“I will follow your orders with the understanding that in carrying out any mission you choose to give me, I am to do the least possible damage to your citizens and the laws you have devised.” He exhaled. “And when I feel that the commands themselves cannot be obeyed in that spirit, I will ask for an audience to explain my reservations.”
“As you have done today.”
“Yes.”
“And if I chose not to heed your...advice?”
Elluvian stiffened slightly; Severn didn’t look away from the Emperor to see the Barrani Wolf’s expression.
“I would accept your decision. I would have to accept it.”
“Hierarchically, yes.”
“No. It’s not about hierarchy, or you wouldn’t have asked the question.”
“Would I not?” Once again, a smile lurked at the corner of the Imperial mouth.
“I would obey you because I’ve chosen to trust you. Not with my life, of course—but with the things that matter.”
“Your life does not matter?”
“It matters—but it’s one life.”
“And you would trust my decision over your own?”
“You’ve seen more, done more, fought more, than I ever will; you’ve lived for centuries. I’ve lived for almost two decades. But you created an Empire that’s meant to preserve not the strongest and most powerful of your citizens, but people like me. Like us. I have to trust that those considerations and the experience I lack are behind the decision to reject my request.”
“Have to trust?”
“If I swear my life to your service, yes.”
“That is not the case with most young Wolves.”
“I can’t speak for another person’s vows. I can only speak for mine.”
The Emperor held Severn’s gaze for what felt like minutes. “I accept, Private Handred. I accept what you offer.”
It was a dismissal. Severn turned to leave.
“Not you, Elluvian. You and I have words to speak in the wake of this unusual audience.”
“You assumed the oaths to be entirely ceremonial,”Elluvian said when the door had closed and the private was safely on the other side of it.
The Emperor raised a brow.
“He assumed it because he’s not a fool. The oathsareentirely ceremonial. They’ve been written into long, dense, and irretrievably boring phrases.”
“Perhaps those oaths have changed in the past few decades—I cannot recall seeing you during those ceremonies for some time now.”
“They have not changed.”
“No, perhaps not. Ceremony exists for a reason, after all.”
“And Severn is to be spared the long, tedious cant?”
“Private Handred has sworn his personal oath to his Emperor, and I have chosen to accept it, yes.”
“Why?”