While Tarlon was briefly stunned that Fleur wanted to cut off Arlo's left hand, he didn't try to plead in Arlo's favor.

After all, he understood that it was necessary for someone to take the blame, both to enforce Fleur's authority and also to placate her.

It was simple—if something this terrible had happened but no heads were rolling, everyone would just assume that the fault lay with Fleur, and that her supposedly clever scheme had gone awry, while the enemy had turned it against her complet