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."You look like you've seen a ghost?"Einn caught Cyan as he continued to step back away from the High Chancellor, steadying himwith hands at his hips."Cy& are you okay?"Though he barely heard the Fornarian, he unconsciously relaxed a bit at the feel of his hands.Heshook his head, and frowned at Gory."Is it true?"Gory blinked, "Is what true?""What& what my brother said about you?" Cyan examined Gory's face, searching for somethingthere."Jade? We've not spoken in ages, beyond business matters.So I have no idea what he might havesaid about me.Perhaps if you explained?"On some level, Cyan knew this was neither the time nor the place for such a discussion.But& seeing Gory, with his brother's words echoing in his head, he found he could not simply'let it go' as he had hoped he'd be able to upon seeing the man that had once been his parents' bestfriend.Jade just had to be wrong - and he'd find out now, he didn't give a damn where they wereor who was witness.He shook his head, some of his color returning as determination took overthe sickening dismay he'd felt before."Jade said you killed mom and dad.Did you?"As his words registered, he could feel a heavy silence fall around him, the result of complete andutter shock.At his hips, he felt Einn's hands tighten, a hiss of surprise coming from above him.He looked up briefly at Einn, taking some comfort in the concern he saw there, and then returnedhis attention to Gory."That-" Gory had paled just a bit, though Cyan could not tell why."That's preposterous.Howcould either of you even think to suggest such a thing? Don't you think I have enough problemswith these accusations flying around, and now the children of my best friends are accusing me ofmurdering them? Blue, you know me better than that.""Don't call me that!" Cyan exploded.Even Einn jumped briefly at the unexpected outburst.Heglared at Gory, "Did you kill them?""Where are you getting such absurd ideas? You storm off because of a spat with your brother,never send me any sort of letter or call, and now that I finally see you again, your idea of agreeting is to accuse me of murdering my best friends?" The beginning of anger tightened hismouth, flared in his eyes."How dare you?" "He dares because he's a fool," a smooth voice replied from behind Gory.The High Chancellorspun around, startled, to glare into Jade's pretty, frozen face."Though in this case he's alsocorrect."Chapter Twenty-fourPlanet 00000000 (Zero), Palace of Eternity"You killed our parents," Jade said calmly.Gory stepped aside as Pyotr guided Jade to join the others, forming a solid group against thedumbfounded Gory.He remained silent, unobtrusively thumbing a button on the remote hiddenin the pocket of his formal black and silver robes, identical to those of Gory and Jade."You'rebeing preposterous.""No, I'm not." He still spoke in a calm, almost idle tone."Unfortunately, my plans have goneawry and I can't see you rot the way I would have liked.No thanks to my moronic brother and aman I mistakenly trusted," his cool eyes flicked briefly to Pyotr, who stared back and thenlooked away.Jade returned his gaze to Gory."You killed mom and dad.""Ridiculous.You're insane.""I AM NOT INSANE!" Jade snarled, his calm façade dissolving."You killed my parents, andthen you had the nerve to hold me while I cried, while their bodies were wrapped up and hauledaway like so much garbage.You held me and all the time you were the one who pulled thetrigger! Don't try to tell me you didn't!"Gory frowned, looking concerned.He turned to Pyotr, "Shouldn't we be getting to the inquiry?Surely these absurd accusations can wait.There's no call for this behavior - surely you agree?""Shut up," Cyan said before Pyotr could speak."If you really are innocent, Gory, I'll be the firstto silence Jade - and gladly.But if he's right, I want to know now."Pyotr and the others remained silent, the only other people in the private hallway leading fromthe Chancellery offices to the court rooms and meeting halls.Jade turned to sneer at his brother, "Finally deciding not to be a coward?""To hell with you, Jade." Cyan gazed stonily at his brother."All I wanted was my quiet life.You've effectively ruined that - I just want to put an end to all of this and leave it behind me.That includes you.""I won't be sorry to see you go." "You're both crazy," Gory said as Jade finished speaking.Jade glared at him hatefully."I'm getting sick of people saying that about me.I'm not the bastardwho killed my best friend and his wife and then pretended to comfort their sobbing child, andhelp the children cope, and then ever so gracefully accepted the promotion to High Chancellor.""Absurd," Gory said, anger growing."I don't understand why you keep saying such hatefulthings
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