For as long as Xadmen Faemria had a sense of the power of position, he found himself wanting more. A desire which was first satiated through his commanding of the servants who tended to him, and their youngest siblings, though he quickly grew bored of doing so and sought new ways to flex his power. Eventually, after several years of searching between their studies and keeping up their social appearances, Xadmen discovered the root of his appreciation for the power granted to him by birth. That being the fear that came with such power, an epiphany that directed his already great ambitions into a more calculated form he previously felt no need to focus.
Over the years that followed, even as he attended the Imperial Academy, Xadmen committed himself to the role he had first taken on when he first properly introduced himself to noble society eight years before his entry into the Academy. That role of course being the ever charming, silver tongued, Third Prince of the Empire, a role that like all of the lies he ever told was done to perfection. So much so that Xadmen had the time to build a criminal empire to further ensure his place as the emperor, and on occasion discreetly inflict torment on the families of those who slighted him in the most insignificant of ways.
By the time Xadmen had finished his basic arcane education at the Academy, he began to split his time more distinctly between his time as arcane researcher and the quiet but active building of a noble faction to support his claim to the throne. Which many of the more traditional noble houses found distasteful to even consider, and though open with their displeasure of the act to Xadmen himself, they chose not begin building their own faction for their eldest brother who, had long since left the Academy and taken a position in the imperial army as a battle mage, or even the oldest of his younger sisters.
Despite this perceived failure in building the strong noble backing he wished to be filled by at least some members of the so called “old guard” of the empire, Xadmen successfully built the foundations of his own noble faction, which steadily grew as he proceeded with his personal research on immortality at the Academy. Research he found to be slow in its progression, but far faster then it would have been if he hadn’t chosen to stay at the Academy after gaining its official recognition as a Mage.
After spending nearly fourteen years at the Academy, a decade of which he spent as a researcher and on occasion a professor, Xadmen quietly completed the foundational pieces of the ritual that was the product of his years of research and returned to the palace as Xadmen Third Prince of the Faemrian Empire. There he began various duties assigned to him by the Emperor, which included a brief period of heading several squads of imperial soldiers who guarded a portion of the Empire’s border with the Kingdom of Tuersun. A duty the Prince fulfilled to far higher level then the Emperor had intended, a slight that Xadmen kept in mind when he returned several months after his initial assignment as a result of a temporary peace treaty between the two powers. A treaty that in part thanks to Xadmen’s quiet movements had remained unbroken, at least officially, for the three years that followed its creation.
Besides the dutiful fulfillment of the various forms of quiet slights the Emperor threw his way, including that of a fiancée, Xadmen tended to his own noble faction, and his ever expanding criminal empire. Which he used to sell his enemy secrets and to spread false rumors, the profits from which he split between the materials for what he considered his life’s work, a personal emergency reserve of coin and with the last of its profits he used to fuel his empire’s continued expansion.
As the Emperor grew older, and tended to less and less of the Empire directly, the initially subtle decision, thanks in part to Xadmen, spread amongst nobles across the Empire, which eventually gave birth to rumors that the Emperor was dying. And though initially the rumors were false and the Emperor was simply preparing to step down, those who regularly greeted the Emperor at the parties he attended, began to notice his increasingly sickly appearance. Which only served to embolden the rumors,eventually resulting in what was a quick and quiet end of the Emperor’s public appearances, following the coming of age ceremony of the Eldest Princess, Ryea Faemria.
An event that came to be known, among nobles, aristocrats and the various heirs to the Empire, even those who had publicly renounced their right, such as the Second Prince as the marker for the beginning of the succession wars. A war that was called such due to the various suspicious deaths that befell several of the low ranking aristocrats and nobles who had publicly joined one of the three major factions that formed shortly after the inevitability of the war became clear.
Though the initial split of nobles and aristocrats was in favor of Xadmen as he had both planned and expected, when the initial rush to back an heir ended, instead of the small gap he expected between himself and his eldest brother, the gap between him and his brother was far greater than that of his worst case scenario. Which made him seriously consider simply discreetly killing his brother, however he resisted the impulse and instead began reworked his initial plan to account for not only the larger gap in backing, but the sibling that had unintentionally caused it, and the various other variables he had previously chosen to ignore when he original put into motion his plan to ascend to the throne.
Two months after Princess Ryea’s coming of age ceremony, and not long after official establishment of the three major factions of the candidates for the throne, it became clear to Xadmen that despite his adjustments to his plans, that he was likely going to have to use change a portion of his previously discrete and criminal methods to be noticeable among the other factions. A adjustment he was hesitant to go forward with when the battle for the throne first began, due to the wounds he would have to inflict upon his own faction but when he heard word of the Princess’s public declaration to become the Emperor, and further reclaim the land that had been taken by the Tuersun Kingdom, he knew that the damage he would take, or rather his faction and resources would take, was ultimately be worth it.
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While Xadmen’s more covert actions gradually bred more covert bloodshed among both his and his sibling’s factions as he intended, Xadmen himself maintained his public appearance as the charming Third Prince using the opportunities granted to him as both royalty and a master mage to publicly grow his faction. Despite his expert use of his positions, he almost always failed in his attempts to convince the so-called traditionalist nobles and aristocrats. A result that weighed heavy on his patience, in part due to the fact their support was split between Zumeyxam, the Eldest Prince, and Eldest Princess Ryea. Still Xadmen maintained his composure, though the reason he was able to do so was thanks to his fiancée who had finally managed to convince not only her family to join his faction officially, but also the various nobles and aristocrats who served under her family. A victory he found especially sweet given that the Emperor’s intent with the engagement had almost certainly been to slow Xadmen’s growth of influence, using his fiancée’s family’s loyalty to the Emperor to do so.
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Though the various magical enchantments of the Faemria’s Imperial Palace were far better than most other kingdoms, it was not impossible to sneak individuals in and out without arousing suspicion amongst the various guards, and the Imperial mages who monitored the active enchantments. Despite this fact and the fact that Xadmen was unwilling to take on the potential risks of bribing several Imperial mages and guards, or even charm them to do as he wished, over the three years Xadmen had began his work in managing the greater picture of the Empire’s economic actions and his own personal agenda, he was increasingly successful in covertly growing his information network reach effectively giving him eyes and ears throughout the palace. A success that greatly eased several political maneuvers the Prince made, and even on a few occasions manipulating and hindering the various investigations of Princess Ryea and Prince Zumeyxam on the deaths of members of their own factions.
Although Xadmen had prepared for many factors of his rivaling heirs, Princess Ryea’s enrollment to the Academy did not cross his mind, as even his nephew, the son of Prince Zumeyxam, had been chosen to instead become the disciple of one of the master mages of the Cerulean Tower, located on the other side of the Vorzint Mountains. When the initial shock of what Xadmen considered a foolish decision by an heir of an Empire faded, he began to consider the potential effects of an assaination that he could utilize to grow his faction to a size that would ensure his ascension.
Xadmen reflected on the idea day and night for several months during which it slowly evolved from a potential plan, a sort of secondary plan into an active plan. Though the first attempt wasn’t immediately possible when Xadmen first organized the several individuals to both commit the act and infiltrate the Academy. And while the unexpected speed in which his operatives achieved infiltration inside the Academy was half of the reason why they were unable to make their first attempt on the Princess’s life in the manner Xadmen had instructed. The other half of the reason being that prior to the first day of classes the Princess had chosen to remain within the palace.
Despite having planned to have the assassination carried out immediately after his operatives arrived at the Academy, once again Princess Ryea surprised Xadmen with a choice that he felt equally frustrated and amazed by, with her decision to remain in the palace. Though ultimately the Princess’s decision only served to enhance the chances of success for the coming attempt on her life. The week of additional time within the Academy granted Xadmen’s various assassins the time to not only gain indirect intel on Xadmen’s opposing factions via their members children, but allowing the assassins the time to familiarize themselves with grounds of the Academy itself and organize several potential patsies for the act itself.
Following the first day of classes, or rather the orientation ceremony for the new students, including the Princess and the assignment of classes, Xadmen’s assassins spent the night determining the best positions to strike over the course of day between the Princess’s treks between classes. Unlike the other jobs the Third Prince had assigned them, the Academy was bustling with activity and they were tasked with not only completing the task in manner that even a particularly thorough investigation done with the help of mages, would only lead to a patsy. Furthermore they were expected to do so in such a manner that the evidence that led to the patsy would prevent any individual who would be inclined to believe otherwise to publicly point fingers without creating cause for a Duel of Honor.
During the second day of the Princess’s official attendance at the Academy, Xadmen’s men shifted between various positions within the Academy grounds, patiently waiting for the opportunity to strike in the manner they had been assigned to. The sun rose and set but the opportunity they sought did not come, and the Princess returned to the Imperial Villa that long stood on the Academy grounds. Though the chance the assassins waited for did not come,yet it did not breed in them impatience, as the delay had been expected despite the mountain of preparations they had done.
On the day that followed each of the assassins took to their positions, where they maintained their stealth to the utmost degree before moving on similarly to they had the previous day. Though at first the day seemed to be progressing much like the last day of waiting, it was not long after the man known as Mutce Fyd took their third position of the day that Mutce Fyd felt a certainty, a sureness he very rarely felt, that the opportunity he was seeking was within sight.
From the shadows of the detailed walls of one of the many halls Mutce Fyd and his fellow assassins had become familiar with, Mutce Fyd watched hidden and unmoving, waiting for his target as he had so many times before. After two hours of waiting, with the sun just a few minutes from reaching its apex, Mutce Fyd turned his head slightly from his hiding place to face the repeated clacks of the Princess’s heels and her mumbled words of frustration. As the Princess unknowingly made her way closer to Mutce Fyd, he couldn’t help but let the lips of the face that was not his own, curl into a grin. A cruel smile that was made with the belief that the approaching moment was to be the Princess’s last.
Maintaining his grin as the Princess stepped in front of the one of the many tall glass windows of the hall, Mutce Fyd broke from his hiding place by the wall and charged forward into the wide eyed Princess. And just as the glass shattered behind her, and she tumbled backwards to the ground below, Mutce Fyd was shoved aside by a blur of black hair and pointed ears, which quickly followed the falling Princess through the breaking window.