1

“What in the name of oblivion is that supposed to mean? How can they just release her as you say?” Octavia Aquitaine demanded answers. “Don’t you people have laws, regulations and courts?”

“Most certainly,” Speerpoint’s voice cracked with age as he tried to reassure her. As the eldest member of the Wizard Council, he felt that he and Decimus should deliver the news personally. Speerpoint was almost eighty now and he looked it. He looked tired. His skin leathery and wrinkled. “The council put it to a vote and it was decided that she is to be released to the care of Vask Fillius.”

Decimus certainly was not kidding himself about this meeting. He only met the woman once or twice before, but her reputation proceeded her. She was not someone who was subtle. You messed with Octavia Aquitaine at your own peril. He knew Octavia was going to be upset and by the Gods he did not blame her one bit. If anything, he was counting on it. She had money and power and he thought maybe that could help in the quest to vanquish Vask Fillius once and for all.

On a personal level he was not happy about the situation either. Although for entirely different reasons. Decimus liked to be in charge of things. He had run the Wizard Council as a well oiled machine for sometime now. However, in this case he lost control of the Council due to some Imperial Council interference and now Servia De Gallio was in the hands of his nemesis Vask of house Fillius.

It was no secret to the wizard world that Vask and Decimus did not like each other. Decimus had been covertly working against the old wizard for some time. But this time Vask had outmaneuvered him. He chalked it up to political clout that Vask had gained fighting for Xander during the war. That was not a surprise at all. Vask had family members who were tortured and killed by the previous Emperor, Getta. It was only natural to want some sort of revenge for that. Xander benefited greatly from Vask’s help so it had earned him trust and power with the new Emperor.

Decimus stayed out of the war. He spent much of his time up in the mountains east of Palantine. He had some new friends that he had been meeting with, training with. Learning new skills and such.

“She was just convicted. She was supposed to be sentenced!” Octavia complained. Her face was flushed from wine. She had knocked back two glasses of the stuff just in the twenty minutes that they had been there. “How could she just be release to…? What did you say his name was?”

“Vask Fillius, my Lady,” Decimus said. “And actually, the whole incident has been ruled an accident by the court. She was expelled from the school. But she would not have spent much more time in prison.”

Decimus and Speerpoint, sat on a luxurious red velvet sofa in the reception room of the Aquitaine’s Verant City estate home. The room was large and square shaped. In the center was a large pool of water with a white marble fountain in the center. Above the pool the ceiling was open to the sky. Large potted plants flanked the pillars that held the rest of the ceiling in place. Light from the late afternoon sun flooded the room and highlighted all of the hand painted frescoes that showed the various exploits of the family over the centuries. The largest and most important was the fresco that depicted a profile of the city with the large aqueducts gracefully stepping over the walls and poured out the fresh mountain spring water. The entire house was a rambling villa that rested on the shores of the Imperial Valley River. The Aquitaine family had lived here as their primary residence for the last three hundred years. Over that time the villa had been modified, added to and torn down and rebuild several times. Of course, all the important families had villas along the river on three- to five-acre estates, but theirs was the most lavish.

Octavia sat on a similar sofa opposite from Decimus. She was a full-figured woman of almost forty years which she hid well with help of make-up and stylish flowing dresses. She had long curly dark red hair that puffed out in a way that seemed to make her larger than life and very imposing. She wore a ruby lipstick that matched her hair color and a floor length white cotton dress that was more about comfort then wealth and style.

Decimus knew enough about her to know that she did not have friends. Octavia had servants and slaves that she liked to order around. Decimus felt that if he had to sum up the woman in a single word, it would be overbearing.

The three of them sat there in silence for a moment. They each had a glass of red wine in their hand. Decimus had to say yes when Octavia offered it to him. It would have been too big of an insult to decline.

Octavia downed her glass in about two gulps.

“Ry-gala!” She shouted at her servant who stood close by. He was a talk thin dark-skinned man dressed in a simple white loin cloth and adorned with jewelry, piercings and bizarre tribal tattoos. It was clear to Decimus that he was from the summer islands to the south, but he did not see anything that indicated he was a slave so he must have been a paid servant. “Be a dear and refill my glass. Then go and find that damned Misyia. She should know that its unbearable hot today and I have no one to fan me while I talk to my guests. This situation is simple unacceptable!”

“Of course, my Lady,” Ry-gala said in a deep heavily accented voice. He turned to leave.

But Octavia just had to add. “And tell her to be quick about or I shall have the stupid slut whip!”

Decimus figure he and Speerpoint must have looked a little embarrassed because Octavia then said to them. “I’m sorry about the rudeness, but I caught that whore of a slave of mine fucking the cook from the Telemar estate next door, just the other day and I’m still incensed about it! I mean can you believe the nerve of him taking advantage of my slave like that! If my Misyia end up in the family way I shall make sure that Vespa Telemar has that cook of his executed!”

Decimus nodded agreeably and said. “Quite within your rights to do so my Lady.”

Finally, the slave Misyia arrived. She was a mousy looking girl barely into adulthood. She ran over to the wall and grabbed a large fan made from huge ostrich feathers in alternating white and grey. Misyia quickly got to work fanning her mistress with a gentle rhythm.

Octavia was not quite done abusing the poor girl’s reputation. Decimus could recall only one other time upon which he met Octavia. He remembered that she had an opinion on everything. She was not afraid to voice it. She knew all of the gossip and was not afraid to drag anyone through the mud if it suited her purpose.

“That blackguard probably told her that he loved her or some other such nonsense that young, stupid women are so quick to fall for these days,” Octavia speculated. She eyed Misyia suspiciously, but Misyia could only blush. She tried to ignore her mistress’ comments. “Can you imagine marrying for love? What a ridiculous concept. Where would I be if I had married for love? Living in some small ramshackle cottage? Perhaps begging on the streets like some freed slave!”

“Young people these days,” Speerpoint said with a slight shrug. “They’ve no concept of the future. They don’t understand these matters.”

Quite right, Decimus thought. Maybe Speerpoint was not so feeble minded after all. The man had been in decline for some time. Decimus would have to bring the point up at the next council meeting. Maybe it was time for Speerpoint to retire quietly.

“Vask? Why does that name sound vaguely familiar. who is this Vask fellow?” Octavia questioned.

He is the wizard who helped your husband and the new Emperor win the war you dumb cunt! Decimus mused to himself. He just had to smile at that thought.

But Octavia just had to add. “I hear that the house of Fillius is a dead clan anyway. I mean can’t I just have him killed?”

Decimus, who had finally decided to sip the wine, nearly choked on it.

Octavia continued talking about murder so casually that she had not noticed his reaction. “I’ve plenty of people I could call upon to do the job…”

“I don’t think that would be possible,” Decimus said shaking his head. He took off his hat and ran his hands through his white thinning hair. Octavia was right, he thought. It was getting hot in here!

“And why not? The Aquitaine family is very powerful. Don’t underestimate what we are capable…” She continued as if they were not even there.

Decimus cut her off before she could go into another rambling diatribe. He just did not want to hear it anymore. “If he could be killed, I would have done it myself already!” He said hotly.

Speerpoint looked at him in shock. Decimus was surprised that he was still following the conversation. Decimus did not want to say it, but he had to. Octavia looked at him with some bewilderment and dare he think it… respect? But Speerpoint looked at him like he was mazy.

“What?” Decimus said to the elderly wizard. “Sorry, but it’s true!”

“How can one wizard be so powerful?” Octavia countered. “You’ve grown weak in your old age Decimus.”

Old!? He was only fifty-three! Decimus did not let his face betray his thoughts.

“There more to it than that Lady Aquitaine. Vask is a Wizard Council member,” Speerpoint tried to reason with her. Octavia was not having any of it. Octavia Aquitaine did not listen to anyone.

“Nonsense!” She retorted. “My Garius has been dead these last two months now. You’ve already let his killer go…”

“As we have already said, I believe it was determined to be an accident…” Speerpoint tried to point out.

“There were witnesses that testified against this Servia girl,” she made a disgusting face upon saying the girl’s name. “What about that lovely, Catalina Lyons? She saw the whole thing, right? That’s what your court documents said, isn’t it?”

“Well, that’s the thing about it,” Decimus explained. “Vask felt that some of the witnesses were unreliable. They could’ve been lying about what they saw. He felt that Servia De Gallio was too young and too skilled to waste away in a prison. So, he talked the Wizard Council into putting it to a vote and releasing her to his care.”

“Vask did have a point. I don’t think Catalina was being entirely forthcoming with her statements to the court,” Speerpoint said timidly, fearful of Octavia’s wrath. “If you had only been at the trial and saw it for yourself. We did invite you after all…”

“I have important things that must be done around here Mr. Speerpoint!” Octavia replied in a most flippant manner. “I don’t have time to go to secretive wizard trials and such. I trusted that you people would be fair and balance, but now I can see that I should’ve been there after all!”

“My Lady Octavia, we understand how you feel,” Decimus said truthfully. “I didn’t want this either…”

“You damned wizards!” Octavia exclaimed. She stood up and hurled her glass against the far wall where it smashed to pieces. “I never wanted my Garius to be a wizard, you know. Believe me, I spent many a long hour trying to talk him out of it. But he insisted that he had the talent and he wanted to go to the school. So, my husband relented and let him go, much to my annoyance, of course. And now my son is dead because you perverts can stop fucking each other in the ass long enough to supervise these children!”

“My Lady Octavia, there’s no need to be insulting to us…” Decimus said trying to control his temper. How dare the bitch! He thought. If she was not married to a powerful general and a close friend of the Emperor, he would have slapped that smirk off her face. Instead, he was forced to hold his tongue and take her abuse.

Speerpoint just sat there dumbfounded by her outburst.

“No, you’ve had your say, now I’ll have mine!” Octavia insisted. She stormed about the room. Her persona was larger and more powerful than her curvy frame.

Misyia froze uncertain about what she should do now that Octavia was not sitting any more. But she need not worry since Octavia had forgotten about her.

Octavia continued to speak from a place of anger and pain. “Now I have to go and tell my beloved husband that the killer of his second son has been released, to do Gods only know what! How do you think he will take that news, hmm?”

“He already knows,” Decimus replied. By the Gods that felt good! He thought.

Octavia was stunned. “What?” Was all she could say.

“It was the Emperor, Xander, and the Imperial Council who recommended this course of action to the Wizard Council. The Emperor explained this to your husband already,” Speerpoint told her.

“The Emperor recommended it?” She was in disbelief.

“Afraid so, my Lady,” Decimus made sure to sound sympathetic when he spoke.

Octavia sighed and leaned against the nearest wall. She put her head in her hands. Decimus thought that maybe she was crying. Her voice sounded choked when she spoke again. “I wish to be alone. Ry-gala shall show you to the door. Please, let me morn my son in peace and say no more of it! I don’t want to see you here at my estate again unless you have some good news for me!”

With much relief, Speerpoint and Decimus scurried from the villa.

2

Octavia Aquitaine sat on the large patio that jutted out from the family villa. It was night, but the two moons were glowing red in the summer heat, one at half and waning, the other a merest sliver of a crescent. The two sisters were angry tonight.

Even by this light she could barely make out the river as it drifted lazily towards the main trunk of the Verant River further in the city. The night was warm and the bottle of wine in front of her was empty. She was drunk of course, but for her that was of little consequence. She was drunk most nights these days.

This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

Octavia was not an Aquitaine by birth, of course. She was a De-Villa, one of the original Antillius clans. She became an Aquitaine when she married Rubico twenty-three years ago. She was only sixteen at the time. Three days ago, was her birthday, she was thirty-nine now.

By the Gods, thirty-nine already! She thought. How did it happen? Why next year she would be forty! Forty! What a horrible number. She cursed the Gods wishing to have her youth back.

But with age comes wisdom. Doesn’t it, Octavia? Another voice in the back of her mind told her. She knew it was right. There were advantages to being older and being able to manipulate and control people to do her bidding. But that was easy, old hat to someone like her.

Besides she was more than just a middle-aged woman or even a wife. No, her most important role was that of mother and the true center pillar of the Aquitaine family. She had bore Rubico six children. The first was the dashing twenty-two-year-old heir apparent, Romulus. It was his destiny to inherit the primary estate either in Palantine or Verant City. He was yet unmarried which made Octavia a bit nervous. She wanted a secure line of succession stemming from her own efforts. Currently, he was out of her reach and on vacation with his friends at the smaller estate in Seaside.

Her second child was a daughter they named Quinn. Quinn had been married off when she was only sixteen, but two years later her husband was killed in the Second Battle of Verant Fields. That left Quinn a widow and without child. Which legally speaking, meant she was a free woman. For now, she lived at the Verant City estate.

It was Octavia’s third child, Garius, that she now mourned. The one killed at the wizard tower. He was only nineteen when he died.

The forth child was another boy named Marcellus who was eighteen now. He was a little different from the rest. He wanted to get into politics and was just now studying to be a lawyer of all things. Octavia thought this was mazy and felt the military was a better option. At least that way he could follow in his fathers footsteps. But Marcellus was adamant about it. He wanted to some day be a judge, to sit on the high court. It was a position of power, but still… Octavia felt he was smart enough to do even better than that.

This left her two youngest daughters. Tiberius was seventeen and recently married into the Serpentine family. Octavia considered it a personal triumph to see one of her daughters married into an original Verant tribal family.

Her youngest daughter, Gabriella, was still only fifteen and not quite ready to marry. But soon, she thought. Soon she could form another alliance with another powerful family securing the value and importance of her bloodline for generations to come.

As she reflected back on it, it was a lot of children in very rapid succession. Sometimes it fell like she was just constantly pregnant. But the family was rich and powerful enough to have a legion of servants and slaves who could help raise them. It was not that they lacked contact with their mother, Octavia made it a point to be actively involved in teaching them how to be upper class Ladies and Gentlemen.

It was about this time that a drunken Octavia sat plotting Gabriella’s future when her daughter, Quinn, was calling her from within. A moment later she appeared at the door.

“Well, here you are mother!” Quinn said walking out onto the patio. Her heavy boots clacked against the black granite of the patio stones. “I was looking all over for you. There isn’t a light on in the villa anywhere. Here you sit with not even a lamp lit. What’s wrong?”

Quinn took a seat at the table and sat her metal helmet down upon it. She was still dressed in her uniform of chain mail and imperial colors of red and purple. She took her mail gloves off and tossed them onto the table. She leaned back and sighed.

“I’m fine my dear and thank you for asking,” Octavia said trying not to slur her speech too badly. She seemed to be a calmer person when she was drunk.

Quinn did not seem to notice her speech.

“Thank you!?” Quinn said bewildered. “Those words do not fall easily from your tongue. Now I know something is wrong! Come on now, out with it.”

Octavia ignored and instead asked. “So how was work Quinn?”

It was the way she said the word work that made it seem demeaning to actually do something for a living. It made Quinn cringe, but she said nothing about it. Instead, she replied. “Ah, horrible! I had to go into that Opium Den place again. That’s the third time this week! That place makes me feel dirty every time I go there. Emaciated and dead eyed people staring at me! Dirty broken doxies everywhere! I don’t understand why they don’t just condemn that place and tear it down!”

“And send all those people into the streets where everyone else has to see them? How dreadful!” Octavia commented. “I thought you liked your job?”

“A glorified baby-sitter for the rich!?” Quinn said aghast. “I think not!”

“But you look so cute in your uniform!” Octavia said. She reached out and pinched her daughter’s cheek affectionately.

“Mother!” Quinn said swatting her hand away. She grabbed the empty bottle from the table and said. “How much have you drunk tonight!?”

“Not enough!” Octavia said in her flippant way.

Quinn read the label on the bottle. “This is that white wine from Devonport, right? It was very good. Is there anymore?”

“I’m sure there’s a bottle lying around someplace.”

“Where’s that slave of mine, Becca?” Quinn said. “I dare say I could use a drink myself!”

Quinn left momentarily to yell at her slave. When she returned Octavia told her that if Quinn would only allow her to whip the girl, she would be much more obedient in the future.

“You aren’t whipping my slave mother!” Quinn said appalled by the thought. “She’s done nothing wrong. Besides I own her, not you, understand? So, hands off! And another thing, keep that blackguard Ry-gala away from her. I don’t like the way he looks at my Becca!”

“Well, aren’t you on a tirade today, Quinn!” Octavia laughed. “You sound more and more like me everyday!”

“Damn the Gods I hope not! I’m just tired is all,” Quinn replied sullenly. Eventually a young pale looking woman, Becca appeared and handed a bottle of wine and a glass to her mistress. Quinn thanked and dismissed her.

“Honestly,” Octavia said. “Thanking a slave! No wonder you can’t get any respect from her.”

Quinn shook her head and ignored her mother’s comments and poured herself a glass of wine. She told her. “I have important news to tell you, mother.”

“Have you? And what’s that then?”

“I am done herding rich brats. It is not for me,” Quinn stated. She raised her glass in a mock toast.

“Good,” Octavia replied. “I never understood why you wanted to work anyway!”

“I met with the Emperor and asked him for a real assignment,” Quinn told her. “I want to get out into the world. I want to travel. I want real combat.”

Octavia laughed. “Good luck with that! I dare say the Emperor has turn you down once before. What will change his mind?”

“The Emperor agreed,” Quinn said smugly. “He even said he would talk to father about it.” She finished her first glass of wine and poured another.

“Bullshit! He wouldn’t dare!” Octavia exclaimed. “I won’t allow it!”

“I’m not a child anymore!” Quinn declared.

“You still live in my house!”

“I am a free woman! And this is father’s house by the way!” Quinn corrected. She thought for a moment before saying. “Where is father anyway? I haven’t seen him in days.”

“I don’t know. Have you tried The Royal Velvet?” Octavia commented casually.

“Mother!” Quinn shouted, her mouth agape. “Daddy… in a whorehouse!? I think not!”

“Think again, Quinn!” Octavia said bitterly. “There’s a lot about your father you don’t know. But since you’re not a child anymore…”

“Maybe, but I don’t to hear about my father at a whorehouse…” She made a sour face at the thought of it.

“Grow up Quinn! The man was a general, a military man. What do you think they do on those long marches far from home? They have doxies, mistresses, slaves and only the Gods know what else that we never know about!” Octavia spat cynically.

“Is that why you’re out here drinking?” Quinn said bring her tone down to that of almost a whisper. “Does father have a mistress?”

“One? Last I counted he had about five,” She said waving her hand dismissively. She grabbed the bottle and filled her own brass wine goblet. Octavia took a deep breath and said. “Well, okay… if you must know… yes, I know for a fact that he has a mistress hidden somewhere in Verant City. I found out the other day that he has an apartment over in the public quarter. I think he’s keeping her there.”

“Oh mother, no!” Quinn said in a compassionate voice. “That’s horrible! What will you do? I mean, you’re not going to go over there and confront her, are you?”

“How innocent are you, Quinn. You know this is normal for our class, right? I could careless how many mistresses your father has as long as he stays out of my business,” she replied. Then Octavia shook her head. “Listen child, all of this is besides the point. That is not why I’m out here drinking in the dark.”

Quinn listened quietly while her mother explained her conversation with Decimus that very afternoon.

“The Emperor is behind it and father knows? How is this justice?” Quinn could not hide her surprise at the news.

“Fucking wizards!” Octavia replied. “Slimy worms who can’t be trusted!” She could not hold back anymore. Salty tears rolled down her cheeks.

“Mother! Are you crying!?” Quinn said. “Oh mother, please don’t! It will be alright, I swear it! The Emperor must have a good reason for this, I’m sure.”

Quinn got up and comforted her mother holding her tight while she cried and laminated her dead son.

“My baby, Quinn! My baby!” She cried. “I only have three sons in the whole world and now one is dead and the other two avoid me! What am I to do now? Soon Gabriella will be married off and now you want to leave…”

“Maybe you should go and see the Emperor? Maybe there are things at work here that we don’t understand,” Quinn told her.

“You know, you might be right,” Octavia said. She gave it some serious thought. “I work as a spy for him before, maybe he will confide in me.”

“Wait, what?” Quinn said in shock. “A spy!?”

Octavia shook her head. “It was a few years ago during the war. There’s so much you don’t know about your father and me… One day I will explain it to you.”

“I will be waiting to hear it,” was all Quinn could say.

3

It was mid afternoon a few days later. The bright sunlight was streaming in through the high windows that faced the Grand Bazaar on the north side of the palace. It was a guest room, of course. The Emperor preferred discretion for situations like this. He could use his own bedroom, but servants like to talk. Only the headmistress of the palace knew they were here right now. He could trust her.

Octavia lounged on the bed, still naked, still shaking from the afterglow and the orgasms that she had been enjoying only moments before. She rolled onto her side and watched him. The Emperor Xander II, looked like any other man when he was naked. At forty he was not as muscled as he had been twenty years earlier and the gray was starting to show in his hair, but he was still a handsome and striking man.

Younger than her husband not to mention, so that was a bonus. A man with three wives and only the Fire Lord knows how many mistresses, not to mention pleasure slaves and priestess, was certainly going to know how to please a woman. She had heard rumors before, but to experience it like this… well, she could not keep the smile off her face.

He stood there, pouring two glasses of water. “Fresh from the aqueducts, coming in from the east,” he commented as he handed her one of the glasses.

A nice touch, she thought. She would have preferred wine, but he is the Emperor. The water was still refreshing. He got back into the bed and sat up beside her.

“How long have we known each other, Octavia?” He asked her.

“About as long as you have known Rubico I suppose.” She thought about it for a moment. “About twenty years.”

“That is a long time,” he said. “Now do you really think that I’m going to send Quinn off on a mission if I thought it would be that dangerous?”

“Honestly, since you became Emperor, I don’t know what goes on anymore,” Octavia replied. “We used to be close. You used to confide in me at the very least. You won’t invite me to the palace for parties, am I that embarrassing to you?”

“Of course not,” the Emperor said without hesitation. Then softly he said. “You and I both know that you can be a bit overbearing, not to mention demanding.”

She conceded his point with a nod and downcast eyes. He was the one person in the whole of Gaia who could talk honestly like this with her. He could say anything to her and she would not get upset about it.

“You know its also what I like about you,” he told her nudging her in the arm with his elbow. “You don’t take bullshit from anybody, you dish it out. I really admire that.”

“Oh stop,” she said, but really, she could have listened to that all day. She lay back on the pillows and toyed with her breasts, circling the pale pink nipples with the fingernails, which were long and painted a deep red. She was not feeling like her normal self. She was feeling vulnerable. She asked. “Am I still pretty, like I used to be?”

The Emperor laughed. “If anything, you are more beautiful then you were twenty years ago.”

“Really?” She questioned. “But my hips are bigger than they used to be and my belly, look there’s a roll here now,” she said grabbing the roll with her hand. “And look at these stretch marks… I’ve had six children. And don’t even get me started on my hair… This is a secret just between us, but I have been dying the roots since they started going grey a few years ago,” she rolled eyes when said that last part.

The Emperor kissed her. A passionate one full on the lips, before she could say any more. She instantly forgot whatever she was going to say. When they parted, he told her. “You’re a real woman, Octavia. Real women age, they gain a few pounds they get grey hair. It doesn’t take away from their beauty, why should it? You are beautiful. Do I have to out to the city square and make it a proclamation?”

“Alright, you made your point,” she said. But secretly she was loving it. All the flaws that she saw in herself, he thought made her... more interesting. Did he really believe that? She wondered. Could she convince herself that it was true? She sighed and reached out and touched his chest. “Can I get invited to at least one party here this summer?”

“I will host a party, here at the palace, next week just so you and Rubico can be at the top of the guest list,” Xander assured her. "All of the noblest houses will be invited so they can see how great you are."

“Thank you,” Octavia replied. “Speaking of my husband, do you know where he is?”

“You mean your spies haven’t told you?” The Emperor questioned.

She squirmed under his gaze. Her spies had given her some information, but the Emperor would surely know more, she thought. “He has a mistress, in the Public Quarter. Is he keeping her there in an apartment?”

“Only one? I’m surprised,” the Emperor replied. He finished his glass of water and set it down on a small table next to the bed.

“Its not that horrible woman Cinnamon Snap, is it?” Octavia said in a flash of anger.

The Emperor laughed. “No, she not to his… taste.”

“Does he still love me?” She questioned as much to herself as to Xander.

“Octavia, I have known your husband for all these years. He has always loved you and probably always will,” the Emperor told her. “You are the wife and mother to his children that he has always wanted.”

“Then why haven’t I seen him in days?” She questioned. By the Gods, why did she feel so insecure right now? And Damn the Gods, why did she need the chamber pot now? She rolled out of the bed and found the pot next to the nightstand. She squatted down over it.

“I will talk to him,” the Emperor said. “I will tell him that he has to show you that he loves you.”

“I don’t need him to buy me anything!” she said loudly. She hoping her voice hid the noise of her doing her business. “I just would like him to show up in my bedchamber once and a while instead of everyone else’s.”

“Alright, I will tell him,” the Emperor chuckled.

Octavia finished and stood up. “So, what do you have planned for Quinn? I’m still really nervous about this whole thing. I have three daughters, but she’s the strongest of will by far, the other two are mousy. They’ll make good wives, but not much more.”

“I agree, Quinn is more like you,” the Emperor said. “She is headstrong and demanding. She came right into the palace and demand I give her something better!”

“You just told me that was a good thing!” Octavia said with her hands on her hips.

“It is!” He reached over and took her hand. “She is going to be a success in this life and you’re the reason why. Sit down Octavia, relax.”

So, she did. Octavia came over to the Emperor’s side of the bed and straddled him. She moved the pillow from behind him so she could wrap her legs around him. She sat in his lap.

“Look, Quinn is special. She not like women,” the Emperor explained. “She has a destiny to fulfill. Nothing is going to stop that.”

“Well, how come I’m just hearing this for the first time?” She asked softly. She played with his shoulder length hair. “You and Rubico probably already discussed this…”

“He is her father,” Xander pointed out.

“And I’m her mother!” She scolded. She was not going to let it go. “So?”

“Did you hear what happened in Domara?”

Octavia sighed. She shrugged her shoulders and commented. “I think I read it on a broadside or something.”

“Well, there was a town of twenty thousand, it was destroyed and they are mostly all dead,” the Emperor explained.

Octavia huffed. “An unfortunate event, I’m sure.”

“Well, there are survivors. We are going to resettle them to the east near the coast of the Verant Sea,” the Emperor returned the favor, playing with her hair.

“Sounds like fun,” Octavia said. She just wanted to get to the point. She was ready to have sex again, if the Emperor was willing. “Don’t look at my roots!” She scolded him.

He ignored her comment and continued. “This caravan of people will need to be resupplied. I want to send Quinn with one of the resupply missions.”

“Aren’t the roads dangerous,” Octavia questioned.

“They were, but it is getting better. I have General Maximus out in the east right now securing the road from highwayman. He has reported that it is going well,” the Emperor tried to reassure her. “I plan on sending her with some of my best soldiers. We need a military presents out there anyway. She’ll be safe.”

“Promise?” Octavia played with his nipples and pouted.

“It’s wilderness out there, Octavia. I can’t promise anything, but I have reason to believe that she will be safe,” he confessed. “She will meet up with one of my knights and his trusted followers.”

“She had better be safe,” Octavia told him. “Because I can’t bear to lose another child.”

“Listen, Octavia…”

“Shut up and make me feel like I’m the only woman in the world,” she demanded before kissing him with a passion that only she could muster. It felt good to tell the most powerful man in the world what to do.