Page 87 of Bonded To The Arena Master

"Servants from the three houses confirmed delivery dates. Lower-patrol records place Korgath's messenger at each spire. The copied marks agree across accounts kept by people who had no reason to coordinate before yesterday."

Korgath grips the edge of the stone rail before him.

"This is a human conspiracy built from thieves."

"You accuse your own allies of theft now?" Beatrix asks.

His claws score the stone.

She gives him no time to recover.

"Korgath calls human influence contamination. He calls affection treason. He presents himself as defender of demon purity while his house survives through concealed off-world trade and purchased court support."

Her gaze moves from him to the seven thrones.

"Purity is not his principle. It is his cover. The edict gives him a lawful weapon against a stronger rival while hiding the transactions that preserve his own rank."

The galleries answer with open argument.

Several nobles move away from the three accused lords. A Soz'garoth merchant passes a slate to a Council attendant. Trolvor voices rise from the upper tiers, demanding inspection of the eastern platforms.

Korgath begins toward Beatrix.

I shift one step.

My body enters his path without obscuring her from the Council.

He stops beyond my reach. No title or armor is required for him to remember what I did to his horns and eye.

"The human lies," he says.

"Then the records will fail examination," I answer.

Nothing more.

Beatrix controls the floor.

She removes a thin metallic scroll from beneath the ledger's back cover.

"Korgath's corruption shows what the edict rewards now," she says. "Vulmar's research shows what it feared when written."

At the archivist's name, two older Volvath in the gallery incline their horns.

"Royal Edict Seventeen was not part of the first breeding rules," Beatrix continues. "It was added later, after houses began forming loyalties the Crown could not easily rearrange. Vulmar recovered an earlier draft bearing Asmodeus's revision marks."

An attendant carries the scroll to Zira.

Beatrix reads from her copy.

"The first wording prohibited bonds that create allegiance beyond royal reassignment. Purity appears only in the final version."

The eldest Matron takes the original from Zira and examines its edge.

"The dates?" she asks.

"The draft follows the first household disputes over human transfers," Beatrix says. "Vulmar's lineage ledgers show no change in birth outcomes before and after the edict. It protected Crown control, not demon fertility."

Zira's staff remains across her knees.