The Emperor left the Fortress, for the primary reason he was there had been fulfilled. Aurora Arkov, who had been his enemy since her birth, had confessed. The Resistance would be gone in a matter of hours thanks to her. It had gone exactly as he had planned for it to. The Empire will have no more contenders. Now, Asderia must be conquered.

He stepped onto the wooden boat and sat down. The Sentries picked up a wooden oar each and started to row the boat. The Emperor stared at the sea. The water was a murky brown colour, for the Fortress dumped sewage from the prison into the ocean. There was a cool breeze that blew in the direction of the Emperor. It relaxed him. The boat stopped.

‘Why have we stopped?’ The Emperor demanded, raising his bushy eyebrows. He frowned at the Sentries who were supposed to be rowing the boat.

‘You might want to see this, High Emperor.’ The Sentry handed him a thin piece of parchment, a letter. The Emperor began to read through its contents.

Dear friends

I am afraid that our location has been breached. Evacuate to the backup location immediately. Make sure that the Empire finds nothing. If they find any of our weapons, they could modify them to be used for evil purposes. I bid you all good luck. I am sorry, but I was the one who betrayed you. They threatened me with the penalty of death. Stay safe in these tumultuous times.

Aurora.

That bitch. She tried to warn them that we were coming to their outpost. The Emperor screwed the letter up and ripped it into small pieces. The remains landed in the ocean. She would pay for her actions. I can not return to the Fortress now, otherwise, the Resistance may evacuate before we are scheduled to arrive. I must wait until Asderia is under my control, and then I will take her from the Fortress and hang her body in front of the population of the Kingdom. There was a look of pleasure in his eye about the prospect. It would be glorious in the next few days: the Resistance would be imprisoned, Asderia would be his, and Aurora Arkov would finally be killed.

The Sun appeared from behind the grey clouds, shining on the water. The Emperor looked at his reflection. If only his parents could see him now! He was soon to be the leader of the East, something that had not been achieved since his great-grandfather was on the throne.

‘Keep on rowing!’ He ordered to his Sentries, who picked up the wooden oars and rowed harder than they had ever done in their lives. They would know better than to displease a man who had built an empire from nothing, which little to none recent rulers had accomplished. The Emperor shut his eyes and hoped for the journey to end when he woke up.

⤖

The man opened his eyes. The Sun had set, leaving the sky and the clouds a pinkish colour. There were no stars.

‘How much farther?’ The Emperor stood up and looked across the horizon. The land was unfamiliar to him, yet he had travelled to the majority of the kingdom as a young child, no matter if his parents were enemies with them or allies.

‘Not long.’ The Sentry smiled. The Emperor could tell he was up to something. No Sentry he had ever met had acted that peculiar way.

‘Where are you taking me?’ The Emperor panicked. He had trusted all of his Sentries and had never thought that they would deceive him.

‘You will see.’ The Sladen docked at a small island in the centre of the ocean, an island that the Emperor had never known had existed. What is this madness?

‘This is not the way to the Resistance’s hideout,’ The Emperor looked at the landscape in disbelief. ‘Tell me where this island is.’ The Emperor turned to face the Sentry, and what he saw horrified him. Dathryl. It was the same situation that had happened in his palace just over a week ago. Someone was targeting him, but who?

‘We are in the centre of the Salvinian Sea, just north of the Divide. It is no use trying to escape; you will be stranded on this island for the rest of your days. Unless-’ The Sentry replied.

‘Unless what?’ A sense of fear came over the Emperor, a feeling he had not felt in a very long time. If it was as the Sentry had said, he would not be rescued or saved.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

‘Unless you give in to him. Then, you will be permitted to live out the rest of your days in peace at a small house on the coast. If you fail to cooperate, he will have no choice but to eradicate you in addition to destroying your empire.’ The words made the Emperor get a chill down his spine. In his reign, there had never been such a threat; he would not allow for it to happen.

‘Who is he and what is he after? Tell me you damned traitor. What is his ambition, his goal? Does he want the throne?’

‘No,’ The Sentry paused, ‘He wants more than that. He wants your empire, the land you own, he wants everything you have.’

‘Why?’ The Emperor felt bewildered. There was no clear intention of the threat, only the domination of the kingdom.

‘He says he wants it because you wounded him; that he deserves it after everything your empire has done to him and his family.’ The Emperor could tell that the Sentry was being told to say those things for the person behind it all.

The Sentry took the Emperor’s arms and directed him to a small building on the island. The walls of the building were cobbled, like a castle. They walked through a small archway and entered the building. The interior of the building was bare: there was nothing but the concrete floor. He had expected a small cell, however, he had been pleasantly surprised to find that he would be staying in a room at the top of the tower. This was incredible given that the twisted person behind this wanted revenge since his empire had harmed him and his family somehow. The concept phased the Emperor. The Sentry threw him in the room and locked the wooden door from the outside. So this was the downside. I knew they would not put me in a room unless something like this happened.

‘You must rest your body for tomorrow. You have no idea what is to come.’ The Sentry said to him from behind the door.

He could hear everything that was happening in the building from the thin, grey walls of the room. The Emperor looked around the room. There was a wooden chest of drawers beside the bed, and a drawing on the bedside table, which caught the Emperor’s eyes. Drawn on the yellow piece of paper was an ordinary man, nothing special. The background was the concerning part. Flames engulfed the Royal Palace, and the city of Razgaroth too. It was obvious that it had been drawn for a reason. It was no coincidence. What does it mean? The Emperor put the piece of yellow paper with the drawing away, undressed, and got into the bed and beneath the covers.

⤖

Rays of sunlight seeped through the small raised windows and onto the Emperor’s tender face. He opened his eyes and pulled back the covers. The man had wished it was a dream of some sort, that it was not reality. He opened the top drawer of the chest of drawers and picked up a shirt, underwear, and trousers. The Emperor threw them on and attempted to open the door. As he had thought, it was shut. No, please no. I can not be trapped. If I am away for too long, the Empire will crumble. Realisation had hit him like a lightning bolt. There was no particular reason he had been bright here, it was all just a distraction to bring down the Empire once and for all. This could not have been the work of the Resistance; it was too advanced a plan for them. Aurora Arkov, their leader, was also imprisoned in the Fortress. This was someone else, an enemy had not faced before. The Emperor scoured the depths of his mind to try and look for any clues pointing to who it was. Then, he remembered. A week or so ago, he had found a threat stuck to a man’s hand. It had to have been the same person.

The Emperor searched every drawer of the chest of drawers, looking for anything that could possibly help him escape the room, for the longer he stayed in the room, the more his empire would fall. There was nothing that could be done. His empire would be gone by the time he would escape. I cannot give up now, I have worked blood and sweat for this empire, and blood and sweat it will take to bring it down!

The Emperor stood in a balanced stance and thrust his elbow into the wooden door. Come on, come on. The door did not open. He would have to find another way. There were little to no resources in the room that would assist his escape. The man looked at everything in the room for a second time, including the drawing. It was then he noticed that there was a feather dipped in ink beside the drawing. Aha! He dried the feather and stuck it in the lock of the door. The man twisted the end of the feather in the lock until it clicked. Then, the Emperor grabbed the doorknob and opened the door. It was possible; today would not be the day his empire fell.

He stared down the corridor, making sure that the coast was clear, otherwise, they would lock him in his room again, which proved tedious the first time, let alone a second.

‘Hey!’ The Emperor turned his body around to see the Sentry giving him a black look. His eyes pierced the Emperor’s confidence. ‘Why are you not in your room? How did you escape?’

The Emperor did not answer a single question that the Sentry presented him with, instead, he ran down the corridors, hoping the Sentry would not pursue him.

‘Answer me!’ The Sentry turned at every corner trying to capture the Emperor. If he did not catch the Emperor, the person that controlled him would be furious, and perhaps even kill him. The Sentry could not risk that.

The Emperor ran down the stairs, and as the Sentry descended them, he pulled the carpet that was beneath the Sentry, causing him to fall down the stairs.

‘Curse you!’ That was the last thing he had heard the Sentry say before he had left him. The Emperor got in the same boat he had used to arrive at the island, and began to row to the nearest piece of land.

⤖

After what felt like hours of rowing, the Emperor felt jolts of pain in his arms each time he rowed the boat with the oars. His arms were getting tired. He would have to stop but at the same time, he was in the middle of the sea. Who knew what could be waiting for him to let his guard down? There were two possible options: Pirates or sea creatures. Neither of them would be particularly nice to encounter, but if the Emperor had to choose, it would be sea creatures.

A thick layer of fog formed, surrounding the ocean and making it impossible to see what was around the man. Because of the many stories he had read as a child, the Emperor knew that something bad usually happened when mist came unexpectedly.

The Emperor stopped the boat when he heard it bang against wood, which indicated he had reached land. He docked the boat and tied it up to a post, keeping it in case he was in a place he did not know.

‘Hello?’ The Emperor called out, unsure if people were in the place due to the mist covering his line of sight. There was no response. Oh well, there is nobody here. Maybe I will just go back on the boat. As the Emperor tried to return to the boat, it burst into flames. Magic. I thought I had made it illegal to use magic anywhere in the kingdom. Just then, he saw a shadow in the mist. The next thing he knew, a bag was placed over his head, and everything went dark.