"Priestley" already meant "imperial attendant" in Ancient Feysac, so Abner was hardly surprised that Daphne's family had ties to the Night Emperor. He merely nodded for her to continue.
"The Priestley family holds the Potion formulas for the Seer Pathway from Sequence 9 to Sequence 4. We never had the standing of the Sanguine or the four great Angel families in the empire, but we were His Majesty the Night Emperor's most loyal servants—his eyes in the shadows, his blades in the dark..."
So they gathered intelligence and did the dirty work? The abilities of Beyonders from the Cowards' Three Families were certainly suited to it. Abner took a sip of coffee.
"His Majesty once used his Authority to confer knighthoods on seven people. Each knight embodied a virtue. So long as they upheld that virtue, they received the support of His Majesty's Authority in battle. If they violated it, they suffered a backlash.
"The seven were Loyal Augustus, Tolerant Einhorn, Gentle Sauron, Diligent Castiya, Generous Audra, Temperate Mollica, and my ancestor, Humble Priestley...
"And the Sealed Artifact used to confer those knighthoods was the Book of Virtues I mentioned earlier."
A trace of pride crept into Daphne's voice.
After all, her ancestor had stood alongside members of families such as the Augustus Family, which had Angels of its own.
Seven Knights of Virtue? Hmm. If Daphne's ancestor was among them, those seven knights must all have been Saints...
Was this a perk the Night Emperor gave the families loyal to him? Or a way to control them?
Still, Night Emperor, some of those virtues you bestowed look pretty funny now...
Loyal Augustus? So loyal that after your death, the Augustus Family not only seized Backlund but wiped out the Trunsoest Family and stole a Hand of Order characteristic.
*Tolerant