Secrets of the Villainous Empress

Chapter Forty-Five: The Curtains Closure To The Night

Aleu Diox Luciano

The walk back to the gardens should have been quiet and uneventful, but his chattering mind had decided to accompany him along the way.

Why did the Empress crave death? Why wasn’t she open to any other suggestions he offered? Why did he, despite not being fond of her personality, want her so?

The crunching sound of the grass just outside the main palace grew louder, jolting Aleu from his rampaging mind.

“You! Where is he!!”

“Where is who?” Aleu responded to the hastily approaching Virginia.

“My knight! I cannot sense him?!”

“Your knight was here?”

“Oh, for god's sake!!” she rolled her eyes, “Yes, I had tasked him with ensuring that her majesty kept her lusty paws off you.”

“You are not in a position where you can reject her advances should you try! You are near commoner status, so you are welcome for my concern!!” she finished.

-Reject? Hah! If she had so much as held his hands, he would have ruined his perfectly crisp pants-

Still, concern?

Surely she could have come up with a better fib than that? Even the truth would have sounded less condescending, it being the Duke had wished to know whether the Empress had touched him so that he could secure the concubine seat in other ways.

 Concern? When she refused to join the carriage in which he and the Duke rode for fear of arriving with an illegitimate, as though the notion would taint her very soul.

“There was no fourth person around us, Just her imperial majesty, her imperial knight and I.” he lied.

“f**k!” she cursed, “It will take hours to locate him. The imperial land is literally almost twelve times our estate!”

Virginia reached for her bosom, pulled a cigarette, then twisted its core. She did so with such flourish that it seemed like her subconscious craving had finally caught up to her. As most in the household understood, she did most of her planning with the stick to her lips.  

“Uh…it is probably a little too rash to smoke here-,”

“When I need your advice, I will seek it!” she interrupted.

However, despite her curt reply, she did not reach for the lighter, merely continued fiddling with the cigarette’s core as trying to enchant the nicotine to reach her through osmosis.

 “Where were you conversing?” she asked finally after several tense minutes.

“Near the fountains, I could hear the flow of the waters but could not see them.”

“So towards the entrance of the Western wing?” she reasoned, “I cannot search too far away from the main entrance unaccompanied, but neither can you stay here too long; the Duke will grow furious.”

“Okay, let us do this.” Virginia began, throwing casually, the use of ‘us’ as though it were an honour, rather than a pain, to serve her. “Go back to the party and report what the Empress has shared with you. Subsequently, report to the knights that there is a lost noblewoman near the fountains. That will help me find either his body or his bound-crystal, whichever he chose to leave behind that caused the loss of connection, fast.”

“U-Understood.”

“Why did you hesitate?” she frowned.

“I-,”

“Do you by any chance know what happened to my knight?” she asked, her honey gaze locked on him.

“No, I merely swallowed a bug!?”

Lying now came so easily that it was startling.

“A bug?” she repeated, then clicked her tongue, “What, what…uh, what did you share with the Empress? I hear from the Duke that her personality has grown colder and more guarded.”

“Nothing of import-,”

“Look at this confident mongrel! I decide what is important and what isn’t. What did the Empress tell you?”

“She asked again if I was truly talented in relations.”

“To which you replied?”

“That I was, however, she called my bluff and instead focused on my trainability as her pet.”

“Oh?” a smile crept up Virginia’s face, “So she did declare her interest in you?”

“Yes, enough to say that she looked forward to perusing my documents next week.”

“Well, I guess you are at least capable of something other than running away from turmoil.” She smiled, “I will do you a favour. I shall seek for her audience next week to invite her to a masquerade ball I plan to hold at the start of fall. Thereafter, I can try and entice her to meet with you?”

She framed it as a suggestion, but it was not. She claimed it as a favour, whose debt she will surely claim.

His only hope would be to wish that the Empress would call for him before her plan came to fruition.

“That would be quite appreciated.” He replied.

“Good, good. I have someone I must see next week, so you can converse with the Empress while I do my business. This will hurry the process along so that you have an advantage over the other concubines. Plus, it would do well as you do not have to inherit the well deserved Nissa name.

-Well deserved? You were born into it!! All you had to do was breathe!!-

“I am appreciative of your concern,” Aleu replied.

“Excellent…Alright then, that news should be about the level of what father would expect,” She murmured, “Proceed to the hall and present to the Duke your report, then do not forget to call the knights.”

“Also, hand me your coat. It is freezing out here.”

“Of course,” Aleu replied effortlessly as he slipped his hands easily from the garment that had protected him from most of the night’s harshness.

She would throw it away afterwards, he knew. However, it was not such a terror because her perfume constantly soured his mood.

They parted ways, and Aleu proceeded to the hall in search of the Duke. Only to find him by the ‘drinking den’ as that corner had been nicknamed, surrounded by his peers, cigar in one hand and a scotch in the other.

“THERE HE IS! THERE IS MY BOY!” the Duke called, attracting the hall's attention.

-Great…he was drunk!-

On reaching, the Duke’s heavy hand fell to his shoulder as he pushed him to the centre of the formed standing circle.

“Settle a bet the men and I have made,” the Duke began, “the woman you left with, re-entered the ballroom halls with your coat, did she not?”

-The woman I...? oh, the Empress?-

-The Empress wore another man’s jacket?-

“Uh, no. I gifted my coat to Lady Virginia?” he replied.

“This rascal! You address your sister by her title?” a jolly thin-haired man blurted before bursting into laughter. “Nissian traditions bedevil me!! well, Kerris is still keris, so whatever the case, Grand duke, pay up!”

“Count Eustass, you scoundrel!” the Grand Duke grinned as he announced; however, his hand pressed heavily against his shoulders. “Alright, alright, we shall settle this when I return. My son and I have matters to discuss!!”

“Do not run away!” the count of  Mayflower yelled, “I believe you said that Nissians have more honour than Mayflowerians. Well, you did claim to have more insight as well; however, the oracle has spoken!!”

The men around laughed as the Duke, and he began scooching away from the circle, and that was when he realised the slight but apparent divide in the group, to the left, Mayflower nobles and the right, Nissian nobles.

“Count! Do not insult me!” the Duke replied before turning his attention to Aleu, “So? It better be good news!”

Azalea Oleander Cursix

The wine in my hand tasted more like juice than alcohol, and for the third time tonight, I contemplated whether it was time to call it a night.

 I stood from my chair, an action that had obviously attracted almost as much attention as when I walked back into the hall wearing my knight’s coat.

As I made my way quietly, well as ‘quietly’ as the centre of attraction was permitted to in parties, a soft voice called me.

“Do you have a moment, your imperial majesty?”

“Duchess Tissir.” I acknowledged.

Save for the Grand Dukes and Grand Duchesses, none else in the hall had permission to seek me out on whims.

 “I see you are absent of your…ladies?” I said, turning fully to face her.

“The young Grand Duchess and the next Grand Duchess of the South have bonded over their love for fashion. I felt a little left out, so I sought my own amusement.”

Her skin was green, and some leaves paired beautifully from her shoulders. Stray tendrils framed themselves on her plant-based dress, giving it an almost…mythical look.

“I see, as much as I long to amuse you, I must retire from the night’s festivities.” I excused.

“Oh heavens, I do not wish to take up much of your time.” She smiled, “Or what about this; since my husband and I leave for Akonia come morn, why don’t you attend the tea party that I intend to hold in three weeks time?”

“Travel all the way to Akonia for tea?”

“Not only tea, but I do also believe that prior to your illness, I had written severally on some matters in Akonia that require your permissions to resolve.”

The Grand Duchess was as cheery and happy go lucky as the next lark, especially on ‘mortal’ issues. Saying that she was the perfect liar would probably be an exaggeration, however as I have served as her slave in her past, I knew how delicately she hid her claws.

-How…Fun-

“Is that so?” I replied, realising that it was too late to back out of her conversation offer. “I look forward to receiving an official invite to the tea…party.”