Desolation of Erimos
Copyright© 2026 by Rycliff
Chapter 15: Archduchess
The Senate discussed Alliyanna’s motion the following morning.
That was the official description.
Discussion.
Not confirmation.
Not a vote.
Discussion.
Alliyanna had read the notice three times to make sure.
She arrived early and went directly to the Kar’Jan seat.
No defense table waited below.
No guards.
No indictment.
Today she entered through the same doors used by every other member of the Senate.
That felt different.
Talak and Kahlan were permitted in the visitors’ gallery but not on the Senate floor.
Alliyanna found them above the chamber before she sat.
Kahlan lifted two fingers.
Talak nodded.
The mental link was stronger at this distance.
Behave, Talak told her.
Alliyanna settled into the Kar’Jan chair.
I always behave.
Kahlan answered before Talak could.
We have extensive evidence to the contrary.
The President entered.
The chamber rose.
Alliyanna stood with them.
When everyone had taken their seats, the President brought down the gavel.
“The Senate will come to order.”
The clerk stood.
“The matter before the chamber is the motion entered by Baroness Alliyanna Kar’Jan requesting recognition of lawful succession to the peerage and estates of the late Archduke Birsha and confirmation of the Baroness as successor to House Birsha.”
The chamber remained unusually quiet.
The President looked around.
“The chair reminds members that the matter before us today is discussion of the succession motion.”
He emphasized the word.
“Discussion.”
Alliyanna understood.
He was not letting her race from criminal defendant to Archduchess in one morning without making everyone talk about it first.
Fair enough.
The President continued.
“The relevant betrothal instrument, succession codicil, authentication records and evidence concerning the death of the late Archduke have been incorporated into the record from the recently concluded proceeding.”
There it was.
Alliyanna had counted on that.
“The chair will recognize members wishing to speak to the validity, consequences and legal implications of the succession.”
He looked around the chamber.
“Who wishes to speak on behalf of the motion?”
Silence.
Alliyanna felt her stomach sink.
She had known this could happen.
Someone shifted several rows below her.
Nobody stood.
Kahlan’s voice touched her mind.
That’s awkward.
Alliyanna stared straight ahead.
Thank you.
Talak:
Give them time.
Five seconds felt like fifty.
Then a chair moved.
An older senator rose from the opposite side of the chamber.
Alliyanna recognized him.
Lord Meren.
He had not been friendly to her during the inquiry.
In fact, he had supported the original demand that she be compelled to appear.
Alliyanna sat straighter.
The President recognized him.
“Lord Meren.”
Meren stepped into the aisle.
“I will speak.”
Alliyanna was not certain that was good.
Meren looked toward her.
“I have not been a supporter of Baroness Kar’Jan.”
There it was.
A few senators laughed softly.
Meren continued.
“I considered her departure after the Senate Notice irresponsible.”
Alliyanna did not move.
“I considered the circumstances of her betrothal to Archduke Birsha deeply troubling.”
He looked around the chamber.
“I considered the succession clause suspicious.”
Alliyanna could feel Kahlan growing irritated above her.
Meren continued.
“And when Archduke Birsha died shortly thereafter, I believed this Senate had an obligation to determine whether the succession was the result of lawful inheritance or criminal design.”
He paused.
“We have now done so.”
The chamber quieted further.
“The betrothal contract was authenticated.”
Meren raised one finger.
“The succession clause was authentic.”
Another.
“Archduke Birsha possessed legal authority to agree to it.”
Another.
“There is no evidence it was forged, concealed or added after his death.”
Meren turned toward Alliyanna.
“And after a formal trial, the prosecution has withdrawn with prejudice the allegation that Baroness Kar’Jan acquired the succession through criminal conduct.”
Alliyanna had not expected this.
Meren faced the chamber.
“I do not have to like the result.”
A few senators nodded.
“Neither do you.”
He pointed toward the record display.
“But suspicion is not law.”
That sentence settled over the room.
“The late Archduke entered a lawful registered betrothal. He executed a lawful succession instrument. He died before the marriage ceremony while that instrument remained in force. The person identified by that instrument survived him.”
Meren looked toward the President.
“I see no lawful basis upon which this chamber may pretend those events did not occur.”
He sat.
Alliyanna stared at him.
Kahlan’s mental voice reached her.
I like him.
Alliyanna answered:
You didn’t yesterday.
People improve.
Another senator rose.
This one Alliyanna did not know.
The President recognized him as Duke Alvar.
That got her attention.
One of the nine other ducal Houses.
Alvar was younger than Meren, perhaps in his forties.
“I wish to address something beyond Baroness Kar’Jan.”
He looked toward the hereditary tiers.
“Every hereditary peer in this chamber should consider carefully what precedent we establish today.”
Several senators shifted.
Alvar continued.
“Many of us sit where we sit because of a will, a marriage, a succession instrument, a bloodline, or some combination of those things.”
He looked toward Alliyanna.
“If this Senate may disregard an otherwise lawful succession because the beneficiary is politically inconvenient, then none of our heirs possesses a secure inheritance.”
That changed the room.
Alliyanna could feel it.
This was no longer about her.
Alvar knew exactly what he was doing.
“How many members here inherited from someone whose decisions the Senate disliked?”
A few smiles.
“How many inherited sooner than expected?”
That produced less amusement.
“How many would permit this chamber to decide after their death that a lawful instrument should be ignored because the heir had become unpopular?”
Nobody answered.
Alvar nodded.
“Neither would I.”
He sat.
The opposition came next.
Senator Corven, the man who had told Alliyanna that possession and fitness were not the same thing, rose.
Alliyanna recognized him immediately.
He did not look at her when he began.
“The question is not whether hereditary law exists.”
He turned toward the chamber.
“The question is whether the Senate must surrender judgment merely because a document exists.”
Murmurs of approval came from several areas.
“The Birsha peerage is not ordinary.”
That was certainly true.
“Archduke Birsha was uncle to His Imperial Majesty. His position carried authority above the ordinary ducal Houses. His seat in this chamber stands directly beneath the Imperial chair.”
Alliyanna looked upward.
She could see it from here.
Empty.
“The succession of such a position cannot reasonably be treated as though this chamber were registering transfer of a small provincial estate.”
Corven finally looked at Alliyanna.
“Baroness Kar’Jan is eighteen years old.”
There were murmurs.
“She has been a sitting member of this Senate for less than two weeks.”
That sounded worse than eighteen.
“She has no experience administering an Archducal House.”
True.
“No experience commanding the obligations attached to the Birsha estates.”
Also true.
“No experience carrying the diplomatic, military and political responsibilities associated with that rank.”
Still true.
Alliyanna resisted the urge to sink lower in her chair.
Corven turned away from her.
“The Senate is not wrong to ask whether lawful succession alone is sufficient qualification for an office of this magnitude.”
A senator across the chamber called, “Was it sufficient for Birsha?”
Laughter broke out.
Corven turned.
The President struck the gavel.
“Order.”
Corven waited.
When the room settled, he continued.
“The late Archduke spent decades in public service.”
Another voice answered, “He inherited before that.”
More laughter.
The gavel fell again.
Alliyanna covered her mouth.
Corven looked irritated now.
“My objection is not personal.”
That drew several skeptical expressions.
He ignored them.
“My objection is institutional. A position of this magnitude should not transfer automatically without scrutiny.”
He sat.
Alliyanna considered what he had said.
She did not like it.
But it was not ridiculous.
She was eighteen.
She had never administered an Archducal House.
She barely understood the full scale of what Birsha had owned.
If she were sitting somewhere else in the chamber, she might have worried too.
Another senator rose.
Then another.
For nearly two hours the Senate argued.
Some opposed concentration of titles. Alliyanna was already Baroness Kar’Jan. Recognizing Birsha would make her holder of two hereditary Houses.
Others pointed out that multiple inheritance was rare but legal.
Some argued the succession clause had been naked ambition.
Others answered that ambition was not disqualification.
One senator complained that Alliyanna had fled the Senate.
Another reminded him that she had just endured a trial concerning that conduct and the criminal allegations had been withdrawn.
A noblewoman from the middle tier argued that refusing confirmation after authenticating the succession would allow political majorities to rewrite private hereditary contracts after death.
A senator from one of the older Houses countered that no private contract should bind the Senate without limit.
Alliyanna listened.
That was the hardest part.
She wanted to answer.
Several times she nearly stood.
Each time Sol’s advice from the previous evening returned.
Let them argue with each other.
So she did.
She listened.
She took notes.
She discovered which senators disliked her personally but respected the law.
Which ones liked her but feared the precedent.
Which ones cared almost entirely about protecting their own Houses.
Which ones seemed to enjoy the argument regardless of outcome.
It was the first time she truly understood the Senate as something other than an obstacle.
It was messy.
Self-interested.
Proud.
Sometimes petty.
But not mindless.
Eventually Duke Alvar rose again.
“Mr. President.”
“Yes, Duke Alvar?”
“I believe the matter has been sufficiently discussed.”
Corven immediately stood.
“Point of order.”
The President sighed.
“State it.”
“Discussion was scheduled. No vote was scheduled.”
Alvar looked toward him.
“I am aware.”
Corven frowned.
“Then what are you doing?”
Alvar turned toward the President.
“Making a motion.”
That produced laughter.
The President did not join it.
“State your motion.”
“I move that discussion be concluded and that the Senate proceed to a recorded vote on the succession of House Birsha.”
The chamber stirred.
The President looked toward the protocol officer.
The officer had already started moving.
This time the laughter began before he reached the dais.
The President looked across the chamber.
“I am pleased the Senate finds its own procedures amusing.”
The laughter stopped.
Mostly.
The protocol officer whispered.
The President listened.
Then nodded.
“Is there a second?”
Silence.
Alliyanna’s heart dropped.
Someone had to second it.
Not necessarily support the succession.
Just agree it deserved a vote.
Three seconds.
Four.
Then a senator from the lower hereditary tier stood.
Alliyanna did not recognize him immediately.
“Second.”
The President looked toward him.
“Senator Havel.”
Havel nodded.
“I second the motion.”
Corven turned.
“You intend to support her?”
Havel shook his head.
“I haven’t decided.”
“Then why second it?”
Havel looked around the chamber.
“Because I have a son.”
The room quieted.
To read the complete story you need to be logged in:
Log In or
Register for a Free account
(Why register?)
* Allows you 3 stories to read in 24 hours.