A few quiet days had passed since the World Tree, since Ivy and Frost had gone their separate ways with new titles and new burdens, since the estate had finally settled back into something resembling normal life. Arthur had made a point of keeping those days deliberately ordinary, no meetings, no monarchs, no gates. Just the four of them, and George, and a house that had, for once, nothing more urgent on its schedule than an afternoon in the garden.
The grand garden behind the estate caught the late sunlight beautifully this time of year, long golden light filtering through the old oaks that lined its far edge, and Arthur had claimed a spot on the wide stone bench near the fountain with Kara curled against his side, watching George a short distance away as he walked slow, careful circles across the lawn, Aurora cradled expertly in his arms.
"You're doing the voice again," Kara said, laughing softly, watching George murmur something low and theatrical to the baby.
"I am reciting a perfectly reasonable summary of Gotham's history, Lady Kara," George said with great dignity, not breaking stride. "Every young heiress ought to know the provenance of her own home."
"She's ten days old, George and she is not an heiress to all of Gotham.."
"One is never too young to begin a proper education."
Raven, stretched out on a garden chair with a book she wasn't really reading, snorted quietly into the pages. "He's going to have her reciting property deeds by the time she's two."
"I regard that as a modest and achievable goal," George said primly.
Arthur simply watched, something easy and unguarded in his expression that hadn't been there nearly often enough these past week, no arenas, no cosmic tyrants, just warm light and his daughter's soft, sleepy babbling drifting across the lawn. He hadn't realized, until just this moment, exactly how much he'd needed an afternoon like this. He'd promised himself, the day she was born, that she would have this, an ordinary childhood, whatever pieces of one he could manage to carve out from everything else he carried.
"You look relaxed," Kara said quietly, watching his face.
"I feel relaxed," Arthur admitted. "It's been a while."
"Enjoy it," Raven said, not looking up from her book. "Knowing our luck, something's going to..."
The air near the garden's edge split open without warning, a pale, colorless shimmer of light unfolding into the shape of a tall, unassuming figure in plain robes, his features calm in a way that felt artificially serene.
Raven closed her book slowly. "...ruin it. Yeah. There it is."
Arthur was on his feet before the person had even finished materializing, every trace of his earlier ease gone in an instant, replaced by something far colder.
"You have exactly one sentence," Arthur said, "to explain why you thought it was acceptable to appear, uninvited, in my home. During a private moment. With my family present."
The person inclined his head, entirely undeterred by the venom in Arthur's voice. "Shadow Monarch. I come on behalf of the Rulers."
"An Emissary. That wasn't an explanation for the timing," Arthur said. "That was a title."
"The Rulers felt the matter was urgent enough to warrant immediate delivery," the emissary continued. "They've watched your recent actions with great concern."
George, several feet away, had gone very still, one hand instinctively curling more protectively around Aurora.
"Sir," George said carefully, "shall I take the young miss inside?"
"Do that, George," Arthur said, not taking his eyes off the emissary. "Now, please."
George didn't need telling twice. He turned smoothly and made for the house at a brisk pace that nonetheless covered ground remarkably quickly, murmuring something soft and soothing to Aurora as he went.
Kara had risen as well, moving to stand at Arthur's side, her earlier warmth hardening into something far more guarded. Raven set her book aside entirely now, rising from her chair without hurry, her eyes fixed on the emissary with suspicion.
"Continue," Arthur said, once George and Aurora had cleared the garden entirely. "And choose your next words carefully. You've already used up whatever patience I had left today."
"The Rulers ask that you lessen your influence over this universe," the emissary said. "Earth remains your home.. they understand, and respect, that the Shadow Monarch will defend it regardless of instruction. Let it continue adjusting to the mana already seeded by the gates, as intended. The beasts that emerge will, in time, produce hunters capable of managing the threats to come. This is the natural order the Rulers have long overseen, and have overseen successfully, across countless other worlds before this one."
"Successfully," Raven repeated flatly. "Is that what we're calling entire hunter parties getting killed by monsters inside those gates?"
The emissary didn't so much as glance at her. "The system is imperfect. It is, however, proven."
"Proven to cost lives," Kara said, arms crossed now, her voice tight.
"An acceptable cost, historically," the emissary said, "against the alternative."
"Get to the part where you explain why any of that concerns me now," Arthur said, his voice dangerously even.
"The Rulers are prepared to aid you against the Dragon Monarch, when the time comes," the emissary said. "A considerable offer, given the scale of that threat... one even you would struggle to face entirely alone, however capable you believe yourself to be." He paused delicately. "In exchange, they require full authority over the new Monarchs you've recently created."
Silence fell across the garden.
"Full authority," Arthur repeated slowly.
"What you've done... bestowing that power so freely, on beings of questionable character, without proper oversight.. is, frankly, unacceptable to them," the emissary continued, apparently deaf to the temperature dropping around him. "Such power was never meant to be handed out on personal whim. It risks falling toward darkness, toward misuse, toward exactly the sort of catastrophe the Rulers exist to prevent. They are willing to overlook the impropriety of it, provided the Monarchs themselves answer to proper oversight going forward. Yours included."
"Mine included," Arthur said, very quietly.
"All nine seats," the emissary confirmed. "For the good of the balance the Rulers maintain."
Raven's expression had gone entirely flat. "He did not just say that..."
"He did," Kara said, equally flat.
Arthur crossed the distance between them in a single, fluid motion, faster than the emissary could track, and closed one hand around the front of his robes, hauling him up onto his toes with terrifying, effortless ease.
Violet-black shadow bled instantly from the garden's stones, from the fountain's edge, from the very air itself and within seconds, four of Arthur's Marshals had manifested in a tight, silent circle around the emissary, weapons already drawn, eyes burning with the same violet fire as their monarch's.
"My actions,"Arthur said, low and absolutely lethal,"are justified. Yours are not." His grip tightened. "You dare come into my world... into my home, while my daughter was around just sixty seconds ago... and give me commands? After doing nothing to aid me against the Monarchs who tore through gate after gate onto this planet, killing thousands before I ever managed to catch up to each one? I cleaned up that entire war myself. Alone. And now, now, you have the nerve to stand here and tell me how to handle what's left of it, and demand I hand you the very thing I built to protect what's mine?"
The emissary said nothing, his composed expression finally cracking under the sheer, mounting pressure radiating off the man holding him.
"I have commands of my own, then," Arthur continued, his eyes blazing brighter. "The gates. I want them gone. All of them. Earth doesn't require your assistance any longer, we don't need your imprisoned monsters bleeding through into our cities, and we don't need any more hunters awakening with powers they didn't ask for. I can grant humans strength myself, if I ever deem it necessary. I'll face the Dragon Monarch myself, when it comes to it, without your help and without your leash on my back while I do it. And the Monarchs I've chosen are mine to have chosen, not yours to approve, reject, or inherit. If I'd left it to fate instead, fate would have chosen wrong far more often than I have."
He leaned in, his voice dropping lower still.
"Refuse... no. Reject my demands, if you like. Test them. And I will consider the Rulers my enemies, formally, from this moment onward. Understand something... you have a long, well-documented history of betrayal behind you. Ashborn that trusted you and paid for it. I don't share that history. Not yet. Don't give me a reason to start one." His voice dropped to barely more than a whisper. "Step foot in my home like this again uninvited, near my family, delivering ultimatums instead of respect and I will feed you to my shadows myself, piece by piece, and send whatever's left back to the Rulers as my answer instead of words."
The emissary's calm serenity had entirely abandoned him now, raw fear plain in his wide, darting eyes as he took in the violet aura roiling off Arthur, the bloodlust radiating from him thick enough to taste, the ring of silent, armed Marshals surrounding him on every side, waiting violence in their stances.
"You..." the emissary managed, voice shaking, "you would declare war on the Rulers themselves, over this?"
"I would declare war on anyone," Arthur said, "who thinks they can walk into my home and tell me what to do."
Arthur released him.
The emissary dropped, landing hard on the garden stones, scrambling backward on his hands before catching himself against the fountain's edge.
"O', great Shadow Monarch," he stammered, glancing frantically at the ring of Marshals still watching him with open, unrestrained hostility. "I shall deliver your reply. And your... demands, of course. Precisely as spoken."
"Leave," Arthur said.
The emissary vanished in a hasty, stumbling flash of pale light, gone before the last word had fully left Arthur's mouth.
The Marshals dissolved back into shadow a moment later, the tension in the garden bleeding away with them, leaving only the soft trickle of the fountain and the late golden light settling slowly back over the lawn as though nothing at all had happened.
For a long moment, none of them spoke.
"Well," Raven said finally, exhaling slowly. "So much for the peaceful afternoon."
"Just like you said before," Kara said, glancing toward Arthur. "They're afraid of you. That wasn't posturing, back there, that was real fear."
Arthur said nothing at first, his eyes still faintly glowing, the last of his anger cooling slowly. "It didn't take much thinking," he said finally. "It was obvious what was going to happen."
"You went from zero to 'I will feed you to my shadows' faster than I've ever seen you move," Raven said. "Even for you."
"He interrupted the one afternoon I've had with my daughter, I was enjoying myself." Arthur said, something raw slipping briefly through the cold. "To demand I hand over the people I trust most to beings who did nothing while I bled for this planet." His jaw tightened. "I don't regret a word of it."
George reappeared at the garden's edge a moment later, Aurora no longer in his arms, his expression carefully composed, though something sharp and disapproving lingered plainly beneath it.
"I took the liberty of settling the young miss in her nursery, sir," he said. "I trust the... visitor has been dealt with?"
"He has," Arthur said.
"Such arrogance," George said, shaking his head slowly. "And you once told me these were supposed to be angel-like beings, Master Arthur. Divine overseers of balance, and all that."
"Even angels," Arthur said quietly, "can fall lower than demons, George. Given enough time, especially that no one will ever hold them to account for it."
"A grim thought," George said.
"An accurate one, I'm afraid."
Kara moved to Arthur's side, slipping her hand into his, saying nothing at all, simply standing with him.
/-\
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