The door creaked open, and in the crack between darkness and light, cold stone and the memory of wood, a crescent moon of brightness against the dawn. Laeo sat up, watching the guard push open the door and return to his post, admitting one other person.

Paquel. She carried herself with an almost imperious right, dismissing the guard as soon as she entered the room and closing the door behind her. Eyes gleaming, like orange… Laeo stood, motioning for her to come over to the table. “You actually came?”

“I heard you were talking with the captain of the guard, so I didn’t want to be left out.” Paquel smirked, lounging in a chair, glancing at the disheveled state of the room. It looked… lived in. Nobody but himself, the guard, and Orodel had been in here since he’d been interred, and it was starting to show. She leaned in close, sunlight glancing off eye-whitness, gleaming like so much fire- “it’s a good thing I kept my distance. I won’t lose much through this.”

“There won’t be much to lose. I’ll be out of here soon.” He knew… there were so many things that could be so easily made into nothing beneath the power of the Lord of Cold Places, threats, humanity… he thought of saying things, but didn’t… too much to lose. There was no wrong, after all… “How have the nobles reacted to the attacks?”

Paquel smirked, leaning forward and placing a paper on the table. “You orchestrated them, didn’t you? Some sort of trained force, a hired killer. Or an army…”

“I claim responsibility for nothing. You can guess, but I’m not even going to claim responsibility for anything. That’s too much of a…” Liability, but she already knew. It was part of the game, never quite giving up all of his power, never quite giving up none of it. No man stood alone, least of those on thrones… he thought Arctic, then looked at the paper and didn’t… “What’s this?” He knew what it was. It said, on the paper in stamped Nolaqū.

“A decree from the Glass Throne- if they can’t prove you are who you say you are in the next thirty days, then you’ll be executed on the steps of the palace. Exactly one month, Laeo…” She shook her head, standing with sad eyes and that expression of hopelessness that a rational, political woman would have when a useful asset had decided to go and make itself dead. That was fine.

Laeo only smiled. “You underestimate me. To all the world, I am a Sakaxhy nobleman… Goodbye, Paquel. I’ll see you again soon, I’m sure of it.” Paquel just gave him a skeptical look before she retreated, moving away from fiery eyes that looked out, the subtle smile of Laeo and-

The door closed-

Time.

It seemed to bleed away in a constant cycle of waking and sleeping and anticipation, looking out for the orange bright-white of something that shouldn’t exist, dreading what would happen and what could happen. He trusted Arctic, but there was still that nagging doubt, that unknown possibility-

He didn’t know if he’d die for this cause. Not so long as it didn’t benefit him, not on the steps of Empire where everyone would see him humiliated. A day stretched into a week, and a week into an indeterminate period of waiting, time lost, that one window oscillating between light and dark and rain and light and dark. Fires burnt themselves peacefully, violently, doors stood immovable and the guard as malleable as ever. He talked to Orodel a few times, further instilling that sense of distaste, inflaming the spark he’d nestled deep within him, relying on the immediacy of imminent death-

The door creaked open, and in the crack between light and dark and stone and possibility he saw two guards and a noblewoman. In the breadth of a moment he snatched up the pen he kept inconspicuously by him, before remembering that he was supposed to be a mildly corrupt, mostly virtuous, and thoroughly untrained Sakaxhy nobleman. “Is it that time already?”

“I’m surprised. You don’t seem like the sort of person to have lost track of the days.” Paquel stepped back into the room, looking despite all her carefully controlled expression and excessive Orroyelan cosmetics, thoroughly and totally incredulous. “By the will of the emperor and the Glass Throne of Orroyel, you’re officially absolved of suspicion on the basis of blood. It’s incredible. How did you do it?” Laeo just smiled, nodding to the guards in the room as he followed them up and out to the set of rooms he’d been staying in before. They left him and Paquel alone in that the space outside, darkness-

Hallways, stretching off into the length of the building and then into the length of the court, a miniature world that for the price of its closeness, could be so easily influenced. It didn’t take much. A deft hand. Arctic, and advantage that nobody else could have possibly seen coming. “You don’t understand. I am an Sakaxhy nobleman.” That was the arrangement. The official documents in Ilaial and Tasadir existed for him, his name had been written into a plethora of fake stories, everything. Just as they’d done with the money, they’d made him a noble.

“They actually sent a Sakaxhy noble to do this sort of work? I’m astonished. Usually they love to just play games…” Paquel shook her head, sitting down on a chair and ringing a bell that’d summon some servant or another to bring them refreshments. There was decadence in the court of Orroyel, far more than they'd ever been in Nolabo… he didn’t like it.

He would destroy it. Nolabo, that was, and in turn for its sacrifice God would be appeased… they talked about the war and their plans, all the things he said he’d do and none of the things that he would. Those were normal things. Mundane… his actual plans were larger.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

So much larger.

………

Immense pillars of black and white stone, an empty room that seemed to stretch out forever until it became forever black and red banners, white cloth strips hanging and ribbons of deepest scarlet running along the walls. Tapestries of vibrant colors, tapestries of vibrancies itself, scenes that by all of the imagination didn’t mean anything at all…

That immense room with its gentle slope, stairs leading up and all coming together at the dias, the throne of Orroyel and what was the majority of Royeleo-the-continent. Beside the throne itself, the dias that was the in its opulence the center of the world, the seat from which the Norotsiqan had ruled and the the ancient Orroyel and then the Sakaxy conquers and then him-

The emperor of Orroyel, fifth to the throne of the New Empire, Tsqalōf the second looked down on him with cold eyes and the weary wrinkles that reflected all of life. A deep time spent knowing- Here was power, and this was no time to make a stand on petty differences in culture. Laeo prostrated himself on the floor for a long second before rising at the bid of the emperor and all his court, the city of Norapt and the city of his empire.

So small, from above… he thought of those little specks of green on a single mote of blue, and across that mote of blue, darkness. Darkness and what lay beyond the stars… “Lord of the Glass Throne. Here I am, Laeo of the Tasadiran fringe.”

“That’s a Nola name. Still… very well. Rise, and bring to me your lord’s gifts. I’ve been hearing rumors, and I’d like to see for myself if they’re true.” The emperor was a rather kindly looking fellow, for all the weight of his command and the political intrigue that must be roiling beneath him, an old man who’d sat on the throne for a long while and who’d survived the crashing, seething. All in a small point in an eternity of nothingness…

Laeo took the steps in stride, not so fast as to be disrespectful but enough to show that he didn’t fear the emperor’s will. That was a lie. Here, this moment, was probably the most dangerous place he’d been in the past month. In the bustle of court life he would have easily been able to disappear… beneath the eyes of that ruler, he was vulnerable.

Through that, he would become more- he knelt before the emperor on the last step, holding out the box. “Two million xhyodaked from the emperor in Ilaial.” The court shifted twice at that- first due to the mention of another emperor, something technically banned but a game always played between the Sakaxhy and the Orroyelans, and secondly, more importantly due to the mention of the amount. Two million- enough to build armies. Enough to construct a fleet twice over. A significant percentage of tax from the entirety of Royeleo, the list of scale went on. It was a truly ludicrous amount of money. Not empire making, but enough that it might seem so.

Tsqalōf narrowed his eyes slightly, picking up one of the bills with frail hands, turning it over once and then once again. Not even emperors were immune to such a sum of money… “What is the string, lord of Sakaxhy? What is your demand in return?” A pause, and then what he’d been hoping for. “Why shouldn’t I just take it?”

The court was still now, all the nobles who’d been called into a hall of marble and banners and scarlet reds looking at two figures, one on a throne of impossibility and another kneeling, eyes met. Laeo however, smiled, handing the other note to him. “Alliances unborn. Gifts freely given, with a few words… this is something that could be. From the strength of trade and the power of our work, this could be trade every day between our nations. Beyond. The emperor in Ilaial sends his regards.” Laeo, stood and made as if to walk back into the crowds of noblemen, knowing that it wouldn’t be that easy.

It wasn’t the ambassador that spoke- a foreign signature only, he wouldn’t have the authority to call the will of the emperor down on him. Rather, it was one of those sharp faced nobles he’d been talking with, standing before the crowd of all others. The sea of the important. “He has not been held accountable to the will of law. I testify against him for the endangerment of our good relations with the people of Nola.”

Laeo froze. He’d suspected this was going to happen after he’d been arrested by the Nola… it was an unfortunate side effect of the amount of money he’d created for himself to give. Through ceremony, it was a perfect opportunity to bring him beneath the will of the emperor.

A thousand pairs of eyes on him, locking onto him and he met them with all the power of his own imperious gare, daring them- “For the disturbance of several peoples personal effects throughout the court, and the false accusation of the Nola ambassador.”

“For the deaths of several guards of Norapt, beneath the…” The list went on, some charges which struck far too close to truth and most which were entirely fake claims made up on the spot. He was almost glad of those- it allowed him a few easy ones to defeat, while mostly ignoring the ones that he actually had done.

“For the protection of his highness the emperor and the swift execution of his will, and diplomatic immunity.” Laeo opened his mouth to respond to that one, then paused. That had been in support of him… Paquel gave him a bright smile. “War with Nolabo would be greatly beneficial to Orroyel. We are no longer a weak nation, and though we might not be as powerful as the Nola, the promised assistance of the Sakaxhy would help greatly.” After that nobody spoke for an all too long time. The points she’d made had been obvious, just not things he would have been able to bring up in his own defense without further incriminating himself. Still, it had silenced the voices of the nobles who were just adding their own false charges.

Laeo could sense the unrest in the room, so close- soon someone would speak again, which threatened-

The emperor stood, long robes of state falling down around him and a power in his stance, the way he held himself above a glass throne, a throne of history far more than the throne of Tasadir. He would- “I absolved you once already. No word of noble threat will ever carry more weight than the throne of Orroyel and the force of empire. Go and be free.” He looked out over the collected nobles of Orroyel and in that gaze there was the conviction of a man who was willing to risk their enmity for the ascension of the Orroyelan state. Quieter, to Laeo- “Perhaps the Sakaxhy aren’t so bad after all. I’ll talk to you later.”

Laeo left a court of black and white stone, a sunlight’s void and the remembrance of looking down on a place so far below, a single speck of nothing. Night and day in equal proportions, God over the top of the world. Shadows, and a sacrifice for peace...