“There are rules to running an Empire. Obligations to those from whom your power derives. I made a terrible mistake though. I studied history. I saw where we’d started. I read the accounts of the Founders of the Empire. The public ones which were meant to inspire the masses. The private journals where they tried to excuse themselves for what they were doing. 

Some of it even worked. 

It’s hard not to see in those early generations, the spark of a belief that they were making a better world than the one they’d been given, using terrible tools towards ends they could only hope the future would justify.

Nor is it hard to see, step-by-step how that ‘better world’ was shaped and hedged in to be better for only the ‘right people’.

We can be better than that.  Those who hold power needn’t be blind to the costs the Empire pays for inequality. To the costs they themselves pay in paranoia and blood.

We can better and we will be. We can make the brighter world which still inspires people from the Founder’s vision. We have the plans in place and we will move on them. All we ask is will you move with us?”

– Her Eternal Majesty, Empress Mysella, Dread Tyrant and Undying Foundation of the Realm presenting her plans for the Unification of the Realms to the High Council.

You’d think a surprise visit by the Empress Eternal would leave everyone speechless – or you would if you’d forgotten that Doxle was in the room.

“You were able to join us! Delightful!” he said, and looking genuinely delighted.

Enika extricated herself from Doxle’s lap and moved to draw back a chair for the Empress, adding a polite bow and a simple “My Empress”.

The Empress Eternal smiled at that, though I thought more at catching two of her Advisors flirting or fighting or whatever they were doing.

My other housemates reacted more how I expected a normal citizen of the Empire would – aka dead silence and awe.

To be fair, Indrina’s normal state was to be pretty silent (was that what we shared in common?), and Mellina was pretty unflappable from what I’d seen, but on Narla, Yarrin, and most especially Ilyan the stunned silence spoke volumes.

“You’re torturing me Doxle,” the Empress said, nodding towards the food. “Equipping the projection array here with an olfactory sense when I can’t even nibble on your host’s delicious presentation? Is this payback for something which has escaped my remembering?”

“Indeed it is,” Doxle said.

“Oh really, and what have I don’t to offend you so greatly, my fifth favorite Advisor?”

Enika snerked at that, which, okay, fair, it was a little funny.

“Let’s call it payback for the incident in Grimfall,” Doxle said.

“I recall being rather generous that day.”

“Exquisitely so,” Doxle said with a nod.

“And for that I’ve earned the scent of delicious food but no chance to partake in it?”

“Am I really so cruel?” Doxle asked.

“Yes,” the Empress Eternal and Enika said in unison.

“I am wounded, terribly wounded,” Doxle said, placing the back of his hand on his forehead as though he might faint.

“You can be!” Enika said, brightening.

“At your pleasure, my lady,” Doxle said.

That they were still that disgusting as ex’s made me glad I hadn’t seen then them when they were courting or actually married.

“Before I draw my last breath though, perhaps I might suggest one of the sweetberry cream puffs?” Doxle said, proferring a plate to the Empress Eternal.

“And what, exactly, would I do with one of those?” the Empress asked.

It was a reasonable question. For all that she appeared to be as solid as the rest of us, her scent was one of pure perception magic. What we saw wasn’t a real body, but only an illusion. Enika had offered her the chair because, I was pretty sure, the Empress couldn’t have moved it if she wanted to.

“There are some who prefer to lick the frost top off first, but I feel a good bite through the center combines the flavors better,” Doxle said, holding the plate with the puffs steady before the Empress.

“What…?” the Empress asked, allowing a moment of less-than-regal confusion to cross her features.

“Trust me, they’re delightful,” Doxle said, his words drawing a suspicious gaze from Enika and puzzled look of hope from the Empress.

With her eyes locked on his, the Empress stretched forth a hand and lifted one of the puffs off the plate.

Which was all kinda of wrong, but the swirl of magic I smelled waft through the room fixed that problem up.

I was almost distracted enough by that to miss the Empress popping the puff in her mouth and showing an expression which suggested a level of delight heretofor unfathomed by mortal or immortal alike.

“How?” Enika asked, since the Empress was far too drunk on bliss to form coherent works for the moment.

“Not easily,” Doxle said.

“No. Seriously. How?” Enika said. “If you just doomed us all for the cream puff I will feed you to the twins myself.”

Doxle chuckled at that, but did lean back to put himself at least slightly out of Enika’s immediate reach.

“We have the good Lady Riverbond to thank as it turns out,” Doxle said.

“I’m adopting her,” the Empress said, pausing between bites for what I dearly hoped was a joke.

Enika regarded me with narrowed eyes and I could smell that she wasn’t merely staring at me. All sorts of subtle magics where flowing around me and without the context clues I had I would never have noticed them nor had any idea what their aim was.

From Enika’s continuing frown, I gather that she wasn’t able to make all that much sense of my magic even with close and sustained observation. That wasn’t as heartening as it should have been, but I could live with it.

“How?” Enika repeated, sounding only slightly mollified.

“Our pact bond allows me to draw on her magics,” Doxle said. “They are exceedingly protean. It took no more than three drops to alter the projection spell, the food, and the house into vessels capable of providing our dear friend with the repast she is currently enjoying.”

That got more or less everyone looking at me.

Which sucked.

I felt like a bug whose rock had just been lifted up.

“You took three drops from her Hollowing?” Enika asked.

“Oh no. Of course not,” Doxle said. “Just three drops of her free magic. They’d sort of sloshed free, so it’s perhaps not even accurate to say I took them.”

I understood what he was saying and it raised all sorts of questions in my mind.

I didn’t know Imperial Advisors could take away someone’s Hollowing, or their reserve of magic. I suspected there were significant limits to that since the Great Houses didn’t routinely depower casters who annoyed them. Still even a temporary loss of magic could be catastrophic for me given how much I used on a continual basis.

More important than that though, was the idea of what my magic might really be capable of. If a drop had been enough to enchant the whole of Doxle’s house, what might a cupful do? What could I change if I was willing to drain myself dry. Or what if I claimed even more…

I felt myself go stock still.

Breathing wasn’t strictly essential. Nor was circulating my blood. Even the neurons in my brain froze for a moment.

The idea that had hit me fell with the force of a comet making landfall.

I didn’t know if it was possible. 

I didn’t know if I wanted it to be possible.

I didn’t think I had any choice but to find out though.

Later though.

If anyone in the room found out what I had in mind they would absolutely stop me.

They would have to.

I was going to destroy the world.

But later.

The trial was fourteen hours away.

That was plenty of time to have dinner and then destroy the world.

“I’m still adopting her,” the Empress Eternal said.

“Can you adopt a Head of House?” I asked.

“This is the first time in three hundred years that I have tasted food,” the Empress said, visibly hungry in a way that went beyond anything food could satiate. Before she could turn into a proper cosmic terror though, she regained her composure and her regal demeanor. “And it looks to be that I shall not be shackled by such limitations any longer.”

“You don’t have to stop eating,” Doxle said. “It will take a fairly large meal to tax the spell enough to generate a sense of satiation.”

I saw the Empress’s eyes dart towards the plate of roast silverdeer but she pulled her attention back to the party assembled before her before anyone could blink.

“There are, sadly, more important duties which compel me at present,” she said, her formal tone probably armor against the screaming need I could see clawing behind her eyes.

“Yes, alas,” Doxle said. “You’ve come about the unsanctioned war I gather?”

“I believe it is wars, plural,” she said.

“The Imperial House does not interfere in intra-House affairs though?” Enika said.

“The Imperial House is the Final Arbiter of all intra-House disputes,” the Empress said. “It is a so power rarely employed though as to be theoretical at this point.”

“But not all of you power in that area is theoretical,” Mellina said.

“Yes, as we discussed, there are options available,” the Empress said, which happily turned everyone’s attention from me to Mellina.

Mellina had said that she had some unusual allies who she could attempt to contact, but I don’t think any of us guessed that the Empress might be one of them.

No. Scratch that. Doxle had known. I could tell from the vaguely amused tilt of his lips.

Enika hadn’t though.

That was going to be a dreadful weapon in the little war they were already waging with each other.

“So have you chosen to grace us with your kind regards and the options that can afford us?” Doxle asked, his tone far too mild given the strength of the hand he was playing.

“That depends,” the Empress said. “Mistress Riverbond,” she indicated Mellina – guess she was my sister now after all if she’d dropped Astrologia from her name, “and I had precious little time to speak, but her ideas were intriguing. I would hear more of them and judge for myself whether your overall strategy is sound enough to spend what will be the somewhat limited form of control I have available on.”

“I have a presentation,” Yarrin said, looking paler with each word he spoke.

“And I can present it,” Ilyan said, taking Yarrin’s hand to comfort the boy before he hyperventilated.

“We can explain the tactical details Your Majesty,” Narla said, nodding towards Idrina, “There’s not a lot of them though.”

“Good you kept things simple then,” the Empress said, once more fully in control of herself. “That’s a mark in your favor.”

“They came up with most of it on their own too, believe it or not,” Enika said.

“With some input from us,” Doxle said.

“Good. They listen to advice from people whose entire purpose is to provide it,” the Empress said.

I wasn’t sure how Mellina had gotten in to see the Empress, but I also wasn’t entirely surprised she had. She was talented and capable enough that she seemed like a prime recruit for the Empress’s hidden cadre of agents in the field.

What was more surprising was how the Empress seemed to be evaluating everyone in the room for taking on similar roles. 

As talk turned to the details of the plan we’d put together, I watched each one of my housemates be drawn into the conversation, even Yarrin who seemed ready to go nonverbal with fright at the start, opened up within minutes and was answering the Empress’s questions with ease.

And she became more casual as well, dropping the regal facade as excitement began to sparkle in her words and gestures. 

Looking them I started to believe we might have a real chance of pulling things off.

Unless of course I went and ruined everything.