006 – The 7th Empress

The gala for the emperor's wedding soon passed, the morning followed the sounds of scurrying feet as the servants cleaned up after the mess in the halls and corridors of the palace.

As Lucian sat through his peaceful trance-inducing meditation session, the doors to his room opened wide, the curtains had already been pulled open and the floors cleaned by his caretakers, the afternoon sunlight spilt across the floor, though the light wasn't nearly as stretched out as it used to be at the first month of the year.

"Prince 786, your m…" Claudian began with her hands clasped in front of her, still wearing that strict expression of hers.

"My wench wishes to speak with me," Lucian cut across her as he opened his eyes.

Claudia's lips narrowed into a line, but no rebuke left her mouth, "Your mother requests your presence," she said as she cleared her throat.

"Requests?!" Lucian uttered with his eyes opened wide, "Does this mean I may deny her request and not suffer a beating in the later hours of the night?" he asked.

A look of impatience crossed Claudia's face, "It is in your best interests to accept your mother's request," she answered.

Lucian smirked beneath the mask, "Then it is not a request, I would think someone as educated as yourself would know the difference between a request and a demand, in the future I hope to never have to remind you of the difference,"

"Yes Prince 786," she replied while ringing her wrists.

"Then let us go," Lucian nodded satisfied with her response and hopped of the bed, as he reached the door he found Diego standing there like a good ornament as always.

"Diego why don't you make yourself useful for once and carry me, all the walking around from yesterday has exhausted me," he quipped.

Diego paused and heaved a heavy breath before picking him up and walking to the 7th empress's chamber.

When the large shining mahogany door opened Lucian stepped in alone, to find his mother sitting behind her desk, two vases of freshly picked flowers sat on either end of her desk and sunlight pouring in from the window behind her, she wore a lovely green dress that left part of her shoulders and upper arm open, exposing her fair skin.

Three ornamental gold rings, which were typical of a warriors cloth garb, locked the sleeves in place, one on the wrists, one after the elbow and one to lock the sleeve on her upper arm, it was one of her latest fashion introductions that the court had taken quite a liking to in recent years.

"Sit!" Khalia Umbar Mercurion ordered as she glanced up from something on her desk, Lucian highly doubted that it was work or anything of significance and importance.

As he reluctantly made his way to the seat he caught a whiff of an odour, an odour that he occasionally caught on his caretakers, and most recently on Claudia and Diego.

Under her stern emerald green-eyed gaze, Lucian took a seat, and purposely let his shoulders droop, it caused an instant note of sourness to curl Khalia's mouth.

But she quickly pushed it aside, she had grown far too used to her son's sneaky actions that he'd use to steer the conversation in the directions he liked.

"Your choice of seating in the hall yesterday was excellent, don't you think?" she complimented and questioned at once with a perfect poker face.

Lucian's weariness immediately shot up, never in his life did he get a pure compliment from her, and he wasn't about to start believing that she was starting now.

"Of course, it was, the entrance to the kitchen is ideal to overhear wisps of all the gossip going on all over the floor," he answered unhesitatingly.

"Yes it is," Khalia responded as she placed her elbows on the table and locked her fingers together.

"It is the ideal place for weasels and worms trying to burrow their way into the courts, it is the ideal position for the infestations that they are," her perfect white teeth snapped open and shut with spittle flying across the desk onto Lucian's masks, as she berated him.

"That is no place for a prince who aspires to take the throne, to sit," she spat, and a loud smack reverberated across the room as Lucian's head smacked into the back of the chair.

A crack appeared on his mask as he turned his head back to face her, the inside of his head pounding as he took in a sharp breath.

It wasn't the first time he received such a smack, his first could be traced back to the time when he was eight months old, after several months of education, he was given his first tests.

A test that Khalia spent no small amount of time bragging about in court, claiming that her new son would be able to answer.

But when the results came out it was a resounding failure across the board, not a surprising outcome for an eight-month-old toddler but it was enough to humiliate her and in her fury, she smacked him, a smack that had almost snapped his neck and required surgery to fix, since then she learnt how to control her strength, and where to hit without it being lethal.

"Had you obeyed me and presented yourself, I could have introduced you to some of your distant relatives, those rumours you collected over the night would have been learnt in minutes, not to mention that instead of just rumours you could have collected facts as well,"

"But most importantly you could have familiarised yourself with the circles of court, and made progress towards them, a completely wasted opportunity!" she shouted giving him another smack across the other side of his face, another crack opened up across his mask.

Lucian took another sharp breath and tried to calm his breathing.

"You have done an excellent job of humiliating me once more, by making it look like I don't even know how to educate my children," another smack reverberated across the room this time a piece of the mask broke off.

As his vision swam with black spots, Lucian moved his hand to catch the shattered fragment, "Maybe that was the point," he whispered as blood dripped from his bust lips staining the inside of the mask.

Khalia's eyes widened and her fair small nose flared in fury as the back of her hand met his mask, the entire thing shattered as his nose caved in releasing a spurt of blood, the entire chair toppled over sending him sprawling to the wood-panelled floor.

But even that was expected by Lucian, even as the mask shattered he grabbed the pieces and pressed them against his face, letting them dig into his skin and stick to his face using his blood as the adhesive.

But Lucian wasn't done provoking her, and this was hardly the worst beating he ever received from her.

"You know those flowers are quite fragrant, though not enough to cover the smells they are supposed to hide," he chuckled.

"Usually you could have an excuse for the smell, but I highly doubt the emperor spent his wedding night here," Lucian laughed as Khalia kicked him in the ribs, there was a nasty crunch as he hit a bookcase.

"Do you think you can threaten me, you good for nothing child?!" she shouted her face quickly turning red with anger.

Lucian looked downcast after she made that proclamation, she showed anger but no fear at being found out, it seemed that the rumours of the empresses cuckolding the emperor were more than just true, from her uncaring attitude it seemed that the emperor didn't even care.

It was no wonder that she would dare to so openly act intimate with another man in public, right under the eye of the emperor.

Khalia stepped up to him and lifted him by the scruff of his neck, she picked up the chair and placed him on it, "It seems that I've been a little too lenient in your punishments," she said an edge of cruelty leaking into her voice.

Her hands gradually moved around Lucian's shoulders and as it did, he saw her hand enveloped in a purple glow of energy, then blue sparks started to shoot across her fingertips.

"It seems that I failed to teach you the basics of manners, but you needn't worry I'll teach it to you starting now," she spoke in a coaxing voice as her fingers touched down on his skin.

Lucian tried to grit his teeth, he didn't want to give her the satisfaction of hearing his screams, but it only took seconds before his cries flooded the halls outside.

Many minutes passed before the doors opened and Lucian stumbled out in a mess, his clothing soaked in sweat and piss, as he stumbled through the corridors, still holding his shattered mask in place.

"Prince, we should get you to the infirmary," Claudia said, a brief moment of smugness entered her tone as she looked at his awful state, Diego picked him up and slugged him over his shoulder without uttering a word.