A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

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Quarter Inheriting was a mechanism exclusively reserved for those who feared their position of inheritor would be taken away. It was invented for those people. An older daughter, of eighteen, might Quarter Inherent if she feared a newborn son would take away her inheritance. It was a mechanism that allowed the inheritor some degree of power to keep his position.

Theoretically, children of any age could Quarter Inherent, but in reality, it was only done by those that had established retainers of their own. Quarter Inheriting was only truly effective if one could attract powerful allies to swear fealty the instant that they did it.

For such a reason, it was actually more commonly seen in recent years amongst the small number of royal houses, rather than amongst the nobility – for the royalty had no trouble attracting vows of fealty. It was an honour and a boon to any noble house to be in close service to a royal. If they could fill one of the Five Pillars of a royal house, they would be set for life.

That was the reason for the excitement of the nobles within the audience. Even ordinary nobles could be chosen for a position as a Pillar, they didn't have to be a Lord, though a Lord was considerably more likely to be chosen. They waited with bated breath to see who Asabel would announce.

The pain on the young woman's face was obvious as she was forced to use her Quarter Inheritance, but she did not look any weaker for it. With her golden hair, and her golden dress, she was the very image of a lioness, as she continued to prowl around the unhuntable behemoth, searching for its neck.

"I have been privy to more of this trial than I likely ought to have been, given my placement outside of it," Asabel admitted. "It was my great honour to have the discussions that took place therein relayed to me, as was my right, as it is the right of any noble, who wishes to follow a trial from without.

Regardless, I did take particular interest in the conflict between the Blackthorn and Idris houses and their children," Asabel said, and immediately the two Lords stiffened in surprise when called upon. They'd never had any particularly close dealing with Asabel before then, nor with the Pendragons. As far as houses went, the two tended to keep away from royalty and the intrigues of the court.

"I admired the discussions that you had, despite your disagreements," she said, her voice tinged with sadness, as she reflected on the discussions that she'd had with her own father, and realized the wedge that she was now driving between the two of them, in doing what she did.

But it was bound to happen, one day. Their ideals were simply too different. Her father scorned what Arthur had tried to achieve, whilst Asabel saw the beauty in it. It was today, or it was no day. She could not simply turn a blind eye when she knew exactly what was happening, and she had the power to prevent it, if she simply had the strength to grasp that power.

"I wonder, Lord Idris, would you ever see the conflict between yourself and your son ending?" Asabel asked. It was incredible the amount of genuineness she could put into such a question, as though she truly cared about the outcome of father and son between a pair of strangers.

Idris shifted uncomfortably. "There seems to be something there that I had not noticed before, Your Highness…" Idris said carefully. "I would have considerably more respect for my son if I did not see him running away from his duties as an heir."

"And you, Lord Blackthorn, what of your daughter? It seemed to me that you were proud of her, for all that had happened," Asabel said, looking to the giant barrel of a man that was Lord Blackthorn.

"…Strength is worth taking pride in," Lord Blackthorn said, a little defensively. He seemed to be unsure what to make of the royal, despite everyone else's excitement.

Asabel smiled at that. As angrily as Blackthorn had chastised his daughter earlier on, he seemed to be quicker to accept her apparent skill with the sword than one would otherwise expect him to be. True, he strongly held that a woman's duty was elsewhere, once she came of age, but here in the Academy, he saw no harm in his daughter being good at the blade.

The harm he saw was in her keeping the company of Oliver Patrick to do so. It didn't seem a worthy sacrifice in his eyes, not when she would have to give up the blade later on, once she came of age.

"It seems that it is Oliver that is to thank for her recent progress…" Asabel noted lightly, to see what sort of reaction that would provoke out of Blackthorn. He stiffened. Of course, it had been mentioned earlier on, but he was a single-minded man. He'd heard of his daughter's strength, and focused on that instead.

"…Unsurprising," he murmured. "Steel sharpens steel, after all."

A more diplomatic response than one would expect from such a battle-frenzied individual. With just a few words, he managed a simple wisdom that had escaped the rest of the nobles gathered there. He did not dismiss Oliver's strength. He knew better than anyone just how strong the Patricks were.

His feelings on them were a separate matter, as were the politics that he had to play – that his wife suggested that they play.

"As both your children – Lord Idris and Lord Blackwell – seem to have close ties with Oliver Patrick, would you begrudge making such ties yourself?" Asabel suggested, ever so meekly. Lancelot had to bite his lip to keep his face straight, and by now even the rest of the crowd was following.

"…It would depend on the nature of that arrangement," Idris said. Blackthorn hadn't said a word, he'd merely waited. When he'd decided that he could not summon up the answer, he'd been looking at the Lord Idris instead, to see what the more cunning man thought of such an offer.