A small, weary frown creased Basil's brow. "Why is it that every adult in this palace assumes that because my limbs are short, my eyes must be blind and my ears deaf? Before you scramble for an excuse, Edric. No, no one whispered this in a corridor. No one betrayed a trust. I simply sat with the facts until they aligned. It was not a difficult map to draw."
He turned back to the garden, "Of course, I harbored a sliver of doubt, that perhaps I was wrong. But your face... it provided all the confirmation I need. Truth be told, I did not expect my father to follow through with such a stroke....I... I always believed him a cynic man. This act... it may have left no names in the official record, but it left bloody footprints across the threshold."
