Chapter 12
I ended every informal discussion of Lily as successor.
Immediately.
One captain asked:
“She’s your only child.”
“So?”
Another:
“Blood matters.”
“To family, yes.”
“To leadership?”
I stared.
“She is three.”
That should have ended it.
It did not.
Old men like futures they can map.
I changed the rule.
No child discussed for leadership.
No training toward command before adulthood.
No ceremonial titles.
No little princess of Ashwick.
Lily could become a surgeon, painter, baker, nobody famous, or something I did not understand.
Good.
May you like
My family survived the uncertainty.
Barely.
