"Tell me every single thing. Don't you dare skip a single detail." Alaric screamed.
"This 'Master Riku'," the footman continued, his voice barely audible, "he suspected something. He asked to search the room and found the stone in the decorative bowl… and broke it. A red mist came out of it, My Lord. They all saw it."
Alaric staggered back as if struck, collapsing into a nearby chair. "Broken? The mist seen? That… that changes everything! That upstart commoner! How could he know?"
"Now, now, Alaric, my dear." A calm, silken voice emerged from the depths of a high-backed armchair near the fireplace, where it had been hidden in the deep shadows. "Such theatrics. It's unbecoming."
