“If you don’t mind, your grace. I can take your paperwork for you.” Theo reached out with her armored hand, and I quickly passed my papers over to her. She was still new to me, but I knew I could trust her beyond any doubt.

“Thank you, Theo.” My eyes stayed glued to the void as she took the papers and slid them in. The purple light reached out and gripped the sheets before they vanished without a trace, and the void blinked out of existence.

“It is no problem, your majesty. Once we reclaim the throne room, I will see if I can find a bag of holding for you.” She extended her hand out to me. I eyed it for a second before I reached out and took it. I rose to my knees, all the while musing over how powerful she felt. It was like I was pressing against a brick wall that pushed back twice as hard.

“That would be wonderful.” I straightened my stance out and dusted off my pants. “I also think a change of clothing is in order.”

“As you will it. It will be done.” She bowed in response as she spun on her heel. Theodora walked over to the silver doors of the meditation chamber and pressed her hands into it. With a depressed sigh, the door swung open, revealing the empty hallway outside. We both stepped outside, with Theodora leading the way. The sprawling hallways seemed to have grown a little brighter since the last time I was here. Granted. I only spent a day or so cultivating.

Mana stones shone brightly in the ceilings, lighting our path in radiant white. The walls were already much cleaner than they were before, and it looked like a lot of the paintings and shelves were dusted. My presence has only been known here for at least a few hours, yet it seemed the palace was already coming together.

It also made me wonder, what made the undead here so loyal to me in the first place? I died over five thousand years ago, so what was there to hold on to but the ruins of a dead empire? Pride perhaps? No, it wasn’t pride; it was something far deeper than that. It was faith in me. Faith in the goddess that I became to them. But I didn’t feel like a goddess. In fact, I still felt like me, outside of the strength that was flowing through me from the ki. What do I even do as a goddess? Perhaps I’m looking too far into things. I mean, after all the shadow of me was guiding them long, so for now, I’ll just operate as I normally would and let the other half of me take care of the finer points.

“Your grace, you forgot this.” Theo’s voice drew me from my thoughts and I turned to look at her. What could I have forgotten?

My guard drew the small dagger that I had been carrying around with me since I’ve returned and presented it to me hilt first. “Oh, I’m sorry, I got so caught up in my thoughts. Thank you Theo.” I felt a flash of embarrassment flash in my chest, and the resulting heat flowing to my cheeks. Here I was trying to play the role of an empress, yet I did something as amateur as forgetting something like that.

“All is well. Your memories are not what they used to be after all. Besides, I used to be your babysitter when you were a child. This isn’t my first rodeo.” A faint chuckle rang from underneath her helmet, and she withdrew her hand as I pulled the knife away.

“Tell me, was I a good child?” I might as well try to get a glance at my past life here while we were walking. We had a fairly large amount of time to kill, after all.

“No, you were a nightmare. But I reeled you in enough for it to matter.” The black beads of the basilisk’s eye glimmered in the white light, looking almost mischievously at me.

“I’m not sure if I should be offended or not, Theo.” I retorted, with no small amount of amusement in my voice. It was hard to be offended at something that I had no memory of.

“Come now, your grace. I’d never insult you that cruelly.” Her voice conveyed that she was just teasing me. Yet underneath it all, I realized she wouldn’t hesitate to give me a tongue lashing should I so deserve. She felt like a sister of sorts. Someone I could rely on to keep me on a straight path.

“Oh, I’m sure you’d never.” I replied in kind as I kept the handle of the dagger close to me. I was still in the mortal realms, so I was an easy treat to anyone who came looking. Yes, I had a bodyguard, but I wanted to rely on myself.

A comfortable silence fell between us as we walked down the hallways. Questions bubbled to the surface of my mind as I tried to pick which one I wanted to ask first. “Theo, what happened the day I died?” That was probably the heaviest question to ask, but it was something that I was dying to know. It was the crux of why I was here after all.

She tensed up, and I could hear a heavy breath from under her helmet. Seconds turned to minutes as we walked together. Until finally she spoke. “We were on the fields of Arenia, near where the tree of life was corrupted. The entire Athanatoi had rallied to be there, along with the entire thema of praetorians. We were all ready to die next to you that day. But at the last moment you pushed us to the side. You told us that our day isn’t now and to return to the capital. That, you would fight here alone and end it all, so that we all could have a chance to live. The last words you told us were that you would return to lead us once again.”

Her words hung heavy in the air as we pushed on. For the first time, I could see the burden of what she was carrying, and how heavily it weighed her down. Syn said that they were all bound to protect me and the empire. So for them to watch me go to my death must have been devastating. It was a conflict of orders and it must have destroyed them mentally.. “So what did you do after?”

“It crushed us. We were oath bound to protect you, and if need be to die next you. But you gave us our orders, and we couldn’t reject them. So we marched back to the capital. Even when our bodies were caught in the final blast of the ritual and ravaged, we still performed our duties. We scuttled every classified location, and rescued various stranded soldiers and other officials.. Shortly after we returned to the capital, the Captain gave us her final orders. We were to defend the remnants of Asteria, even if it cost us our lives.” Her voice hung in the air for a moment, and I could feel her pain.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

”We all shed our golden armor shortly after she left and hung our faces low in shame. Knowing that you’d return one day wasn’t enough for us. Many of the thousand threw themselves into combat to try and find some penance for the guilt we felt for letting you die alone that day.”

Now I finally understand why they remained loyal for so long. Did my other half know that this would be the outcome? How should I approach this situation then? If I tell them it’s okay, it would be a slap in the face. Navigating this would require some tact. To make matters worse, I didn’t know what my old self was like.

I played a game of mental ping-pong until at last I came to a response that felt somewhat suitable. “Theo, I can’t pretend to remember that day or who I was. I know that the choices I made were not the easiest. But now, I’m back, and I’ll make sure I can do whatever I can to make amends.” I reached out and lay my hand on her shoulder. I decided this path would be the most diplomatic. It’s a lot easier on those who are strong willed and at least I could save some face in the process.

“Thank you Empress. After all these years, I was close to giving up hope. But now that you have returned, I feel like my faith has been restored.” She paused for a moment and she turned her face towards me. Her snake helm shifted to me, and its black beady eyes gazed into my soul for a fleeting second.

“Your faith will not be misplaced Theo, worry not.” I moved my hand away from her shoulder and we continued walking once more. Silence fell like rainfall around us, and I was left in my thoughts once more. These were tough questions, yet they needed answers.

“Another question, how strong was I before all of this happened?” I decided it was best if I dropped the fact I died. It was clearly a sore spot for all of them, and I had no interest in prodding at it.

“You contained a Sovereign ranked Ki core, an Emperor ranked Mage core, and a Lord ranked Psionic core. There were very few who could attain such ranks of power, and even fewer who dared to trek three paths of cultivation.” She walked forward, without sparing me another glance, and it left me feeling like there was more than what she was telling me. Maybe I shouldn’t push it.

“I see. What rank is your core then?” The basic knowledge that I had told me was that the many ranks of cores were all interchangeable.. I at the moment had no core. I was still well within the mortal realms. But the next step would be that of the nascent core. The sovereign core, however, was near the pinnacle of what could be achieved. If that was the case, I was extremely powerful in my old life.

“I hold a King ranked ki core, and a King ranked Mage core, your grace. As do the rest of the Athanatoi. That is the bare minimum for someone of our position.” Theo paused for a second as she looked around. Her golden form glowed radiantly in the white light. It was almost like she was an angel given life.

I pondered her words for a moment as I thought of what her rank meant. The king core ranked below the Emperor core. That sat just below Sovereign. So she was near the pinnacle of cultivation. In a sense, as it stood, I was nothing more than an ant standing before a god. If I was anyone else, I’m sure I’d be frightened, but I can’t bring myself to feel anything like that. She was bound to protect me, and even barring that, I felt comfortable with her. Again, it was like the feeling of a sister. “Impressive. Perhaps, I can get back to that level soon enough. Anyways, I have another question for you. What can you tell me of the forgotten warrior?” It was another question about the past, but this time it was about that man I saw. For some reason, whenever I thought of his face, I was as annoyed as I was in awe.

She paused in her steps, and her entire body visibly froze. “Myrillion was a monster amongst monsters. Even in your prime, you were never his equal. Gods bowed before him, and it was his words that brought kingdoms to their knees. Yet, that man was like the wind. Carefree, and went wherever he pleased, regardless of how others felt.” Again, she relaxed and began walking again. Her chime like voice became a few shades lower, and I could feel her irritation at the mention of him. Did they have a history together?

"Interesting. Tell me, did you two have something together?” I bounded behind her and I found my hands crossing behind my back. A child-like curiosity bubbled to the surface, and I was desperate to quench its thirst.

“Your grace is asking questions that are older than most countries. But yes. At one point we did, but he could never be bound, and neither could I.” Her words became hollow, and lacked meaning now. This was clearly a delicate topic for her. Would it be wrong of me to push it further?

“What happened to him? Why is he forgotten?” I shifted the topic slightly, enough to not bother her, but enough for me to still get the answers I needed.

“Even a man as powerful as him is still bound by the laws of the universe. He died of old age, and when he did, many who hated him attempted to hide his legacy. For the most part, they succeeded. His name was lost, and his techniques were forgotten. All that remained of him was the legacy of Myrian, the god of war. Though a lie, at least his legacy was still around in some form. That, and his surviving disciples.” Still, her words were hollow, and I had a feeling I should drop this line of questioning for now. After all, I was prodding closed wounds now.

Instead, I had another pressing question to ask. “Tell me about Alessia.” This was another question that had to be answered. Every time I heard her name, I felt something. It was a pang of sadness and regret that mingled with heartbreak.

“The Captain General? You truly must have forgotten everything.” She stopped again and turned her snake helm towards me. The black beady eyes flickered in the light and this time I could feel the mirth that was contained within them.

“Well that’s what I told you, is it not?” I fell a step behind her and kept my hands crossed behind my back. I wasn’t annoyed with her, in fact, I was just curious.

She chuckled and turned her head away. “You two were..” Just as she was speaking, she trailed off. Her entire stance changed, and two long curved daggers appeared in her hands. “Stay behind me and don’t move.”

My eyes instantly flicked upwards, and I took in the hallway before me. We were standing in a spot that I don’t recall Kharon ever taking me through. Hallways that were once synonymous with royalty were now covered in purple and black ichor. Gray bodies lay strewn across the ground. All of them were broken, and cut cleanly in half. Each body was as varied as the next, but they all had some sense of commonality between them.

They all shared the same twisted face and black, matted hair. A face that looked mushed, and dripped with strange red energy. But it was hard to discern anything else through features that were so thoroughly destroyed. But there was very little I could see from this distance, so I pushed forward, just behind Theo. Until a thought struck me. “Uh, Theo, as much as I hate to ask, you wouldn’t have any shoes, would you?” Already I could feel a twinge of embarrassment rush across my cheeks. Strangely enough, though, the sign of carnage did little to affect me all that much. It was as though I was used to seeing this, and not in the life I had here. No, this feeling was recent, like I saw this just a few days ago. I even managed to tone out the smell of blood that was still heavy in the air. Was I truly so twisted that my biggest concern was getting my feet dirty?