Chapter 104: The Hanging King, Tudor III |
Aiwas is surprised to learn Haina hails from Eagle Cape Village, his father’s hometown, noting her lack of makeup or fashion sense, relying on natural charm. Her plain attire—brown shirt, leather vest, and a diamond-patterned wristguard—evokes a bygone explorer’s style. Sherlock, pale and disoriented, confirms it’s no coincidence, searching for honey. Mina, recognizing low blood sugar, serves him honeyed tea, which he downs, collapsing into a chair. Still groggy, he fumbles for nonexistent cigarettes, frustrated by Mathers’s ban due to smoke sensitivity and Illumination’s taxing healing, which burns pain but leaves the body to recover naturally.
Sherlock, revived by tea, biscuits, and hot brandy (laced with apple juice, cinnamon, ginger, and lemon zest by Mina), explains he investigated Aiwas and Haina. Haina attended the Royal Law University because she knew Aiwas’s grandfather, Jacob, a lesser-known poet, fairy tale writer, and novelist. Once a reporter for Cow and Harbor in Eagle Cape, Jacob encountered superhumans and witnessed the formation of the Red Nobility Society’s precursor, the “Scaleless Hand”—a group of illegal Transcendence path superhumans uniting for mutual support.
Under King Tudor III, the “Hanging King,” the era’s hallmark was the “Hanging Square,” filled with gallows. Harsh laws sentenced thieves to death for stealing over 14 red candles (less than one white crown), leading judges to falsify amounts to 13 candles, 9 copper hourglasses, imposing ten-day detentions instead. Detainees were often re-jailed to “split” the theft amount. Mathers recalls a childhood joke: a thief, sentenced to eleven days, begged for mercy, fearing death, as Tudor, unable to count past ten, killed for excess. Another jest had Tudor claim he’d killed all enemies, pleasing allies, revealing his tyranny.
Aiwas calls Tudor a tyrant, a breach of Avalon etiquette, but no one objects, as Sherlock, the only Authority path member, holds no title. He praises Queen Sophia’s reforms, easing tensions, but notes her success stemmed from Tudor’s unpopularity, reducing resistance to her changes. Mathers adds that resentment against the crown persisted, birthing the Scaleless Hand, which became the Red Nobility Society.
Sherlock, sipping brandy he uses medicinally, reveals Jacob was a Transcendence path curse ritualist and Scaleless Hand member, shocking Aiwas and Mathers, who hadn’t heard of “curse ritualist” in years.
(Chapter End)