Chapter 34

The throne room of Presidia

Emeria

Emria felt a sharp pain run up her spine as she sat up with a start. “Seriously, that’s two of my bonds they’ve managed to break. I’m starting to think that girl must know more than Kraevos. The first one could have been a fluke, but managing to break Moren’s bond when I was concentrating on him like that isn’t something I thought could be done.” She got up and walked over to Dracyr. She’d had restraints put into the wall so that Dracyr was shackled there, listening to Emeria as she went about, unable to leave. Emeria didn’t particularly figure that Dracyr would leave, given her surrender, but she still preferred to shackle her enemy nonetheless. Besides, to her, the golden idol shackled to the wall was a happy sight whenever she needed one.

“I’ll ask politely this time,” Emeria began, “How did they break my bond Dracyr? I know you can see the past clearly, so you must know exactly how they did it.” Dracyr stared blankly at Emeria, giving her the usual lack of response. “Moren was supposed to stay at my beck and call, he’s an actually valuable asset, so you’ll forgive me if I’m a bit upset at losing him.” She let a tendril out from her wrist and let it lash at the wall next to Dracyr, cracking the stone. “I’m tiring of this act Dracyr, I am not a patient person to begin with and you have certainly worked my last nerve on this issue. You asked for this.”

With a wave of her hand, a window appeared before Emeria, its image was split to all the major commons of Presidia, showing many people trying to go about their normal business or whatever was left of that after the invasion. “Citizens of Presidia, your new queen demands your attention!” On each screen, Emeria could see people stop dead in their tracks and stare up. An eerie hush washed over the entire city as she paused. Emeria moved her hand and let the screen view Dracyr. “As you can see I have spared your former queen. She was not worthy of the high place she held in this magnificent city. She was not worthy of your respect or your obedience and waved the white flag for all of you. She laid down her arms and bent to my will. I can assure you, I am not like her at all. As your new queen… no, as the woman who will soon be the empress of all of Surren, I pledge to you that I will fight for you, I will fight for the glory of Surren under my banner!”

She turned the screen back to herself, “All citizens of Presidia need not worry, for Empress Emeria is here to usher in a bright new future.” A wicked grin crossed Emeria’s lips as she spoke. In each screen, the Sacrotians cheered and even some of the Draeton citizens began to as well, likely deciding to give in to the change happening. The cheers fed Emeria’s wicked narcissism, only adding to the performance. “Unfortunately though, there are certain impediments to the glory of our growing empire.” She turned the screen to Dracyr once again as she stifled a mad laugh, “You see your failed queen never cared enough for you and she does not care for you now either. She sits here, withholding information that would help our empire.” Emeria pushed the screen closer to Dracyr’s face so every last citizen could see what their queen looked like now, then she leaned in to whisper in Dracyr’s ear so only she could hear. “I’m so angry with you right now that I might have to take my rage out on someone else, but who should that be? One of those citizens in the square, one of the students at the college, maybe a family in the lower ring?”

Dracyr’s breath caught and her eyes widened, finally, she weakly let out a “No… I’ll speak.”

With a cruel laugh, Emeria pulled up and took the screen with her, letting it get a close view of her face. “I promise you, as members of the great Sacrotian Empire that will soon cover all of Surren, I will help you all to live better lives. That said, it is up to you to help unify this empire as we grow. If we all share one vision of a truly united Surren, then we will all prosper. That includes complying as we settle this city. Any of you who are harboring wounded soldiers, I am giving you a chance at redemption, at amnesty for your weakness. If you find the nearest Sacrotian soldiers and turn in these soldiers who will not be a war criminal guilty of treason.”

Emeria looked to the screen and saw people begin to move, scattering like mice to betray their former kingdom. “I would also ask one more thing of you, I ask that tonight we celebrate. In every square in the city, we will hold a feast for the Sacrotian Empire and we will bring any and all emblems of Draeton and burn them. We will replace all the banners and tapestries over the coming days. Draeton is dead, long live the glory of Sacrotia!”

With that, Emeria snapped her fingers and the screen flickered off. She turned back to her captive, “So, ready to talk I assume? If not, I'm sure that I can add more than a little fuel to those fires later.”

Dracyr’s head hung in shame, but she spoke clearly and resolutely for the first time in days. “Fine, I will talk,” she said.

“Now that’s the most reasonable thing you’ve done since you surrendered to me,” Emeria said sadistically. “So how exactly did they manage to break my bonds? Ursania and Moren were both valuable pawns I’ve lost and I’d prefer to make them my only two losses.”

“The used magic,” Dracyr began, “Magic that is not unlike your own. It is like a key to a lock, they were able to undo the spell.” Dracyr paused for a moment, making the risky choice to lie to Emeria if only slightly. Dracyr could indeed see what had already happened, but she hoped to leave out some details to at least not give Emeria the entire answer. “Kraevos figured out a way to break the bond, he’s the key to everything that is being done against you.”

Emeria locked eyes with Dracyr, looking for any hint of a lie as her normal way of reading hearts no longer worked on the golden queen. “That makes sense I suppose. He’s been alive so long that he could have learned any of the forms of magic. He’s more than likely come up with a few fancy tricks by now.” She turned her head to the side, pondering Dracyr’s words. “But how do I know you’re not lying to me?”

“You do not, I suppose,” Dracyr replied, keeping her composure stiff and motionless. “But at this point what reason would I have to lie? If I lie you have made it clear the people of this city will suffer. I am not so emotionless as to ignore the suffering of my people.”

“Ughhh,” Emeria groaned, “You are endlessly frustrating, but I suppose that logic holds up. Besides, I have no doubt I’ll find out rather quickly if you’re lying or not. Either way, you'd be far less of an annoyance if you’d just do what I wanted like Gracky. Though I suppose there’s another way I can try to test your lies.” Emeria ran a finger across her palm and blood began to pool, forming a tendril that reached out and wrapped around Dracyr’s throat. There was a tense moment of silence as Emeria stood, trying to sense something. “Well, well, that is odd. It’s not just that I can't hear your pulse, it’s almost as if you don’t have one anymore. It seems as though the golden form of yours goes a little more than skin deep.” Emeria stopped and licked her lips, “I will have to investigate exactly to what extent that goes though. I may be a monster, but at this rate, I think I’m closer to human than you’ll ever be again.”

Emeria looked down on the golden queen, thinking about all the possibilities of what the change could have done to Dracyr, “For all the time that our kingdoms have been involved with these stones and thrones, we still know so very little about them. You and I are going to go on a little journey of discovery about that I think.” She kicked out at Dracyr, catching her foot on the golden queen’s leg. It felt indeed like she was kicking a piece of metal and left no discernable mark on Dracyr. It did however make Emeria yell out. “Well, if I can’t hurt you in conventional ways I guess I’ll have to get creative with that too. Maybe I’ll just get a smith to heat you up and hammer you flat so I can use you as gold leaf in a gilden piece of art in my name.” At last, Dracyr shuddered, giving Emeria the payoff she wanted.

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“Well, this little chat has been fun,” Emeria said as she turned to leave the throne room, “But as the empress of a growing empire, I have responsibilities that you couldn’t imagine.” With a wicked laugh, she skipped from the throne room. As she closed the door behind her she could hear Dracyr begin to sob, which only made her giddy. After exiting the room Emeria made sure to stop and find the nearest guard. “You heard my announcement, correct?” The guard nodded. “Excellent, now go and find your captain and have him send this message out to all of our units within the city. Any and all who bring in Dratonsoldiers that they were harboring are to be made an example of. There is no amnesty in Sacrotia and those fools need to help the rest of this empire understand that.” The soldier nodded and ran off to follow his empress's orders. “Well, that should get the message across, and scare the rest of the city into bending the knee.”

Emeria walked through the halls that were now becoming increasingly familiar and she thought about several things. She thought about the thrones and the stones that the kingdoms held and all she didn’t know about them. She thought about Dracyr, Graclose, and the High Arbiter of Lazzure whom she knew had all paid the price for their power. They had all chosen to strengthen their bond with magic at the cost of something, but had she? As far as she knew, she had never willingly made the choice to pay a price to the bloodstone, nor had her family as far as she knew. Had the price been paid for them or not? She received the bloodstone after the fateful day in the market, but her abilities had been the same since then, perhaps there was a further level to the power that she could find at some point. With all of Surren under her control, she would make finding out about this a priority.

At last, Emeria reached her favorite place in the castle, the dungeon. Since her initial visit, she had a guard clean out the room and then she went about setting it up for herself. She had placed some of her belongings in the room and set up each cell for a different form of torture. The cells had yet to be filled, but that was only a matter of time in her mind. Emeria was looking forward to giving each room a strong memory of dread, fear, and despair. She grinned and licked her lips at the thought of all the fun she would soon have in the dungeon.

She flipped up a rug that she had placed in the room to cover the magical circle’s outline on the floor. Running a finger along her throat, she let out a bloody tendril and spoke the words to activate the circle, “Invicio Precipia.”

The circle flared to life, casting the room in a flickering red static glow. After a few moments the familiar, albeit fluctuating voice and image filled the circle. “This is twice this week sanguine queen that you have called me, has something gone wrong?” Even with the changes in the voice, Emeria could tell that the woman she was speaking to was irritated this time.

“You would be wise not to use such a tone with me,” Emeria began,” You have helped me greatly with my endeavor to conquer Surren, but it is by my hand that all of this work is done. It is easy to be high and mighty when you are not the one risking life and limb on the field of battle when all you have to wager are words and anonymity.”

“And you would be wise to remember that without us you are nothing!” The voice spat back. The fluctuations ceased and the figure spoke honestly for the first time since Emeria had met her. “You say I wager my secrets and little else, but you are just a pawn of people far greater than yourself.” A dark green fog began to spew forth in the circle, giving the woman a true form that stepped toward Emeria. "You may think yourself powerful, but you are nothing more than a child throwing a tantrum, you have no clue what true power is!” The smoke form grabbed Emeria and pain began to burn through her body wherever it touched. The smoke itself felt like acid burning away flesh. “You cannot hurt me from where you are, but I can cause you pain insolent whelp!” The smokey form threw Emeria against the wall with a thud.

Emeria looked up with bloodlust filling her eyes as they turned a deep red, “One of these days you and I will be in the same room you know. Then I will show you what I know about power.”

“On that you are right,” the smoky woman interjected. “But you will not know that until it is far too late.”

Emeria lay on the ground catching her breath, trying to catch her pulse, rather than her normal reaction of feeding into the frenzy her blood called for. Despite her urges, she attempted to steer the conversation back to her original purpose. “When that day comes we can sort this out, but for now, I need your advice.”

“You insult me and threaten me and then you expect me to turn and give you advice? What sort of fool do you think I am,” the voice replied angrily.

“The self-interested kind,” Emeria replied. “Whatever your motive is, you want me to take over Surren and that means helping me.” The smokey form crossed its arms, clearly not excited at the prospect of the conversation continuing, but able to argue Emeria’s point. “I’ll take that as a sign that you’re willing to talk then. So I’ve lost Moren, this is two of my blood bonds that have been broken. This one was far stronger than the first and yet it’s still been broken.”

Replying at a far calmer pace and tone, “Hmm… That is interesting. Breaking a bond like yours is no simple task, though if anyone would know how to do it, it would be Kraevos. This is a setback though, holding their Moren over them has kept the forest in check, and this puts a whole area back on the board. This means between the incident in Lazzure and this we have lost two of the major areas of the continent. Though I doubt Lazzure would move against you, I also do not think they will be of any help.”

“I know,” Emeria replied, “And I agree with you about Lazzure. I don’t think anyone can actually trust the High Arbiter for more than his own financial well-being. That said if I can end the threat of Kraevos I know he will hold up his end of the bargain, he still has far too much to gain to not. Moren is the more concerning part to me. The forest has protections and magics that no one seems to understand and without Moren at my beck and call I’m not sure how to handle it.”

“More than likely if you solve one problem you will solve the other. We have no doubt that Kraevos will come to try and dispose of you and there is reason to believe that Moren would simply join him. The High Arbiter’s son travels with Kraevos too. So you would be wise to wait and let them come to you. If you go after them you will be nothing more than a dog chasing its tail, instead, be the hunter and lay the trap. You know they must reach you, so let them, and then deal with all of your problems at once. In one fell swoop, you can take back the High Arbiter’s son, Moren, and remove Kraevos from the board.”

“So I should just let them come to me, fine,” Emeria mused, “But what if they are more than I alone can handle, will you finally step out of the shadows and raise a hand?” Emeria looked toward the smokey figure, knowing what sort of response would come back.

“If you cannot handle them, then we chose poorly to put our faith and support behind you in the first place.”

The woman behind the voice was clearly taunting her, but Emeria bit her tongue and tightened her fists, choosing to keep her anger tight for once. “And what of the book you told me about, is that a worry?”

“Yes,” the woman replied quickly, “Though if you cannot handle Kraevos then the book will be the least of your worries. If you kill Kraevos and his allies, binding the ones you need, then you will have the book. We will take the book from you and all will be as planned. You will sit atop the Sacrotian Empire and we will get what we wanted.”

“Why exactly would I hand such a dangerous source of information to you?” Emeria asked, finally believing she had the woman cornered. “If you’re so afraid of the power this book wields then why wouldn’t I keep it for myself?”

“You will listen and listen well you brat!” the woman spat out. “You will do as you have been told and give us our prize!”

At last, everything clicked for Emeria and she knew one piece of the puzzle, “No actually, you will listen to me,” Emeria said as she let her tendril hover just above the magic circle, “I will take what is mine and that includes the book, besides, it’s quite a long trip from Chaleus isn’t it?” The smokey figure froze and Emeria knew she’d gotten her. It took the rest of the conversation, but she had been able to place the accent somewhere in the Caleus empire across the oceans from Lazzure. She let the tendril strike the magic circle and the woman’s form disappeared and the room went dark.

“Well then, safe to say that particular relationship is over. Though I do believe it has outlived its usefulness anyway.” She looked to her arms where the figure had grabbed her and saw blood pooling, rebuilding her skin and muscles. “Quite the power though, I’ll have to research that and see what I find.” From the wound on her arm, a tendril slithered up in front of her face, “I know, for a short while I thought she was actually our ally, maybe even a friend in our conquest.” She stood up and dusted herself off running her fingers through her hair with a sigh. “It’s ok, you’re all I’ve ever needed. You and I are against the whole of the world like it’s supposed to be. We’ll devour all of the world, just the two of us.” The tendril slithered back to her wound as Emeria began to leave the dungeon.