Saphira
Saphira wiped the blood coating her sword on a curtain before she continued down the hall. She could feel the blood on her face slowly drying but didn’t want to bother to stop and wipe it away. Instead, she focused on trying to remember the path that she had memorized to get to the throne room. As she strolled down the opulent hallways, gaging at the poor gaudy decorations, she was surprised to run across no one. Although she had killed a lot of people to get into the palace, she was surprised that there weren’t more people guarding the Emperor from inside. He was most likely either cocky or stupid. Saphira thought that he was most likely both. When Saphira rounded the last corner, she came face to face with the door to the throne room, and two guards who seemed surprised to see her.
One of the guards laughed when they realized that she was alone, “Run along little girl,” the guard sneered, “War is no place for women.”
Saphira laughed, “War is no place for cowards, yet here we are,” Saphira nodded to the doors behind the two men, “Is the Emperor in there?”
“The Emperor isn’t accepting an audience with anyone,” the second guard replied, “I recommend that you leave before we have to use force.”
“And I’m not asking,” Saphira replied as she brandished her sword, “So either you get out of my way or I make you.”
Guard #1 glanced at Guard #2 and Guard #2 shrugged, which caused Guard #1 to draw his sword, “I’ll count to five and if you don’t leave by then, then I’ll use force. Don’t blame me if you don’t survive it.”
Guard #1 started counting down from five but by the time that he had reached three, Saphira was holding guard #2’s head and had her sword at Guard #1’s throat. Guard #1 froze like a dear in headlights as his brain tried to process what he was seeing. Saphira dropped Guard #2’s head as Guard #1 raised his hands in surrender. But Saphira didn’t let him beg for his life, but instead slit his throat, ignoring how his blood splashed on her face.
Saphira took a couple of deep breaths and as she wiped off her sword again, she could hear quiet talking and laughing going on inside the throne room. Clearly, the Emperor wasn’t aware of the threat right outside her door. With a large smile on her face, Saphira threw open the door to the throne room and strolled in.
Her eyes immediately fell at the throne room in the center of the room and she wasn’t surprised to find the Emperor practically naked with four of his mistresses surrounding him. The Empress sat next to him with a bored expression on her face while the Sovereign prince sat at her feet as he was busy devouring a large hunk of chicken. The other prince, the spare stood behind the throne as if to blend into the tapestry. As soon as the door flew open, the Emperor glanced up from where he was busy making out his newest mistress, Millicent, his face red from pleasure and the copious amounts of alcohol he seemed to have consumed, judging by the amount that had seeming missed his mouth and had ended up soaking into his clothes and staining them.
The four concubines shrieked when they saw Saphira covered in blood and they backed away as Saphira made eye contact with Millicent. The Sovereign Prince stood up from where he was lounging. He tossed his chicken to the side, uncaring about where it landed while he used his gold embroidered tunic to wipe his mouth.
“Ah, Saphira,” the Sovereign Prince said, “Have you come to accept my marriage proposal?”
The Emperor stumbled to his feet, though he almost toppled over with the amount that he had drunk, and when he had finally gotten to his feet, his stomach fought to escape the tunic barely concealing it, causing the buttons to creak in pain, “Kneel,” the Emperor ordered, “I am the Emperor and you will kneel to me.”
Saphira laughed, “You’re not my Emperor,” she said. “Right now you have two options. Either you relinquish your throne or I kill you and get the throne anyway.”
The Emperor glanced around the room as he snapped his fingers, “Guards,” he called out, “Come deal with this contemptuous woman.”
Saphira stood in the entranceway and watched with a smile on her face as the color drained from the Emperor’s face when no guards emerged from the shadows, “Don’t worry,” Saphira said, “I made sure that we won’t be disturbed,” Saphira raised her sword, “Now it’s your time to kneel before me.”
The Emperor glanced towards the Sovereign Prince as he hissed, “Do something.”
The Sovereign Prince glanced at the Empress who nodded at him. He drew his sword and pointed it at Saphira, though Saphira couldn’t help but notice that he was both holding it wrong and that the sword that he was holding was about as effective as a toothpick, though a toothpick would be less likely to shatter with the slightest pressure.
“Wait,” the Second Prince, the spare, spoke up as he met Saphira’s eyes, “You’re here for some more land, right? I heard that your kingdom has been suffering under this long drought and you’re in desperate need for some good farming land.”
Saphira tried her best to keep her expression neutral, “So what?” she said, “I can always kill you and take that land for myself.”
“You could,” the Second Prince said, “But if you kill us, they’ll be chaos and would you really want that? Besides, you’d have to rule over a much larger area, with more subjects to take care of. You’re struggling with your own people. Do you really want to look after more people?”
“Rafael!” the Emperor hissed and the Second Prince bowed his head, “What are you thinking?”
The Sovereign Prince turned and pointed his sword at the Second Prince, “Are you betraying us?”
The Second Prince started laughing, “Of course not,” he said. He leaned down and whispered something into the Emperor’s ear. Whatever the Second Prince was saying seemed to please the Emperor, as when the Second Prince finished, he nodded, “Alright,” he said, “I’m sure that we could work something out.”
Saphira glanced at the Second Prince as she tried not to betray how surprised he was at his competence. All she had heard about the Second Prince was that he not at all fit to rule the empire. Yet here he was, displaying more wisdom that this throne room had probably ever seen.
Saphira nodded, “Alright,” she said, “Why don’t we discuss this over some wine?”
The Emperor chuckled as he beckoned towards his mistresses who flocked towards him again. He cupped the chin of Millicent as he stared at her, “We should hold banquet to celebrate the end of discord between our two nations.”
“And drag things out in long talks of peace,” Saphira said, “We ought to settle this now.”
“I insist,” the Emperor said as he turned to the Second Prince, “Fetch a chair for the girl and some of our finest wine.”
The Second Prince bowed his head, “Yes sir,” he said.
But before he could leave, the Emperor’s mistress, Millicent spoke up, “Let me go with Rafael to fetch the wine. He doesn’t know where our finest wine is stored.”
The Emperor hesitated as he squinted hard at what Millicent, but after a moment, he said, “Alright, though hurry back. I feel so cold without your warming me up.”
Millicent placed a gentle kiss on the Emperor’s forehead but before she could leave, the Emperor grabbed her hand and started sloppily making out with it, though the smile never faded from Millicent’s face. When the Emperor finally relinquished her hand, Millicent and the Second Prince left the throne room together.
When the Sovereign Prince and Millicent left, a tense silence fell over the throne room. Although the Sovereign Prince hadn’t sheathed his sword yet, it seemed like if Saphira moved too suddenly the Prince would soil his pants. The Empress didn’t seem to be much more confident, though she avoided looking at the Emperor, who was busy fondling his other three mistresses.
Saphira, in the meantime, was busy trying to figure out where she should look and she couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief when the Sovereign Prince and Millicent came back.
The Sovereign Prince set a chair down in front of Saphira, while Millicent took her time handing out the goblets and filling them up. The Sovereign Prince refused a glass of wine while the Empress and Sovereign Prince started sipping from theirs. The Emperor, on the other hand, immediately downed his the second it was in his hand, and snapped at Millicent to refill it.
Millicent obeyed and filled his goblet up again. The Emperor raised up his goblet as he said, “How about we have a toast? To peace!”
“To peace,” Saphira echoed, though she didn’t bother sipping out of her goblet. Instead, she watched as the Emperor took another large swallow. Before he could lower the goblet from his mouth, he froze. The goblet fell out of his hand and smashed into the marble floor. The wine slowly seeped out into a small puddle, that in the light gleamed crimson. The Emperor’s face turned purple as he gasped desperately for help. Saphira stood up from her chair and tossed her goblet aside. She didn’t pay any attention to the Sovereign Prince and Empress, who were frozen in shock, goblets half drunk loose in their hands and instead walked up to the Emperor. She grabbed the Emperor’s chin through all of the rolls of fat and forced him to make eye contact with her, though she doubted he could see much through all of the blood vessels bursting in his eyes.
“There will be no peace while you’re alive,” she spat, “And once you’re dead, I’ll make sure that no one remembers you. Soon, you’ll be nothing but a distant memory.”
“Please,” the Emperor begged as blood slowly began to seep out of his eyes, and for a moment, it looked like the Emperor was crying.
“I’m just giving you the same mercy you gave your subjects,” Saphira proclaimed, “None.”
She watched as the Emperor took his last laborious breath and only when the light faded from his eyes, did she drop her hold on him. She turned to the Empress and the Sovereign Prince who were both gasping for breath. Although the Empress almost seemed relieved that her end was near, the Sovereign Prince fell to his knees in front of her as he grabbed onto her leg.
“Please,” he begged as his face slowly turned purple, “Spare me. I was only doing what my father wanted. Please give me the antidote. I’ll do whatever you want.”
Saphira freed herself from the Sovereign Prince’s grasp, “What I want is the cancerous tumor plaguing this country to die.”
She took a couple of steps back as she watched as the Prince desperately stumbled around as he tried to reach her but as the poison slowly spread throughout his body, his struggles became weakened and he soon collapsed at the base of the thrones and Saphira watched as he breathed his last.
Rafael took the opportunity to step out of the shadows and he bowed down in front of Saphira, “Thank you for agreeing to spare me,” he said.
“It was you who came up with the plan,” Saphira said, “I didn’t think that you’d actually go through with it and betray your father.”
Rafael glanced at the Emperor’s body and shrugged, “He was never a father to me,” he said.
“I was surprised,” Millicent said as she stepped out of the shadows, “I didn’t think that you’d be able to recruit Rafael.”
“Recruit him?” Saphira asked, “He was the one who originally approached me with the idea of staging a coup d'état. I just followed his plan, which was perfect by the way,” Saphira turned to Rafael, “Don’t forget your promise to me.”
“I’ll sign the land over right away,” Rafael said, “And I’ll announce the Emperor’s death as a heart attack. Even without my help he was going to die soon anyways.”
Saphira walked up to the thrones and grabbed the crown from the Emperor’s head and knelt down in front of Rafael, “Long live the new Emperor,” she said as she placed the crown on his head.
