Mounting Troubles in the Empire

Hearing Isaac's words, the once warm and content air of familial harmony was suddenly exiled behind a wall of frigid tension, as we all looked fearfully not at him or the letter he held, but our dear mother whose smile no longer reached her beautiful, yet threatening eyes.

'This fool!' I screamed in my mind, as I wondered where Isaac had gathered the courage to so blatantly break my mother's most inflexible rule. No interruptions or official business during meal times.

A few months back, our mother issued this decree after I and my uncle missed one too many meals with her and the rest of my siblings, being tied up in the Council Hall or in my office. And despite me being an emperor of one of the most powerful nations on earth and a demi-god with an incredibly pure bloodline, I was still unable to overcome the power of my mother.