The Emperor ignored her words coldly. High above, he seemed to be lost in his own thoughts as a sneer formed on his pale lips.

“I’m sure you can guess why you’re here,” he hissed, gripping the arms of the throne as though to restrain himself from waving his hand and turning Abrial into a bloody, moaning puddle. “Are you playing dumb and just trying to infuriate me? Or are you actually stupid? Who do you think you are, to act in this way in front of the Emperor of Gongkua?”

“No…Yes…Me?” Abrial answered truthfully, frowning.

The corner of the Emperor’s lip twitched. What was going through his head was unreadable…except for the fury. There was lots and lots of fury pouring from his eyes like blood. When he spoke, his voice was cold as ice from the top of the tallest mountain.

“Drop the act or I’ll slit your throat and make you drink your own blood until you choke. If you continue to play dumb, don’t think I’ll be merciful. I don’t know how to be, so don’t think you can convince me to find it in myself to spare you. I am going to sentence you, but first I have some questions I have been waiting to ask you for a long time now. First,—”

“Hold up,” Abrial interrupted, paling and frowning in bewilderment. “Sentence me?! Sentence me for what?! Seriously, what did I do?! Did I make you mad or something — ?!”

WHAM!

Another bolt of blood red fire burst the shining black ground at Abrial’s knees, sending a hundred shards of stone flying like sharp bird’s beaks into Abrial’s other calf. She grunted, pain shooting through her body in rods of lightning, but managed to tamp down her expressions of suffering. Even though she didn’t look back at her legs, she could feel hot blood seeping down them, soaking her black robes. She wouldn’t be able to walk at all for days at this rate, if not weeks!

What a temper! What a fucking immature guy! What a moody, violent teen!

She gritted her teeth, silently fuming and glaring up at the Emperor. All right. She was beginning to get really mad now. This guy was the Emperor? Not even mentioning all the murders he’d committed, he was just a straight-up violent-ass jerk! No wonder all magicians wanted him dead!

Up on the throne, the Emperor scowled contemptuously down at her.

“You interrupted me…I do not permit such behavior. Don’t do that again if you want to keep your tongue. Now, answer me: you are a heartstone carrier. Is this true?”

Abrial’s chest seemed to feel heavy suddenly. She was still reeling from irritation, but now she was puzzled, too. How should she answer that question? The Emperor was a twisted guy, right? So what if he was twisting his questions around? Was it a trick question? Was he trying to get some kind of confession out of her to sentence her for whatever crime she was being framed for, besides the unforgivable crime of being a magician or whatever? What was she supposed to say?!

In the end, she decided on just telling the truth. The Emperor also had a heartstone, didn’t he? He couldn’t condemn her for having one, too! Then he should just execute himself! Or something. Plus, she couldn’t think of a different response aht didn’t involve completely lying, and she sucked at lying. Even she knew that.

She looked up at him, raising an eyebrow suspiciously. “Yeah, I’m a heartstone carrier. But you are, too! So you can’t kill me for that.”

“...” The Emperor’s lips twitched dangerously. “Do you want me to cut your heart out?”

“Uh…no???”

“Then don’t say more than you need to. A ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ is good enough. Now, my second question. You have been plotting to kill me. Is this true?”

“...”

Abrial stared. She frowned. She opened her mouth and closed it, then opened it again.

Why the hell would he ask that?! And did he bring her here because he thought she was some kind of assassin aiming to get rid of him?! She was just a rando magician who couldn’t even use her magic and didn’t even have a personal grudge against the Emperor! What the hell?!

The Emperor leaned forward, raising his eyebrows and looking coldly down at her. “Speak. Why have you not answered.”

“No! No, of course I’m not! I mean, not personally. There are definitely magicians who want to kill you—like, a lot of them, but I don’t have, like a particular, uh, hatred for you! Or something! I’m not even particularly powerful! And I’m definitely not plotting anything!”

“...I see.” The Emperor’s voice was cold as ice, and immediately Abrial got the sinking feeling that he didn’t believe her one bit. Up above, his eyes flashed with deadly fire, and as he spoke, Abrial grunted again. The obsidian shards piercing her calves seemed to dig in deeper, like they were trying to tear all the way through her muscle to the bone. Her eyes watered. Above, the Emperor laughed coldly. “I didn’t think you would be good at lying. But it seems you’re a fucking good liar.”

Even under this barrage of threats, the full weight of the situation didn’t really sink in for Abrial. She gasped in pain, sweat dripping from her nose to the obliterated ground around her, frowning up at him in anger and confusion. “C-Can you…stop it with the shards? And…for an Emperor…you s-sure swear a lot.”

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“Ha…Did I tell you to speak?” The Emperor’s voice sent a shiver down Abrial’s spine. For the first time, it sounded sweet — sickly sweet and patient. That voice didn’t sound right coming from him. It sounded very wrong.

Very, very wrong.

Cold, crisp footsteps sounded above. The Emperor was actually descending his heavenly throne to come down and speak to her up close…and do who-knows-what. All Abrial knew was that it couldn’t be good.

As he descended at a painfully leisurely pace, his hands held gracefully behind his back, the Emperor spoke in that quiet, slow voice masking rivers of murderous malice.

“I don’t believe you when you say you aren’t plotting treason. My source is credible. You are the only one with the potential to end me, and that is a fact. It doesn’t matter what you say; your words can’t change the truth. You are the one person I can’t turn a blind eye to in this world. If I do, then everything I’ve worked for one day will crumble to dust. I’ll end up in the fucking fiery depths of hell at last, with no escape—because of you. So…” He descended the last three steps, sweeping towards her with his glittering, flowing robes trailing behind, a terrifying picture of imperial power. “Don’t bother speaking anymore. Whatever you say won’t bring you any mercy from me.”

Bending down like a smiling teacher crouching to speak to his young student, the Emperor bent at the waist and brought his face to Abrial’s pale, sweating one. He observed the beads of sweat dripping off her chin, and the barely-concealed fear flickering in her eyes behind a curtain of fierce defiance. His thin, pretty lips curved into a crooked smile.

In that moment, the two of them stared into each other’s eyes. And in that moment, their eyes seemed to mirror each other eerily, two sides of the same coin: two pairs of fiercely glittering obsidian filled with a shadowy fire, one pair seething with defiance, and the other pair oozing despisement.

SMACK!

Suddenly, something struck Abrial’s cheek with the force of a boulder. She fell pitifully to the ground, gritting her teeth and holding her face.

That bitch had actually…slapped her?! And hard!!!

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!?!?!?!?!?!

HOW IMMATURE CAN YOU GET?!?!?!

Her face throbbed like it was on fire, and an involuntary laugh of fury, pain, and disbelief escaped her lips. What did this guy think he was, an angry, violated maiden? Is that the kind of violation he was calling her? Or did the Emperor just go around slapping people he hated? Was it his hobby?! Abrial turned around slightly, her whole body aching from the force of that slap, and frowned.

The Emperor was standing there, towering over her…a look of complete horror on his face. Or, the half of his face that she could see. His black eyes were shocked as wide as coins, and his pale face seemed to have lost even more color, like he was a statue carved from pure white jade. The words that came through his pale lips were forced and trembling, like they were fragile enough to shatter into a thousand pieces with a touch:

“Where…did you get that robe?”

…Huh?

Abrial looked down and immediately winced at the bloody sight. She was still wearing her shadowy, glittering robe over her inner scarlet and black clothing, but the shadowy robe and her clothes from the knees down had been torn to shreds. Now, all that remained was bloody tatters and torn skin. Dang…it looked a lot worse down there than Abrial had thought it was. That looked…seriously not good.

As in, seriously not good.

Suddenly, her face was yanked upward by the chin. The Emperor had reached out and viciously pulled up her face with cold fingers, making it feel like he might rip it off her neck at any moment. Abrial was forced to stare into his cold obsidian eyes, which pulsed dangerously with heat.

“Answer me. Where did you get this robe?”

Abrial wanted nothing more but to smack this asshole so hard in the face that he never stood up again, but she managed to rasp:

“A friend m-made it, jeez. I-It’s not really your business, you know…”

The Emperor’s eyes flashed like lightning. A queer smile curled one corner of his lip, the other corner remaining flat as ice. Something in Abrial’s stomach dropped, releasing a heavy, thick sense of foreboding that raced from her chest to her fingertips. Something bad was about to happen. The familiar feeling of smoke building up in her chest had returned. Her insides were burning again. Something was wrong with her heartstone.

“...’None of my business’?”

Those smoldering obsidian eyes…did they look more dead, like two lifeless black stones? Or did they look livid, like two coals that had been burning for so long they might at any moment be crushed into diamonds?

No. Abrial finally realized: those eyes looked…

Mad.

They looked like the eyes of a maniac about to teeter over the edge of a cliff and plummet into a fiery hell.

Chains rattled as Abrial crashed to the ground, thrown by the Emperor with unbelievable force. Several cracks sounded, and Abrial winced again, suppressing a scream. Fuck! That had to be three broken ribs, at least! Maybe it was because of the shock, but the feeling of heat building in her chest subsided momentarily. She coughed, releasing a wisp of black smoke and a smattering of blood that splattered onto the ground.

Some steps away, the Emperor trembled with rage, an unsettlingly crooked grin displayed beneath his flaming eyes. When he spoke, his voice shook.

“How dare you wear that robe in front of me?”

FWOOM!

Abrial ducked, shielding her head with her arms draped in chains. The obsidian floor right by her face exploded, sending shards of stone shooting into her arms and shredding her sleeves into nothing. Her cheeks burned, scraped by stray bits of obsidian. Warm blood dripped down her neck. She blinked her eyes open after a second, ears ringing, and gasped in relief to find she could still see. Thank all the immortals that she hadn’t gone blind!

Suddenly, a cold, long-fingered hand shot out and gripped Abrial by the throat, cutting off her words. A gurgling noise choked from her throat. The Emperor’s hand was like a vise, squeezing out any breath that had remained in her lungs until nothing was left. Abrial’s dark eyes bulged with rage and panic. Seriously, was she going to die like this, in this lame way? Being strangled without putting up a fight?! She struggled fiercely, baring her teeth and snapping at the Emperor’s wrists, kicking out with her legs. He only squeezed tighter. As he did, the feeling of boiling smoke in Abrial’s chest increased tenfold, until she felt there was a fire blazing in her chest, bursting to escape, searing her insides to a crisp. The heat was unbearable. Was the Emperor going to burn her from the inside out? Was this how it felt to have your intestines melted alive? Why was this feeling strangely familiar?

As her vision began to flicker into darkness, Abrial saw the Emperor bring his face close to hers, sneering darkly. He opened his mouth to spit furious words in her face, but when he did, he choked, blood dripping from his mouth. Instead of words, a thick cloud of black and red smoke burst from his lips instead, obscuring the space between them.