted the folder she handed to the vigils earlier, and flipped to the pages that troubled her before she lifted it up and showed it to him as she said, "Most of what I want to know have been redacted. So here's my question: why?" "I wouldn't have the faintest clue, Your Majesty. The execution was a closed case long before the late emperor's death."

"You don't know who redacted a case in the royal archives, despite being the only one who will be given access to do such a thing because you led the case?"

"I didn't do it, Your Majesty, if that is what you're suggesting."

"What I'm suggesting is that you know more than what you want me to know."

A brief moment of silence followed, and Maddock looked between the increasingly angry rulers before he eventually said, "When the plan was executed, I was sworn to secrecy, Your Majesties."