The Magnaura

[Zim]

Arintheos sighs. All of the tenseness and uncertainty that accompanied his last announcement seems to have disappeared, replaced by mild irritation.

So that's what this is all about? A weak excuse to allow a pretender to the throne make his claim? Not even a believable excuse. I knew the Basileus quite well and would not believe him to stoop to having anyone killed by assassins, not even his worst enemies. Now we are expected to believe he would have Armatos, a man he did not have cause to hate, killed? I would ask how Erotikos and Kousinos came to that "conclusion" but I suspect that in their years of planning to betray the Empire they have invented a number of lies that would confuse the issue long enough to allow Kousinos to finish making his move.

Indeed, although I would willingly kill the man where he stands for making such an accusation about the recently departed Basileus there is an even more important danger than to Ioannis Komnenos' reputation, that being the danger this pretender causes the Empire. Anna Komnenos was an honorable woman and I doubt this boy's story, but even accepting it at face value he still has no real claim to the throne. The Basileus had chosen as his heir Methodios Tagaris. While I think Methodios' betrayal invalidated that decision and suspect the emperor eventually had another in mind it is clear that this child was never named the Imperial heir. Even the Tagaris boy has a better claim, being named so by the man man who was still formally Caesar.

The throne rightfully goes to the heir chosen by the Basileus , and not to anyone who happens to have a large army and the slightest claim to royal blood.