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Veni Vidi Vici	By : Saber007 Category: Final Fantasy Games > Final Fantasy XV Views: 1503 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy XV, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 9
- 10
- 11
Heads up for another mature chapter.
Latin Translations
Acta non verba- Deeds, not words.
Domus Aurea- Golden Palace
Non ducor, duco- I am not led, I lead.
Ama me fideliter. Fidem meam toto: de corde totaliter, et ex mente tota. Sum presentialiter, absens in remota- Love me faithfully. See how I am faithful: with all my heart, and all my soul. I am with you, even when I am far away.
Lyrics from a Latin poem, Omnia Sol Temperat (The Sun Warms Everything) which was then turned into a musical composition by Carl Orff called, Carmina Burana. The song is part of the first movement, Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi (Fortune, Empress of the World)
Valeas quam optime- May you be as well as possible.
XV
"Aquila, how old are you?" Imperatrix smiled at the young girl of fair hair, light eyes, and natural prettiness of youth, posted at the other end of the table.
As crown princess, Imperatrix naturally sat at the head of table. Ardyn, as the next highest ranking official sat to her right. Lunafreya, a lady of noble birth at the left. Nebula and then Tempesta were seated besides the chancellor as recognized children of a lord. Nyx sat by the oracle as her guard.
In an official affair, the glaive wouldn't be seated at the table. He was a commoner and even a royal retainer wasn't technically allowed to dine with nobility, unless they were among the aristocracy.
Fortuitous for him, Aquila wasn't that versed in entertaining guests. Nor did she posses the customary egotism that brewed in many peers of the realm.
When the young girl went to seat herself at the side of the head seat, the princess insisted on her sitting in her father's place.
The head chair was the daughter's right in the absence of a male to represent the family. She took the seat with hesitance and awe, jumping every time someone addressed her, like she expected to be dragged out the seat.
"I am fourteen, Your Highness." Aquila answered shyly.
"A flower ready to blossom..." The princess weakened to the slight blush and mousiness of the girl.
A polar opposite to the person she had in mind, but still bringing a warmth of affection to the surface of her heart.
"Your presence reminds me of my Darling Euphie, as you two are near in age."
The princess expected Gauis Ortho to sit opposite her at the other end of the table, as head of his household. However, Aquila informed them of his illness and inability to attend dinner.
Perhaps…it was better to have the daughter in the seat and not the father.
Imperatrix could almost pretend it was her quirky little sister across from her and that…quieted the mounting displeasure she harbored for the senator.
"The third princess? I have heard she is very artistic, dabbling in every subject with proficiency."
"She is. Father indulges every whim that strikes her. The current fancy is acrobatics to the consternation of her family." Imperatrix's smile widened at the thought of a dancing Euphemia.
Ballet appeared to be the one constant that she returned to in hiatus of other pursuits.
"Euphie can be a handful when her nature is so fickle. A true Pisces."
Aquila giggled, losing some of her nervousness.
"But we all enjoy her unusual performances."
On weekends, it was either Euphemia or her father dazzling the family with some form of recreation to take minds off the week of work.
How she missed the leisures of home.
"Princess Euphemia sounds very fun."
The chancellor swirled his wine around in the glass before taking a generous sip.
The princess could charm anyone.
His attempts at conversation weren't nearly so lucrative. The young lady shriveled up in the large chair whenever he spoke to her, perturbed by his presence.
Lunafreya had also been giving him cold looks since they sat down, still smarting over his critique.
Why, oh why did females dislike him so?
At least he could watch his favorite princess, lips curving slyly for the glances she stole his way and the mischievous nudges he would in return give her foot under the table.
Simple pleasures.
"What of your brother? Is he a handful?" Imperatrix's knife accidentally scrapped against her plate, emitting a screech.
She pursed her lips at the booted foot moving up her leg.
Ardyn hummed casually, fork spearing meat into neat pieces and mixing it into the pasta.
"He is…he is a typical boy…" Aquila's weak response made her duck, going red from the princess's knowing expression.
She felt so exposed under those blue eyes...
"My brother is often busy with Father...we don't see each other much."
"Where is Augustus? Has he caught Gauis's flu as well?" Ardyn examined the dinning room over the rim of his glass, coughing into it when a foot landed in his lap.
He restrained himself from reaching under the tabletop and caressing the leg of the owner.
"He was a lively little thing."
The chancellor remembered the scowling creature that lurked behind his father like a malicious shadow. A boy of that intensity had to be a nightmare for the skittish daughter.
"Augustus...is in a similar condition as Father..." She poked at her food, not meeting anyone's eye.
"How unfortunate. I'm sure he would've loved to hear all the glory details of the daemon slaying in Saxham." The chancellor shrugged his shoulders, paying no heed to the small squeak emitted by Aquila, imposing on one of the few servants present for more wine. "Boys at that age are hungry for battle."
"Ardyn." Imperatrix's light tone was accompanied by a sharp kick to the man's foot.
Once his glass was refilled, he tipped it at the young lady, making a faux pass of apology. "Do forgive me. Things like death and destruction aren't appropriate topics for dinner."
"They are not appropriate topics for any setting outside of meetings."
"I would disagree, Princess. If speaking in terms of a city's produce and livelihood, the topic would be very common. The mayor and I discussed such a thing at length."
Imperatrix leaned back in her seat, giving the chancellor her attention with all the dryness she could muster. "Your talent for banal topics outclasses mine."
Ardyn chuckled, secretly recommencing the foot games with the princess. "Shall I speak of the weather next? We can't get more vapid than that."
"Only if you wish to be ignored." She shook her head, laughter bubbling in her throat from the juvenile playing the others weren't aware of.
"Do you know what's fascinating?" The chancellor tapped his fingers on the table in a steady beat, smirking at the oracle and then the princess. "Earthquakes."
Imperatrix humored him, allowing the man to lean closer to her and go on about rising reports of predicted seismic activity that no one had any explanations for.
The two were the only ones invested in that topic and the hidden game beneath the table. The others broke into smaller talks now that the polite silence broke.
One thing Ardyn was good at was breaking the ice for more sensible people to carry on the dialogues.
"Why are you two still wearing those masks? Take them off already!" Nyx insisted to the retainers who hadn't touched their food yet.
The siblings had been watching Imperatrix eat and would occasionally switch their focus to the servants who swapped out dishes, high on alert and ready to pounce.
Were they checking if the food was poisoned? Imperatrix did tell him of her experience with it...
Nyx suddenly slowed down his chewing, mindful of how carefree he'd been with the pasta, not once stopping to think it might be tampered with. He stole a glance at Lunafreya, checking that she wasn't turning purple or something.
"What's it to you?" Tempesta stabbed her fork in Nyx's direction, snapping him out of his transfixed stare at the oracle's cutlery skills.
"It's weird! How are you even going to eat?"
"Like this." The fist fighter went through the motion of removing her helmet, only to abruptly stop and hit a button on the mask.
The mouth piece retracted to reveal a strong scowl.
The glaive gave her his most deadpan expression in return for the joke.
"Oh, hoh! You actually thought I was going to take it off for you?" Tempesta cackled meanly. "You're not pretty enough for anything of mine to come off."
He choked for a second, face scrunching disgustedly and shifting towards the princess to see if she heard.
She was still intently focused on the red-headed jerk.
"Lady Lunafreya sure did. She looked ready to burst out of her seat." Nebula followed his sister, revealing only his mouth and leisurely starting to eat.
"I was not staring." The oracle deflected, looking elsewhere than the empty visors that reminded her of MT soldiers.
"You were. Oracles aren't supposed to lie." Tempesta goaded.
"I was-"
"Yeah, you're a brat." Nyx blurted out over the girl's bickering.
With the mouth piece off, Tempesta's voice wasn't scrambled by a voice modulator.
She sounded young and petty. His nightmare in girl form.
"Say that again, you shi-" The fist fighter yelped as her brother harshly kicked her under the table. "Ahh, Neb! Why'd you do that?!"
"Watch your mouth! We're in refined company." The deadly rasp made her flinch and distance her chair from the livid gunman. "You are a reflection of the princess, act like it."
"So you're not a punching bag." The glaive grinned, leaning on his palm.
"I can make you into one." The gunman lowly threatened.
Before Nyx could throw out a comeback, the table-cloth under his elbow was yanked and he fell face-first into red pasta.
"Oh no!" Aquila exclaimed, bursting out of her seat and madly gesturing for the servants.
Nyx had to be restrained by Lunafreya. She held onto his arm and attempted to clean the dripping mess before it could completely ruin his uniform.
His old kingsglaive coat just couldn't get a break!
The uniform was already a pale imitation of its former self...
All the fur and attachments that were mementos from Galahd were gone. The pauldrons and livery had been so damaged that Victoria removed them. His sleeves were stitched back with new material, making his coat lose the signature black of Lucis, and instead, a combination of black, silver, and white.
Nyx could hardly call it the wear of kingsglaive anymore...
The thought of losing the last piece of his old life made him snap.
"That won't be necessary, Lady Ortho. I can help Sir Ulric get cleaned up." Nebula offered with a slight bow to the young lady as he stopped the servants from approaching Nyx.
The glaive sneered at the man hovering behind his seat.
"You help me? Like you haven't helped enough!"
"I don't know what you mean." The gunman bent down, muttering for one pair of ears. "Play along, Sir. Or I'll do worse."
Nyx froze, contemplating the words beyond the threat.
"Are you sure, Lord Besithia? One of the servants could easily do that." Aquila fidgeted, torn between insisting or letting the man do as he wished.
The retainers were of Imperatrix's retinue, to deny them was to deny the princess.
Worse…the elder son...
The first son and heir of Verstael Besithia, Nebula Besithia had a reputation of viciousness when executing his duties.
She was afraid to get in his way…
"I'll do it." The gunman made a show of helping Nyx out the chair, but really was strong-arming the glaive. "Please excuse us."
The two exited the dining room.
"Well, that was…exciting." Ardyn quipped.
Aquila stood still, looking lost at the next course of action. Should she shit down and wait for the others to finish eating? Or should she invite them to the parlor?
She wasn't trained for any of this!
"I am quite full. A walk would do me well." Imperatrix set all her utensils into position and removed the napkin in her lap.
"A walk? I'm afraid it's too dangerous to go outside, even with the lighthouses, Highness." The young lady frowned apologetically, rapidly thinking of a solution. "I could give you a tour if you'd like?"
The princess smiled. "Thank you. I would like that."
It would also give Nebula time to follow her instructions.
Aquila looked to the remaining guests, inquiring if they'd join as well. Ardyn, naturally, wouldn't leave a royal all by their lonesome.
Tempesta opted out since she saw enough the first visit and would rather unwind. Lunafreya declined as well, she didn't feel comfortable getting too involved in the going-ons of this trip, not when she knew the princess's ulterior motives.
The oracle would distance herself as much as possible from the brutality of imperial business.
Since the girls didn't want a tour, Imperatrix sent them off with a stern warning to Tempesta to leave the house in prime condition and keep an eye out on Lunafreya.
The swapping of bodyguards got a tiny sigh of irritation out of the blonde and a snicker from the fist fighter as she teased her charge while they walked out.
"Feels like we've sent all the children off to bed." Ardyn sauntered up to the princess, tipping his hat before offering his arm in escort.
Imperatrix looped their arms and softly snorted. "It is as if you two are coins...opposites, yet connected."
The many jokes between her and Nyx came to mind. The glaive always grinned lecherously when referring to her as a pseudo maternal figure for Lunafreya.
"Whatever do you mean, my dear?" The chancellor patted the hand in the crook of his elbow.
"You and Nyx share behavior and thoughts it seems. He too, jests of parental duties with me."
His smile thinned out and he tugged the princess closer. She grabbed onto his bicep with her other hand to prevent a collision into the man.
"Ard-"
Aquila joined them before Imperatrix could address the territorial display and the princess chuckled at the tiny bit of petulance peeking out of the chancellor's barbed smile.
The young lady guided the two throughout the manor, repeatedly peeping at the comfortable air and closeness of the princess and chancellor.
They could pass as a couple out of one of Aquila's novels.
The whispers and ensuing giggles, sharing jokes only they understood, and the proximity, that while appearing polite, discharged unseen passion with subtle habitual movements.
Oh, a novel before her eyes!
It wasn't until they came near the other wing of rooms that Aquila was included in conversation that actually required more than simple replies.
"Your father's room is down this hall, yes?" Imperatrix loosened her arm from Ardyn's and stepped down the hallway. "A quick visit should not be too taxing on his health."
Aquila paled, rushing to cut off the princess, holding out her arms to block the pathway. "You mustn't, Your Highness!"
"It is alright, I will not badger a sick man. I only wish to provide comfort by words."
"I cannot let you enter his room!" She didn't budge at the princess taking a step forward. "What if you catch what ails him?!"
"Cowardice? What an awful thought!" Ardyn mumbled conspiratorially and Imperatrix's ear twitched from catching it.
The princess outwardly emanated kindness, but she was meandering towards impatience on the inside. "Darling, you need not worry. A young body is a resilient body."
Did the girl not understand how suspicious she behaved?
How suspicious the entire household appeared? Not a single attendant was nearby to tend to the supposedly sick master of the house or the young master.
At the palace, if she or any of the royal family took ill, physicians would be rushing in and out of their rooms with others pacing the outside of the room.
The whole manor was too quiet and too empty for so serious an event...
"Forgive me, but to allow you to catch ill would bring dire consequences."
"And your brother? Is he so ill as well?"
"Yes, Highness. A visit to either would be detrimental to your person."
She surveyed the young lady and Aquila withered under so powerful of a gaze, breath quickening and arms trembling.
"Princess, you mustn't make a fuss. The child is only looking out for you." Ardyn chortled at the terror Imperatrix could cause if she chose. Sad, she didn't do so more often.
It was hilarious to watch.
"Your health isn't to be toyed with."
The princess relented, stepping back with an understanding smile breaking through to disarm Aquila.
The young lady released the breath she didn't realize she'd been holding.
"I apologize if I upset you. That was not my intention, Darling." She wrapped an arm around the girl, leaving the empty hallway and passing Ardyn. "As you can see, I can be a bit overbearing when it comes to the wellbeing of my subjects."
"O-Oh…t-that's not a bad thing, Your Highness. T-There are other lords that don't care as much…"
Th chancellor's smirk widened as he trailed behind the ladies.
Aquila was back to demurely interacting with the princess, blithe at the attention and easy affection that Imperatrix gave out. The prior fright erased from the girl's mind.
The princess had the rare gift of ensnaring people, of making them feel as if they were a singular presence in the world, worthy of all the love and warmth of a rising sun.
A gift inherited from her father and every other predecessor to call themselves a sovereign. The magnetism of a future ruler.
Poor, naive, little, Aquila Ortho. She had no idea of the hole she was digging for herself.
And Gauis. What a fool…
Choosing a weak player for whatever game he believed himself to be master of, was the height of idiotic.
"I was under the impression you two were retiring to bed?" Imperatrix circled around the chair of her retainer, who unrepentantly raised a decanter of wine, as if that was all the explanation she needed to give.
"Got sidetracked." Tempesta pointed at the oracle seated on a bench before a piano. "Got double sidetracked."
"I…do not know what came over me, but I had…an urge to play…" Lunafreya's fingers brushed lightly over the keys, playing a fragmented melody. "I need…to complete it…"
Pryna nudged the girl's leg and the oracle snapped out of her daze, fingers hitting the keys with more fortitude.
Imperatrix shared a look with Tempesta, but the masked girl shrugged, pouring some wine into another glass and presenting it to the princess. She accepted it and took the seat next to the fist fighter.
The parlor became filled with a symphony from the piano.
"Lady Lunafreya plays beautifully. It's true then, that the oracle's are blessed with melodic natures?" Aquila sank into a nearby chair, enraptured when singing joined the notes in a wordless tune.
"Not just oracles. The whole of Tenebrae is an orchestra. The Fleurets just happen to be maestros in the discipline." The princess slackened in her seat, resting her cheek on her fists and angling her hips in the opposite direction to cross her legs.
The glass of wine dangled in her unoccupied hand.
Both Ravus and Lunafreya were blessed with angelic voices...
Occasional performances for holidays and celebrations were the other exceptions besides oracle duties, that Ravus allowed his sister out of the manor.
All the people of Tenebrae and travelers from all over loved hearing the Fleurets sing as they had for generations.
Imperatrix and her family had attended a few performances when Queen Sylva still lived. The trio of blondes had astounded the audience with heavenly operas.
After the queen's death the performances dwindled for a time, until Lunafreya took the mantle as oracle and retook the stage. She brought back some of the traditions, but it wasn't the same.
Ravus's participation in the family arts was sparse, but also cherished. Furia warmed to her husband particularly from his singing.
"Accordo or Tenebrae. I'm not sure which should be considered the center of music." Aquila rung her hands together, chewing her lip in thought.
"That's entirely dependent on your taste, young lady." Ardyn draped himself over the top of the chair Imperatrix lounged in. "One is dreadfully dreary with its monopoly on traditional music, and the other, a fusion of so many genres you don't know how to describe the music."
"Chancellor Izunia…" Aquila ducked her head, unsure of how to proceed without offending the high-ranked man.
"Do not mind him. Ardyn is the biggest critic you shall ever meet when it comes to art." The princess stated, tilting her head upward to observe the red-head nonchalantly drinking another full glass of wine.
How was he not the slightest bit inebriated? Imperatrix had seen him drink at least five full glasses!
Tempesta was already tipsy judging by her shaky hold on the decanter and her low giggles at apparently nothing.
"I have every right to be. In the beginning, music was my calling." The glib air cracked, showcasing less mockery and more bitterness to the princess. "I was its champion."
"You, as a traveling minstrel? I can see it. Or maybe the life of priesthood, garbed in all black and singing continuously in a chapel." Imperatrix poked fun at Ardyn, when really she was trying to gauge the mystery of his life before the mantle of chancellor fell on his shoulders.
"Me? A priest? Perish the thought!" His dramatics in patting her head like one did a silly child, told her otherwise.
The bitterness hadn't left his countenance.
Lunafreya's playing became more pronounced. Ardyn twitched when the simple, incomplete tune morphed into a chorus and the girl's singing gained words. Pryna's ears perked up noticeably and the dog's watching became an uncanny study.
"I don't understand what she's saying." Aquila looked to the princess for answers.
She sipped the rest of her wine before replying. "It is not the language of mortals."
The princess had heard Ravus sing similarly, but it didn't have the same…vigor that Lunafreya demonstrated.
Magic could be felt in every sound of the girl's song. The brother didn't have access to the light magic as the sister did.
Funny, how women were the staple power in Tenebrae when the rest of the imperial territories were male centered.
The magic flowed only in the female heirs of the Fleuret family.
"Not of mortals?"
"If there is a name for the language, I do not know it." Imperatrix shifted at the absence of a hand on her head and looked up, finding Ardyn to be staring past Lunafreya, amber eyes flashing with too much to understand in a brief view.
The door to the reception room flew open, jolting the females out of their seats.
Tempesta sobered immediately, fist raised to defend the princess. Lunafreya remained in a trance, playing and singing in a tongue known only to those chosen by the gods.
"Oh, it's Neb." The retainer lowered her fists, huffing loudly. "Thanks for the dramatic entrance, jerk! I thought that was Dandy's specialty."
"Now, now, Thundercat. Hurt my feelings and there will be no candy for you." He clicked his tongue in reprimand.
"Ack, c'mon! Don't be like that." She punched his arm jokingly.
The gunman marched inside, dragging a wailing young man and tossing him before the princess. Nyx lagged behind him, absent his kingsglaive coat and looking a little roughed-up in his undershirt and pants.
Aquila gaped at the mistreatment of the servant and whirled on the princess. "W-What is the meaning of this?!"
"Yes. Explain, Nebula." Imperatrix calmly set a hand on the girl's shoulder.
She'd asked him to investigate the manor and servants through the communicator when no one was paying attention to her and the chancellor at dinner.
"This man. Do you recognize him, Chancellor Izunia?" The gunman yanked the man up, clenching his face for Ardyn to regard.
"Hmm, this is…Gauis's valet if I'm not mistaken." He answered slowly, tapping away at his chin as he bent to examine the subject. "But…he's familiar for another reason."
"I spotted a man with similar features at the hotel."
"Dear me! I knew your interest was deeper than the typical person's."
"Ehh, I think you're confusing me for someone else, my lord." Nebula stood, visor screen directed at the chancellor.
His hand snuck onto the servant's shoulder, digging in painfully when he tried to dart away.
"I was merely complementing you, Nebula. No need to get cross." Ardyn fluttered his hand apologetically, but the coy smile stayed in place.
"What does this man have to do with the situation at hand?" Imperatrix brought the talk round to focus.
"He's been in communication with his brother in Saxham, feeding the senator information upon request." Nebula brandished a cellphone. "Gauis Ortho has known what we've been doing the past few days and voluntarily chose to ignore us and do nothing."
Aquila sharply inhaled as eyes turned on her.
The kind embrace slowly become a tight, confining one.
"Ortho knew I was in Saxham and fearing punishment, he ran. Didn't he, Aquila?" Imperatrix's voice and expression had gone blank, her hold almost smothering to the young lady. "That is why you greeted me and the lie of sickness. The reason for your nervousness and apprehension. The reason behind the lack of attendants in this manor."
As the princess had speculated with Loqi and been proven wrong, the senator turned out to be a disgrace that ran from his mistakes.
Aquila hyperventilated at the onslaught of accusations, feeling the room closing in on her and her breath quickened beyond what was safe.
The music came to an abrupt end. The room thickened with tension and silence.
"I…I don't… Princess, please!" The young lady bawled, too overcome to properly speak and collapsed in Imperatrix's hold.
"What is going on?" Lunafreya awoke at the cry, turning towards the commotion.
She went unanswered.
"I don't know why the senator went so far as to put a mole in Saxham, but I can find out, Your Highness." Nebula whipped out a gun, eliciting a whimper from the servant.
The man cried out for the mistress of the house to help him, as he was only following orders.
"Wow! This is plain pathetic." Tempesta groaned from the two sobbing individuals giving her a headache.
A wimpy worker on his hands and knees, pleading for assistance from a tiny speck of a girl that was weeping on the princess's chest.
She definitively needed more alcohol after this feeble turnout.
"What is going on?! Why are you hurting this man?!" Lunafreya demanded answers this time, but again was ignored for more pressing matters.
"Do it far away from us." Imperatrix sighed, rubbing at Aquila's back. "There is no need to traumatize our host."
"Understood." The gunman bowed his head, gripping the back of the servant's clothing and dragging him out just as roughly as he was brought in. He called back to Nyx derisively. "Would you like to help me out again?"
"Dude, I helped you knock out the others. I've had my fill for the night." The glaive massaged his neck, working out the area from when he almost got strangled by one of the workers. "Shouldn't have even helped after you ruined my uniform!"
Nebula rolled his neck, modulator garbling out his sigh. "I'll compensate you for the trouble."
He'd heard enough of the whining from the man. Since the princess ordered him not to harm the glaive, other methods of concession would have to be utilized.
"Why will no one tell me what's going on?!" Lunafreya came close to screaming in pure frustration as Nebula left with the man.
The blackout left her feeling extremely unhinged.
She'd gotten a vision of the meteor, of land, brown and green. Duscae in all its glory.
A melody then took ahold of her and she drowned in the epiphany. The oracle couldn't even remember leaving the dining room.
Sometimes Lunafreya felt her abilities were a theft of her life...
"W-What're you going to do to m-me?" Aquila wiped her face with a handkerchief and dropped into a chair. "Please don't give me to Lord Besithia! He scares me!"
"What happens to you is in your hands." The princess squatted, resting her hands on top of the girl's hands that were clenched at the knees.
"H-How?" The young lady trembled, dreading what might be asked of her.
She momentarily did a sweep of the room.
The chancellor lounged in a chair, idly consuming wine with the other retainer. Between the two's competition, they would finish the expensive decanter.
The oracle had fallen onto the bench, cradling her head as if she had a headache and wasn't a part of the events transpiring. Her bodyguard hovered near, scratching his head over what troubled Lunafreya and what he could do to help.
Aquila didn't even want to consider what was being done to her father's valet...
She wasn't ready for any of this!
Why couldn't she go back to reading her novels and being a fly on the wall?!
"I need you to tell me what happened with your father." Imperatrix softened her tone. "I need to understand, Aquila."
"I-I…I don't-"
"May we dispense with the lies already, young lady? You've been under suspicion since we arrived." Ardyn interrupted the watery mumbling with a flagrant eye roll. "A loose tongue could be your saving grace."
She shut her mouth from the genial man's switch to abundant testiness. It was the same attitude she often received from her father, the disdain for incompetence. The only thing lacking from the chancellor's look was the revulsion for being a girl in a world of men.
"Darling Aquila, right here." Imperatrix touched the girl's cheek, bringing her gaze back onto the princess. "Speak to me, only me, child."
"Father did not tell me much…" The young lady began tumultuously, confiding in the one person to not treat her like worthless trash. "He told me to entertain the princess while he went away on business. Augustus went with him. I don't know anything else."
"When did he leave?"
"Yesterday."
The princess ground her teeth. Her laziness granted a criminal to escape!
"And you have no idea where they traveled to?"
"No, Your Highness. I swear on The Six Astrals!"
Imperatrix swiped away the last tear to fall. "Thank you for your candor."
She rose and hit a switch on her headpiece, tuning in to the channel for the retainers.
"Princess?" Nebula came through on the comm.
Tempesta popped up in her seat, nearly spilling her wine.
"Ohh, I can hear the bastard crying!" She burst out in drunken giggles. "I should've gone with Neb…but I would've puked from watching him work…"
"And you would've been no help to him, falling all over the place and giggling like a maniac." Ardyn stole her glass and replaced it with a couple pieces of candy when she got ready to whine. "Then it would've been you in the chair and not the valet."
Tempesta tumbled out of the chair.
"Haha, I'm perfectly fine. Never felt better!" She rolled around, ripping off the wrappers for the candy and stuffing her face.
"I beg to differ..." The chancellor tossed her some more confettis when she held out an eager hand.
He laughed at the ridiculous image Tempesta presented, sprawled out on the floor with candy wrappers everywhere and rolling around in fits of giggles.
"Forgive me, Dear Thundercat, but it looks like you've lost another round. You'll be owing me another favor."
"I'm gonna beat you one day, Ardor!"
"Can't even get my name right." He used his foot to casually push a rolling Tempesta in the opposite direction.
"Will you two fools be quiet? I can barely hear Nebula!" Imperatrix grouched, hardly surprised by her younger retainer's antics, but still wishing the girl would behave.
"You guys are messed up on so many levels." Nyx said with no amount of humor for the situation.
In one room the imperials were terrorizing a little girl and acting buffoonish. In another room a man was being tortured.
He knew the people of this house didn't have good intentions for the group...
Some of the servants had followed Nyx and Nebula out of the dining room, attacking once they started snooping around. The imperials weren't wrong for being hostile right now…
Still…
Torture never sat right with Nyx.
Even when they were at war and the kingsglaive defeated imperial soldiers, he elected not to be included in information gathering with prisoners. Jobs like those were left to people like Luche, who didn't bat an eye at inflicting pain on a non-hostile.
The creep's penchant for interrogation should've tipped Nyx off to what a low-key shit he was.
"That didn't take long. And not a spot on his white uniform! Is the Ace going soft?" Ardyn mussed to the discomfort of Aquila.
The young lady tensed as the retainer approached her, paling at the possibility that he was coming for her next.
"Report, Nebula." Imperatrix ordered, drawing his visor off the terrified girl.
"Ortho left instructions for the servants to burn down the manor, killing all of us and making it look like an accident."
"All of us? Even his daughter?!" She squeezed Aquila's hand.
"Yes."
The young lady sucked in a breath, eyes watering again.
"That's some cold shit! Your old man's the worst." Tempesta slurred out, mind losing some of the buzz. She sat up, cross-legged and broody, mumbling out. "Maybe even worse than ours…"
"How…how could someone do something so cruel?" The oracle floundered, heart going out for the poor girl caught in the mess.
Never mind the disastrous fate they were saved from.
"To…their own child?"
"That's not all. Ortho engineered the fall of Saxham. It was the servant's brother that sabotaged the lighthouses and then informed his master of our imminent arrival after securing the town." Nebula recounted, pausing to let the gravity of the news sink in. "It was all a setup."
Imperatrix let go of Aquila, pacing out her boiling anger.
She reverted to Farsi for her curses.
Ardyn drifted over to the young lady's chair, tapping at the wood detailing and making the girl flinch with every sound. She now had two predators looming over her.
"A setup for a grander purpose, I assume. Otherwise it makes little sense for a Senator to intentionally undermine his job." The chancellor sighed exaggeratedly at the trouble. "He just had to flee and make this process even more tedious!"
"I want an immediate warrant issued for Gauis Ortho's arrest. He will stand trial for treason!" Imperatrix dictated without preamble to Ardyn.
"That's it?" He asked, stunning the princess out of her fury with his flippancy and raised his fingers to count off his following statements. "The man did flee and left instructions for our deaths. By my count that's treason, desertion, and attempted murder. I'm not even including his previous perjury in council."
"Man, it's the chopping block or the noose for this guy. Been awhile since someone got the death sentence." Tempesta hopped to her feet, inebriation gone. "And a noble at that. The masses will have a field day!"
The air grew suffocating.
Lunafreya looked pale enough to pass out from both the situation and the mounting pressure of her headache.
She had expected this to be a straightforward visit, no questions asked.
An arrogant imperial would be reprimanded by the princess and his punishment would amount to a slap on the wrist.
After all, butchery and murder seemed the norm in Niflheim, to the point that no one received any kind of sentencing for it.
Glauca, to her her knowledge, hadn't lost his rank in the military for killing an anointed, holy queen and for desecrating sacred land. He should've been put to death for his heinous crimes, yet, the man got to walk free for murdering her mother.
Then once again, the general lived after claiming another anointed sovereign's life. Regis, the closet Lunafreya would get in terms of a father figure after her real one died from illness when she was a child.
The man responsible for taking more from her hadn't ever been punished!
Lunafreya didn't want any part of the princess's justice because she knew a part of her, a part locked far and deep inside of her, wanted to see the corruption purged. She, the woman, not the oracle...wanted to see a man receive his due for harming innocents.
To see others receive retribution when she couldn't…
Those feelings of hers were wrong…they were utterly unbecoming of an oracle!
Her heart must be pure and above the ugliness of humanity. She must never seek things like vengeance…
"What is to be done about the daughter? She is complicit." Nebula voiced, keeping ahold of Aquila's shoulder in case of a bolt.
Imperatrix didn't answer, crossing her arms and pacing.
The scene before her was difficult.
Ardyn and Nebula both lingered by the sides of Aquila's chair, oppressive forces frightening the girl right into tears. Tempesta dallied between the princess and the hold-up, scratching at her neck uncomfortably now that she didn't have alcohol to fall on.
Lunafreya and Nyx were behind Imperatrix and she didn't need to turn around to know they were judging her with disapproving frowns.
"The daughter knew her father fled and said nothing. She chose to lie, pretending father and son were sick in bed. She had more than enough opportunities to come clean." Nebula divulged with no sympathy for the sniveling. "She may not have known the full deception, but she knew enough to do something."
"What would you have me do, Nebula?" Imperatrix paused mid-step, grimly peering into the black rift and imagining the human, blue eyes behind it.
He could be so callous despite her many lessons on altruism.
"Aquila Ortho is a traitor. What do we do with traitors to the crown?" He replied simply, indirectly telling the princess to kill her.
The young lady bit her lip to muffle the whimpers.
"C'mon, she's a kid! Why're you all treating her like she's the one to blame?" Nyx interceded, wanting to comfort the poor girl, but knowing that might agitate the retainer into hurting her.
"Are you deaf? I just said why she's to blame!" The gunman scoffed.
"My, oh my. And I thought he hated us." Ardyn remarked, derisive simpering peeling at the glaive's skin and making his fist tingle with an urge to strike. "You weren't so considerate for our princess when she fell into your clutches."
"What? That's totally different!" Nyx faltered at the turnaround.
Two masked retainers were killing him with their eyes, he just knew it in his gut.
"How so? Imperatrix was unarmed and alone. Not a major threat to you, but it didn't stop you from taking her hostage."
"O-Okay…but…" The glaive became tongue-tied as the chancellor bulldozed over his weak argument.
"Here...we have a similar situation of someone who isn't a major threat, but a threat all the same." Ardyn laid a heavy hand on top of Aquila's head.
His pats a parody of the ones he'd given to the princess.
"Who is to say this little seedling won't become a poisonous flower if allowed to bloom? Would someone in your line of work take that chance?"
Nyx glared fiercely at the chancellor, breath heavy from how painfully he was balling up his fists.
"Perhaps… That is exactly what we need…" Imperatrix's pacing came to a conclusion as she descended into a chair, leaning on her fist to analyze Aquila.
Her mind whirled with possibilities.
All heads directed to the princess.
"Care to enlighten the rest of us, my dear? Poisonous flowers are the bane of every garden. I don't see why you'd want one in yours." The chancellor removed his hand from the girl's head and walked over to Imperatrix.
"Ortho abandoned his daughter, leaving her to die, either by my hand or his. The man cares nothing for Aquila." She sadly took in the young lady, who didn't even react to the observation.
Gods.
She couldn't fathom the pain of being that unloved by a father.
Even the recent ploy with Insomnia wasn't so cruel. At least Imperatrix's father had been willing to martyr her for a worthwhile cause, misguided though it was.
Gauis was going to kill his daughter just for convenience sake.
Whenever the princess felt in doubt of Iedolas's love, she looked to those in their court with less exemplary parents and her faith was renewed.
"I shall not place the sins of the father on the daughter. No, I shall strike him with the very person he has undervalued." Imperatrix announced, smiling at the outcome she'd devised. "I hereby condemn Gauis Ortho and his heir, Augustus Ortho as traitors to the crown. All their lands and titles are seized."
"Stripping him of all he owns doesn't do much when he's not present, Princess." The chancellor drawled. "We don't get to see the meltdown."
"You are correct. Stripping him does little right now. However, granting all his wealth to his daughter and announcing it, is sure to be a blow."
At this, Aquila's head rose so fast the crick could be heard.
Ardyn's apathy gradually transformed to interest as the princess held out her hand.
"Your seal, Chancellor."
"So instead of punishing her, you're rewarding her? Your magnanimity knows no bounds." He might oppose her plan, but he dutifully handed over the seal.
"Nebula, go into Ortho's office and find me paper and ink." The princess spun the seal in her hand, wishing she had her own on hand.
"Princess, I object to this." He impeded her from exiting the parlor.
"I am not gifting her the duchy! Aquila will work for it in Gralea."
The chancellor laughed, coming to the result Imperatrix's mind settled on. "You mean to use her as bait! Gauis will be so angry with the theft that he'll rush to Gralea, where Aquila will turn him in."
"Yes, that is my plan. Is it a satisfactory one?" The princess posed the question to Ardyn, but Nebula was her main target.
The chancellor would go along with her and never mention the incident again. The gunman would hold it over her head for future reference if he found it to be dissatisfying.
Really, as princess she didn't have to answer to anyone, let alone her retainer. Imperatrix, however, wanted to know the opinions and feelings of those around her and encouraged them to speak up as long as they did it in a respectful manner.
"I have no complaints, certainly makes my job easier. Not having to hunt down a wanted man clears up my schedule." Ardyn tracked after the princess, looking over his shoulder at Aquila. "And I'm sure the young lady has no issue with it?"
She dipped into a low curtsy, practically on her knees with a bowed head. "Absolutely not! I am deeply grateful for Her Highness's generosity and confidence."
Imperatrix spun around to address the penitent subject. "You did hear me, yes? That you will have to earn the title of Duchess?"
"Yes, Highness."
"I will be clear. In exchange for your life and continued livelihood, you will turn in your brother and father. Beyond that, you will be in service to the crown. For all intents and purposes, an informant. Do you understand?"
"My life is yours, Your Imperial Highness."
"Good. Your father will rue discarding you." Her retainer moved out of the way with his head lowered in deference, conceding to her will.
Imperatrix exited the parlor with Ardyn giddily on her heels.
Nebula scoffed at Aquila rising from her obeisance. "I would've killed you and been done with it."
He stormed out, mumbling about needing a cigarette. With the most deadly person gone, the young lady scurried out without another word.
Tempesta retrieved the decanter and splayed out on the ground, pouring the last of the liquid into her glass. "That went well."
"You're joking, right?" Nyx grunted out, body and mind calling for bed.
"Nope! Neb's always gunning for Impera to be harsher, but he doesn't win most the time." The fist fighter polished off the swig of wine, head spinning around to locate more liquid fire in the room. "Lucky for everyone here, he didn't have to go gunsling crazy."
"What about the servants? They weren't mentioned at all."
"Them? They'll probably be sent to Gralea as prisoners. Only gonna see the light of day when they testify against their master."
"I guess…that's to be expected…"
"Pfft, they got the short stick. Life in prison is worse than death." Tempesta growled at not spotting any more bottles.
"Speaking from experience?" Nyx laughed at the retainer hopping around to view the contents on some shelves higher up than her head.
He was amazed that they were even having a normal conversation with no threats or insults. Must have been the alcohol making her so chatty.
"I've regained a buzz so I won't punch you, Shit-Head." She fell onto her butt after getting her landing wrong.
"More than buzzed." The glaive snorted at the re-emergence of the name-calling.
"Hey, leave me alone! Worry about Lunar Temple over there. Looks like she needs a drink."
The oracle had gone silent during the debate over Aquila's fate, mind lost in another vision.
"Lunafreya? Luna? Lu…" Nyx nudged her shoulder, surging forward to catch her when she tipped from his touch. "Geez, this kid's been in my arms more than any ex of mine!"
He grunted as he picked her up, figuring she must've fallen asleep.
Too many girls, too many problems.
XV
"I long to return to Gralea…" Imperatrix leaned out the window of her chamber, counting the stars and wishing they were the ones outside the palace.
Even Zegnautus Keep looked preferable to these barren, empty lands of Lucis. She felt the floating fortress was the epitome of cold, devoid of life with all the cyborgs and scientists stomping about.
Nothing but troubles everywhere she looked on this side of the world.
A lost king with no crown city. A mere boy that she'd been asked to make peace with from a dying father.
How in hellfire was Imperatrix to accomplish Regis's wish?
Salvaging the marriage of Noctis and Lunafreya seemed like the most logical answer. Together, they would rebuild Insomnia and submit to the empire, uniting every corner of the world under one rule.
Solheim anew…
She would have to get Lunafreya to Altissa and convince her father of the benefits of the marriage. Then locate Noctis before he went around destroying all their settlements and infuriating the emperor enough to put a death warrant on his head.
Too much to do…
The peace treaty was supposed to end the war!
The princess would have returned home, laying down her sword to live peacefully with her family. Not deal with all this mounting trouble!
Imperatrix was so tired of fighting…
"Brooding again, Dearest?" A voice whispered into her ear.
She startled, falling into waiting arms that secured her close by winding down her shoulders and looping beneath her chest.
"I have much to ponder over." The princess relaxed in the hold after registering that it was Ardyn, hands coming up to clench at his sleeves before clasping at his gloved hands.
Always seeking her out when she wasn't anchored as solidly as a princess should be. Did he have a sixth sense for her low moods?
"I don't think Aquila's fate merits any more thought. She came out of this with more than her head intact." The chancellor lowered his chin onto the top of the princess's head, humming a little tune.
"No thanks to you or Nebula. Your assessment of me being bloodthirsty was erroneous. You and he are the barbarous ones, not I."
"It works out for you that we are such villains. The White Princess remains as pure as newly fallen snow and has earned a loyal spy."
"Do not laud so mockingly! I did not like sentencing a little girl to espionage. Nor forcing her to betray her own blood." Imperatrix released Ardyn's hand, eyes going back to inspecting the constellations.
The morning after the plot had been uncovered, the princess busied herself with proper documentation of her decrees, officiating them with the royal seal Nebula had the foresight to bring. Ardyn signed them off as a witness, which proved to be a chore in itself, as he constantly found ways to distract her or himself from doing the paperwork.
The senators would feel the severity of the documents when they were brought to attention in council. They would cower in their seats as one of their own had the hammer come down on him.
Following the documentation, came the calls on the radio. Imperatrix had to declare martial law with the brigadier general in charge until the commander arrived. They would then take leadership until another senator could be selected for governing the region.
Aquila and the servants were under house arrest until the airships could transport them to Gralea. A trial awaited the workers, while servitude waited the new lady of Ortho.
In the morning, Imperatrix's retinue would be gone from this place.
One step closer to returning home...
"I wasn't making fun of you. I was impressed with your scheming." Ardyn dug his nose into the hollow between Imperatrix's neck and shoulder, nuzzling away like she was scented fabric. "Really...I was captivated with your entire performance. Silly girl gave right in to the kind princess."
She wriggled in his hold, giggling at the prick of stubble against her bare shoulder. The nightgown and robe gave her little protection from an overgrown child.
"S-Stop!" Imperatrix fought against the petting.
The struggling resulted in the princess pressed up to the window ledge, breeze making her robe fall off one shoulder. The red-headed imp nestled up to her with his arms around her waist, securing her from falling out the window.
She glowered defiantly at the amused man, breath quickening from their dangerous position. "I was not acting. Unlike you, I do not feign care."
"I know, my dear. That's what makes it all the more entertaining."
The princess's intrinsic nature of caring made it all the easier to throw her into situations and let the dice fall into place. All she needed was one or two bad apples present and people ate out of the palm of her hand.
A savior among savages.
Imperatrix did indeed make his job easier. Were it not for her, he would've been obligated to kill everyone and hunt down a triviality he cared nothing for.
Ardyn had more important things to do with his time. For example, shoving a lazy child onto the path of destiny.
"Did you complete the rest of your paperwork?"
The mundane question threw the chancellor for a minute and he chuckled, remembering the reason behind sneaking into the princess's chambers.
Not that sneakiness was required when its was so late and there were hardly any occupants to cast a dubious eye his way.
Nebula was holed up in the kitchens, cooking for his tipsy sister.
Tempesta could hold her liquor, but couldn't keep a steady buzz with her body's mechanics. She was probably the most similar to him and the only person alive that could prove to be a challenge in drinking games.
Nyx passed out in his room after tucking in the entranced Lunafreya.
The girl had little control over powers. Truly, a lackluster oracle in his opinion.
"I've come to claim my reward, Radiant Princess of White. A kiss for the completion of that wretched work." Ardyn smiled fetchingly, bending closer for the prize.
"A deal is a deal." She angled her head up, a phantom of touch between their lips.
When Imperatrix pulled back, she laughed at the utter look of contempt Ardyn gave her for the chaste affection.
"That was not an equivalent exchange. I think you fail to grasp how arduous my task was."
"Oh...my poor, Darling Caesar, drowning in paperwork." The princess cupped his face in between her hands, stroking his cheeks. "Woe is he!"
"Yes, woe is me." The provocative change in tone wasn't lost on Imperatrix.
She gasped as hands wandered beneath her gown and over her thighs, precariously close to a personal area.
"I had hoped for more, as one does after tasting something forbidden to them."
"Ardyn…not here." She looked over her shoulder at the open window behind her.
Falling out of it wasn't ideal.
"Aww, when have I ever let you fall, Dearest?" He lifted Imperatrix from the ledge and she automatically hooked her legs around his waist.
A surly expression flickered through the sultry one and her hands laced around his throat, unthreatening, but present.
"All the time, Chancellor Izunia."
"I meant behind closed doors, not the times I've used you in politics."
"You are doing the opposite of tempting me at this moment." Imperatrix made to slide down, but Ardyn ground her against him, setting off two entities into irrational yearning.
"Are you sure about that, Impera? You feel inviting to me. An oasis, heat and liquid in one."
He'd claim his reward alright.
The chancellor adjusted her weight distribution and then strolled into the bedroom, locking the door and setting the princess on the bed with no loss of breath or sign that he exerted himself.
"My sweet, beautiful, Musa. How am I to leave you come tomorrow? I don't think my old heart can bear it." He sighed dramatically and leaned on one hand to observe the princess, storing her features into memory.
She shuffled closer to Ardyn, tracing her finger up and down his chest. "As if I could break your heart."
The chancellor's playful air gained a tint of moroseness. "Not in this lifetime...I'm afraid."
He brushed stray strands of hair behind her ear and then slid the robe off her other arm, leaving the princess in her alluring nightgown.
A white paragon of virtue.
His hand went back to caressing Imperatrix's face.
After a lengthy stretch of quiet star-struck gazing between two lovers, the princess took ahold of the reverent hand, pressing her lips to the middle of Ardyn's palm and then removing the glove to plant another affectionate peck to the scarred flesh.
"Can you see me, Ardyn?"
"I'd be blind not to, Impera." He whispered hoarsely.
"Then do not look so sad."
So many questions and so little answers. Could he not be a puzzle for one moment?
Why did Ardyn look at her with such overwhelming heartbreak sometimes?
The princess recognized that feverish look, it was one she gravitated towards with her sisters and father. The nagging fear of inevitably losing someone so cherished and loved, to death.
She'd already lost a mother and countless other siblings to untimely deaths...
If losing her plagued the man, then why did he choose to alienate her with his bad decisions?
"How can I not be sad?" The playfulness returned as the chancellor bit the tip of his glove, tugging it off with his teeth.
Imperatrix shuddered from the apparent sensuality of the action and the ensuing cold contact at the base of her neck.
"I'm leaving my dearest princess with a brute."
Ardyn's winter touch affected her more than the actual iciness of Shiva's wrathful winds in Gralea.
"I did wonder when you would mention Nyx." Imperatrix flicked off Ardyn's hat. "I did not expect you to do it in the middle of this..."
Yes, an understatement.
Speaking of another man while one bucked into her, ran his hand greedily down the length of her body, and lowered his mouth over hers, was unorthodox beyond words...
The princess tugged at the chancellor's coat, trying to get if off him and alleviate some of the weight pressing down on her. The bulky thing weighed far more than its bearer.
Ardyn groaned crossly into their kiss, not wanting to disconnect so soon to remove the coat. She bit a little at his lip, thinking the pain would make him draw back, but he sunk deeper into the kiss, tongue swiping the afflicted area and then plunging into Imperatrix's mouth to divert her and prolong the dance.
When the chancellor got his fill of stealing the princess's breath, he shrugged out of the coat and smirked at the panting mess of a woman beneath him. "That was worth the paperwork...not that childish, teasing, waste of a kiss."
"Nyx would have been satisfied with it. He has been petitioning me for one." Imperatrix fired back with a coy lunge towards Ardyn, stopping a breath away from kissing him. "Shall I go give my 'waste of a kiss' to him?"
She moved from under the man and he clamped down on her waist, giving the princess an unimpressed pout, along with a roll of his hips, connecting their needy lower-halves. Imperatrix relented, letting him hold her in place and rut against her.
"I knew this day would come. You are your father's daughter." Ardyn closed his eyes, mock sorrow etched out on his face.
His hand slapped against his forehead in distress.
"The dreaded Aldercapt Appetite!"
"I told you--" She went mute as a hand tugged her gown up in a slow wave.
"Yes, you did warn me at the very beginning of the possibility." He teasingly stroked her through the lingerie. "Do you want him, too, Dearest?"
With the gown bunched up at the top, Imperatrix raised her arms and it was tugged off and tossed to the side.
She laid bare before the chancellor.
"Maybe..." Imperatrix sighed as his frigid hand began kneading her breast, but the strokes to her throbbing core desisted.
"Maybe? It's yes or no, Musa. No in-betweens."
"It is maybe because he strikes my nerves! Mouthing off to me at every turn! Challenging me like a child! I do not know where he stands." The princess frowned at being denied a method of pleasure and the thought of the obnoxious glaive.
"Hmm…those circumstances almost sound familiar." Amber eyes ate up Imperatrix squirming from her chest being taken care.
He re-initiated the caresses to where she primarily wanted and watched her jerk into the attention.
"Yes... He'll be the second in due time. As you said, coins that are opposites, yet connected."
"Ardyn…speak no more of Nyx." She clenched onto his vest, unfastening the clasp and going for the dress-shirt. "I have you in front of me and little else matters."
With his chest revealed, the princess kissed along the scars, picking up Ardyn's cologne from her proximity and felt her desire spike from the familiar scent. She attacked his mouth, coiling her arms around his neck and meshing their unclothed upper bodies.
So close were they, Imperatrix could feel the pounding of his heart against her own.
Ardyn scooped her off the bed and held her aloft to yank off the lingerie. He vaguely heard a tear.
Oh, well. They'd served their purpose of giving him an enticing image.
Once the obstacle was taken care of, the chancellor dropped them to the bed, fingers dipping into Imperatrix. She broke the kiss to moan prettily.
"Musa, you are...so eager…" Ardyn growled, swirling his digits in the all too soaked cavern and feeling vastly confined in his pants.
"I cannot fathom why, Caesar."
Another finger plunged into the mix and he slotted his mouth over her chest to escape those shinning sapphires that sparkled with love.
Gazing too long at his lovely Musa would end the fun prematurely.
Imperatrix huffed and huffed, softly murmuring Ardyn's name and grazing his back with her nails as the ecstasy increased to heights that had her grinding impatiently into the stroking. When it began to overwhelm her, she called for him and pushed on his chest.
"Yes, my dear?" The chancellor lifted off her, slowing down his movements to hear her out.
"I want you inside me, Darling."
"Oh! I feel electrocuted just from your words." He rumbled throatily and moved so she could unbuckle his pants.
Her motions were clumsy as she fought off the call of delight.
"Ar-Ardyn, s-stop playing with me...and take off your trousers!" Imperatrix was having a hard time keeping her hands steady when his fingers were rubbing circles on her.
Why did circles have to be her weakness?!
"So eager! It's adorable." He stopped distracting her and she sighed at the loss of bliss. Ardyn gently turned her over and kissed her neck, whispering seductively. "Climb up the bed so that you can be taken, Musa."
The princess complied and the chancellor had to stop himself from grabbing her by foot and dragging her right back from how intoxicating of sight she made crawling up the bed.
He removed the rest of his clothes and kicked off the shoes in record time. Ardyn faced Imperatrix and stood still, taking a moment to admire her.
The princess laid propped in the middle of the bed, ready and willing. A mirror of the more risqué paintings of maidens from the museums he frequented in Gralea. All that was missing were some key props.
It was enough to make a man want to ravish her.
"Ardyn, my darling...come to me." Imperatrix held her arms open in invitation, smiling so tenderly that his chest twinged painfully from how much it was ready to burst with emotion.
He climbed atop her with a fluent steal of her pinkened lips, lining himself up between her legs and slipping in with marvel ease. She drew him in further by curving her legs around his waist and winding her arms up his back to grip at his shoulders.
"Oh…yes… How am I to leave this?" The chancellor exhaled deeply, wading in a measure of adagio to appreciate the sweet rapture of joining with Imperatrix.
He wouldn't ravish the princess, he'd worship her.
"I love you, Ardyn." She proclaimed, meeting his eyes unflinchingly and tangling her hands in the red strands that had fascinated her since youthful days.
"Oh, Impera… My sweet, delightful, little, Musa. I love you more." He rubbed their noses together before claiming her lips, the lips he never wanted to part from.
Ardyn pulled her closer, thrusting deep and hard, taking his time to make love to her, opposed to the greedy frenzy they'd engaged in before.
A damned year she locked him out of her heart. The longest fallout they'd had since beginning the secret relationship.
He couldn't bear another long hiatus...
"Dearest, I need you to promise me something." Ardyn grunted from disentangling himself enough to peer into Imperatrix's foggy eyes.
She whined in disappointment, reaching to return him to their close embrace, but the chancellor captured her hands, lacing their fingers to prevent more attempts.
"Impera." He strove for stern, but it failed, coming out too impishly.
How hard an effort she made severity when the princess was red and happy, rolling brazenly into his serene thrusts.
"Musa, Dearest, I'm serious."
"Yes, yes…what is it, Ardyn?" Imperatrix breathily asked.
"Promise you'll keep me in your heart, even if it's with profound hatred?"
The true opposite of love wasn't loathing as most thought, but indifference. He'd learned that the hard way.
For what was coming, the chancellor would take hatred over apathy.
Imperatrix jolted as if struck, squeezing meaningfully at their joined hands. "I could never hate you!"
She couldn't!
He was her first love and as twisted as she could feel about him, it was never enough to wish him dead, nor completely banish him from thought.
Ardyn gave her a long look, undecipherable to the princess. He didn't get a chance to respond as a loud bang from the antechamber caught their attention.
"Impera, you Shitty Princess! Come have a drink with me!" Tempesta yelled from the room.
The chancellor shook from silent laughter as Imperatrix rolled her eyes and huffed, cursing the retainer in Latin.
"Ignore her, she will go away." The princess closed her eyes, looking away from the door and tuning out the shuffling from the other room.
"We both know that's not true." Ardyn continued pleasing his woman, not at all bothered by the interruption, moreso by his uncontrollable chuckles.
"Then she can pass out in there." She pulled him onto her, caressing his taunt back muscles.
"You'll have to be quiet then." He heckled, knowing she wouldn't be able and bucked sharply into her.
Imperatrix bit at his ear and her low moan was rewarded with another intense movement.
"Go right ahead and loose those lovely sounds. Music to my ears, Dearest."
The two continued in their own world, oblivious to the loudmouth calling for the princess and causing a racket. It wasn't until Tempesta banged on the door that they took notice of her.
"Impera! Wake up and hang out with me!" She complained through the door. "We're supposed to be besties for life!"
Imperatrix covered Ardyn's mouth when he wouldn't stop laughing. She had to take a deep breath before replying to the drunk fist fighter.
"Go to bed, Tempesta!" Her voice pitched at the end from the chancellor driving harder into her. She glared uselessly at the lewd stare he was giving her since speech wasn't an option.
"I don't wanna! I wanna hang out. Is that blonde temple your new best friend?!" The door rattled. "Answer me, Imperatrix Tellus Aldercapt!"
"Gods!" She cried, gripping tighter at Ardyn's mouth when he changed to an angle he knew would frazzle her.
"I know, right? She's so boring!"
The princess shook from her tensing body, lowering her voice to speak to the man ramming into her without pause, both agitating her and sending her into euphoria's grasp. "Ardyn, you imp!"
He touched his forehead to hers, amber eyes communicating how much he loved playing with her.
Between Tempesta's obnoxious slurring and Ardyn's consistent plunging, Imperatrix's mind broke and she shouted incoherently as she flew into the clouds and stayed there. The princess went limp in Ardyn's arms post climax, hand falling off the man's mouth.
"Tempesta, why are you in here?" Another voice came from the other room.
"Cloudy Nebby, Impera doesn't like me anymore! Do something!"
"Ifrit strike you with fire. I swear you're the biggest pest!"
A mild tussle could be heard and then the noise died down as the brother dragged his sister out.
Ardyn stroked Imperatrix's bottom lip, smirking smugly at her dazed staring. "Too tired for more, Dearest?"
She didn't respond, lethargically blinking at him.
He lovingly placed kisses on her forehead, cheeks, nose, and finally her lips, slipping out of her and lying next to the princess. The self-satisfied man was all titters and hums while she came to.
"Darling?" She at last spoke.
"Yes, my dear?"
Imperatrix smiled disarmingly and Ardyn was unprepared for a pillow to impact with his face.
"You are the worst! Toying with me at the most inconvenient times!" The pillow struck again and again.
"Impera--" He started in between hits.
"Be quiet!"
The chancellor took the blows, for he had no excuse to give for riling her up.
"I am going to return the favor!" Imperatrix shoved the pillow into the red-head's face, forcing him onto his back and sat atop his toned stomach, seizing him with both hands.
Ardyn abruptly jerked from being stroked and squeezed the pillow, sonorous moans absorbed into the fabric.
Her predisposition for swords gave the princess a good idea of how much force to use and the intent focus she was giving to her task was going to end him, fast.
"We are not playing the old games in bed. From now on, we both are to enjoy all there is in our coupling." Imperatrix twisted her head to look over her shoulder, yanking the pillow off.
This time she was the smug one as she looked down on a red-faced Ardyn.
It was so interesting to see him turn the same shade as his hair, yet still retain all the wickedness of his personality. Like two sides that shouldn't be mixed.
"You are to release with every encounter. Do you understand, Caesar?" The princess increased the tempo of her hands and Ardyn hissed, gripping onto her hips.
"I do, Musa, but... I believe we should switch to something...we'll both enjoy."
Imperatrix gasped as she was lifted and then lowered onto Ardyn, crying out when filled to the brim and her back bumped into his chest. He held her tight, growling heatedly into her ear.
"To be mounted by an empress, is there a greater honor? A greater pleasure?"
"There is not…" She craned her neck to apprehend his lips, adjusting to the new position with a content hum.
The chancellor ran a hand up her stomach to the space in between her chest, settling over one as he drove upward into her. Imperatrix didn't have much to center herself on and had to rely on Ardyn's arms to keep her aloft with this position, leaving her at his mercy.
As promised, he prevented her from falling, keeping her close and enjoined in lover's embrace.
The princess found herself muttering between languages as reason began to leave with the rise of chaotic love. She whimpered, head lolling back onto Ardyn's shoulder and arm bending backwards to clutch his hair. He grunted, arm crossing over to her hip and tugging her down onto him with utmost impact for every thrust.
"Ar-Ardyn…you m-must do it inside me…" Imperatrix pleaded, feeling everything alight and hot, knowing that her finish wasn't far.
"Impera…no…" The chancellor kissed the side of her mouth sloppily in apology. "No, no, no."
"Please…I want…" She paused, moaning uncontrollably the closer he sent her into the abyss. "Please, Ardyn?"
The princess wanted to experience the full act of having a man, and that included him spilling into her. Imperatrix was sick of being given pieces when she wanted the entirety!
"I love you, Ardyn." Imperatrix articulated as much of her thoughts into the confession as she could when lengthy speech escaped her capabilities at the moment.
"Sweet, beautiful, Musa. I love you so!"
The princess rocked in the chancellor's arms, propelled into her climax with a sob. He became submerged, panting laboriously into Imperatrix's hair as the sensations threatened to crush him.
"Oh, Musa…oh, the things I do for you…" Holding the princess so that there was hardly any difference between their bodies and his thrusts could go deeper, Ardyn gave what she desired, groaning at the shock of release and the bellowing noises in his head.
The two sat there, gasping for breath. A sweaty, tangled, mess of limbs.
Imperatrix was the first to recover, fondly scratching through red locks and peppering the man with happy kisses.
"I love you, Darling Caesar." She crooned sweetly at his unresponsiveness. "Come with all your shame, come with your swollen heart, I've never seen anything more beautiful than you."
She didn't know why he denied himself during intercourse, why he looked at himself with abhorrence after experiencing liberation. He wouldn't give her answers for any of it, but she could offer her unreserved affectionate in the interim.
One day Imperatrix would get answers. She could be patient until then.
Ardyn melted out of his silent raging. The voices grew quiet enough for him to ignore.
"You're not lying about the injections are you?" He raised his head lazily off the princess's shoulder, amber meeting sapphire tiredly.
"On my honor, I am not." She felt a little miffed to be questioned, but couldn't fault him for the misgivings. "You need not fear for an unexpected surprise."
"Good. Neither of us needs that complication." Ardyn didn't expect so much vitriol to slip out and he felt Imperatrix's recoil from his ugly words. "Dearest, that was--"
The princess sprung out the embrace, smacking his hands away when he reached for her. She paced in front of the bed with arms crossed and a pained sneer marking her face.
"Don't sound so disgusted, Chancellor! Is the idea so horrendous? Do I revolt you so?!"
"Don't be absurd." He scooted to the edge of the bed, prepared to retrieve her, but stayed seated when she maneuvered away, no less guarded and flaring more from him trying to close the distance.
"Which part is absurd?!"
"For pity's sake, Impera! Did I not just make love to you, twice? How in the world could I find you, my Musa, repulsive?!"
His slip of tongue had opened a wound he hadn't meant to.
"And yet, the thought of me bearing a child by you is spoken with such...venom!"
Ardyn sighed theatrically with an equally theatrical head roll. He had to dial back his rising frustration with this old argument.
It was important to remember that Imperatrix was still young in many ways and he couldn't expect her to react calmly to things like he did. Years and years of bitter life had mellowed him to the point of brushing off many things that others wouldn't. Dealing with an irate lover could still poke a nerve in the wrong direction though.
He didn't need the other side making an appearance.
"I give you an inch and you take a mile. I spoil you far too much, Musa."
"Excuse me?!" Imperatrix whirled around, pointing to her chest as if he'd directed his comment to the wrong person.
"You are spoiled, heavily so by me." He repeated to her annoyance.
"You call leaving me stranded in Insomnia, spoiled?!" She advanced on in a rage.
The chancellor rose with a flourish, snatching her hand and planting a kiss on it as a loyal subject would before she could strike at him. "I do love nothing in the world so well as you. Is not that strange?"
The princess scoffed at the line, taking her hand back and walking away from him.
"By my sword, Imperatrix, you love me." He tentatively rested his hands on her shoulders, feeling the slight shake in them. His forehead rested on the back of head.
He'd really upset her...
"You have no sword, Ardyn." Imperatrix denied the quoted lines from literature.
She'd not once seen the man fight or train, contradicting his lean physique. He also consistently refused the offer of bodyguards.
Galavanting across Eos with little concern. Horrid imp!
She missed the secret smile that passed over Ardyn's face. "Come now, my dear. Play along with me. I know you haven't forgotten the lines."
Imperatrix replied rudely in another language.
"You love with so much of your heart that none is left to protest." Undeterred, the chancellor pecked the top of her head.
She looked up at the taller man.
That small acknowledgement was all he needed for him to sweep her off her feet and spin them around.
"Ahh, no! Are you trying to make me sick?!" The princess ducked her face into Ardyn's neck, working through the dizziness of a spinning room.
He tossed her unceremoniously on the bed and crumpled on top of her, latching onto the struggling woman.
"Imperatrix is the sun! Rise up, beautiful sun and kill the jealous moon! The moon's already sick and pale with grief because you, Imperatrix, her maid, are more beautiful than she."
She wriggled incessantly against his cuddles, valiantly biting her lip to contain the giggles stirring from Ardyn's stubble and his icy hands tickling her. He wouldn't be let off for his insensitivity!
"Oh, I wish she knew how much I love her! Her eye in heaven would through the airy region stream so bright that birds would sing and think it were not night."
"Ardyn, stop! Please, stop it!"
"Stop what, Dearest Musa? Reassuring you of my undying love or exploring the wonder that is you? To end either isn't possible."
The tickling did cease, transforming to sensual prying at intimate portions of Imperatrix's body that were already highly sensitive.
"A-And you d-dare call me lustful?" She let out a faint whine, but did nothing to stop Ardyn from sucking at her neck, throb re-emerging from him entering her from behind like the last two times hadn't happened. "You have me...beaten in that sin…"
"I have you beaten in many sins." The chancellor laughed darkly, meeting her searching lips and humming appreciatively at her moving in tune with him.
Imperatrix broke the kiss with a nip at his lower lip.
"Of course you do, old man." The princess grabbed a pillow to lay on top of as they laid on their sides and Ardyn took her for the third time.
The troll won her over every damn time...
"Parting is such sweet sorrow…" He seized her hand and kissed Imperatrix's fingers as she closed them over his. "Till night turns to morning, I'll worship you, Musa. In every way."
Instances as these were the rare exceptions that Ardyn didn't loathe his body. He could go all night, having his love over and over.
"Acta non verba, my darling." Imperatrix challenged him.
"Oh, you'll regret throwing that gauntlet, my dear."
The chancellor rose to the test with all the haste and enthusiasm of a beggar at a feast.
XV
"Holy shit! What kind of airship is that?!" Nyx went bug-eyed at the differently modeled aircraft.
Unlike the bulky black ones he was used to seeing, this one was smaller, slimmer, and shaped less boxy, looking more like a some kind of fish-bird hybrid with the wings and circular body. The overall white design, black coating, and gold accents alluded to imperial colors, but Nyx had never seen a model of this caliber.
"It's a Setzer model, a throwback from when airships were manned by humans and not robots. It's equipped for passengers to live on." Nebula regurgitated the information for the benefit of the starry-eyed hick.
He was more interested in the princess communicating with the brigadier general and newly arrived commander.
No one could ignore a summon from the heir to the throne.
When Imperatrix sent orders for the commander to arrive in a day, he did, no questions asked. When Imperatrix requested an airship with living quarters, it was provided, posthaste.
Traveling with royalty came with bad she didn't abuse that power more...
Nebula wasn't in the mood to wait around because they had two extra, useless, tag-alongs.
He wanted to stick to the status-quo for their departure. Him in the sidecar, playing on his handheld. Tempesta driving without rest. Lastly, Imperatrix on the backseat with the driver.
Simple and easy...
But no! They had intruders to consider.
"What's this 'Setzer' doing here?" Nyx came to stand beside the motorcycle.
The riders were switched this time. Nebula took the wheel while his sister hunched over in a fetal position in the sidecar.
"Impera requested it for our use. We can't all fit on the motorcycle and the chancellor has other responsibilities than playing chauffeur." Nebula answered, miffed that the glaive was still speaking.
He was in a foul mood from Tempesta's stupidity alone. He had no patience for Nyx's.
"We get to fly that?!" The glaive grinned.
"Hmph! I doubt you'll be piloting."
"Why not? I know to fly, ask Impera."
"Stop addressing her like that! You're not an ally, let alone a friend."
Nyx casually swatted the gun out of his face.
"C'mon man, I thought we were beginning to break the ice." He lightly punched the stiff's shoulder. "I didn't mess up your toy and I helped you foil a conspiracy after you ruined my uniform. What else does a guy need to do for some civility?"
Nebula's neck rose slowly from the spot Nyx punched and then to the man's face. "Don't touch me."
"Another unfriendly Nephilim, great." The glaive took a couple of steps back.
"I'm plenty friendly, you've still got that hand."
"Geez, you're violent! Is it a family thing?"
"You could say that." The gunman snorted, patting his sister's helmet, but really smacking the whining girl. "Tempy got the worst batch of violent genes."
That was an understatement. Tempesta was one of a kind among Verstael's "children".
"When can we go? I wanna crash on a bed." The fist fighter dug into one of the bags attached to the bike.
Nebula smacked her hand after catching her going for a stash of liquor. "You've had enough. Drink some water."
"Don't be a buzzkill! The best way to overcome a hangover is with more booze."
"That is the most ignorant thing I've heard, and you're always babbling out idiotic nonsense."
"Neb, I hate you so much."
"I'm sure the princess feels the same way after your inaneness last night."
"What are you-" Tempesta froze, bursting into cackles.
"You're laughing, but you're getting punished for that." Nebula crossed his arms, understanding Imperatrix's frustration in that regard. "You're a pest."
When would Tempesta quit being a cockblocker?
The gunman wouldn't take Imperatrix's stance and try to reason with the pest for her pettiness. He'd shoot her the next time she interrupted him and his woman in the act...if he even got the chance in the near future...
He barely saw the busy-body spider as was. His time with her when presented was limited. Not to be disturbed by a shitty, brat of a sister, who really wasn't his sister, but got claimed as that for simplicity's sake.
His family was the epitome of messed-up...
"This is your version of hungover? You must be a pro if you got that hammered and are still lucid the next day." Nyx whistled, incredulously appraising the girl he assumed was younger than Lunafreya.
Her behavior was no different from the usual, the version of usual he'd come to understand in their short, unfortunate acquaintance.
"Can you shut up?! Your chattiness is hella annoying." She snarked, snatching the proffered water bottle from Nebula. "Go bother Lunar Temple, Savage Shit."
"And there it is. My cue to leave before I hit a girl." Nyx retorted.
"Try and fight me! You'll end up ass-kicked like the first time." Tempesta shouted with a derogatory hand gesture as the glaive walked over to the blonde comforting the young lady under guard.
When Nyx reached them, the guards cut off whatever conversation the girls were having and ushered Aquila towards the princess and group of military forces.
Lunafreya's mood blackened at the reality she couldn't alter.
"Hey. You okay, kid?" The glaive prompted.
"She has no one and she is being sent to the most dangerous place in Eos." Her face booked no emotion to alert any of the watchful eyes, but Lunafreya was angered on Aquila's behalf.
That she should suffer for her father's machinations was unfair! The senator deserved to be completing this walk of shame.
"Gralea's like the hotspot of Niflheim, right? Rich folks partying and gambling, a noble's playground. Aren't you exaggerating a bit?"
"It is the rich and powerful who are steeped in lies, murder, and betrayal. The great Domus Aurea is death to a young, unaccompanied girl."
Nyx shuffled uncomfortably. "Are you speaking from experience?"
"Nothing happened to me, but I saw enough."
"I'll have to take your word on it, but there's nothing we can do. We all might've burned to death if things didn't play out how they did." He nudged Lunafreya's shoulder to comfort her. "It's out of our hands and Aquila's still alive, maybe she'll come to like her new home."
The oracle lifted her lips in a small smile to reassure Nyx.
Yes, Aquila lived. That was a mercy denied to her mother for crossing the empire.
The chancellor appeared out of nowhere, inserting himself into the conversation.
"Ah, Lady Lunafreya! It is good to see you've your wits about you." He feigned worry, holding a hand over his heart. "The princess was quite afraid she wouldn't be able to tear you from the piano."
Lunafreya blushed.
Visions had been consuming her mind, leaving little control. Most the previous day's events were lost to her.
Something monumental was on the rise and the oracle would soon be made aware of it through the god's blessings.
"Do you require assistance to the airship? If you feel faint, do say so, my lady." Ardyn's words dripped with insult.
Lunafreya wanted to leave and never encounter the chancellor again.
What an awful, awful man!
"I am in perfectly good health, Chancellor Izunia." She brushed passed him in a flurry, heading to a waiting Imperatrix.
Ardyn and Nyx were left alone to observe the other.
The glaive sneered at the silent appraisal. "What?"
"Oh, nothing." He got waved off with exceeding nonchalance. "A word of advice. She leads, she is not led."
Nyx let out a befuddled sound and no further elaboration was given by the elusive chancellor, who chuckled and waltzed off.
"What the hell was that?" The glaive scratched at his growing hair on the side of his head. "Whatever. I'm not going to rack my brain over it."
He trudged forwards.
The loading dock of the Setzer lowered from Imperatrix inputing the code. Nebula drove the motorcycle up the ramp and Lunafreya wordlessly entered. When Nyx approached her, the princess looked away from Ardyn retrieving suitcases out of his trunk.
"I take it Lunafreya is displeased with me?" She cut to the point.
"What gave it away, Princess?"
"The typical. The silent treatment and general ignorance of my existence."
Nyx laughed at her frankness. "Kids, huh?"
"If I were not versed in dealing with troublesome youths, I would not be handling this well."
"Trouble sticks to you. I thought I had it bad with Libertus and that prick, Luche, but you've got it worse with two psycho retainers and a sulky oracle." Nyx inched closer to Imperatrix, grinning cockily as he whispered to her. "Feel free to cry on my shoulder when it gets too tough. Dad's here for you."
She stepped away from the heavy closeness and winced from a shoot of pain.
"Huh, you okay? Falling for me again?" He caught her wrist, tugging her back on balance and setting them right back to the original nearness of almost touching.
Imperatrix twisted her hand out of his grasp and primly shot him down. "If I fall, it is because your pursuits fatigue me."
"Yeah, right, Impera." Nyx didn't believe her for a second from how flustered she could get over casual touches.
He tilted his head at her rigid shuffling.
"Are you sure you're okay? You're almost as tense as me and I'm still recovering."
Did the fighting do a number on her? She did pass out for two days and then jumped straight in more fire.
They all needed a break.
If only Hypnosis were available…wait. The airship could take them!
"Concern yourself not with me, but with your charge." A slight blush entered Imperatrix's cheeks.
Temperance. She failed that lesson throughly.
As if the previous tryst wasn't enough on her body, the princess tortured herself more by engaging in an entire night of intimacy and then as morning came, Ardyn hadn't wanted to let her out of his arms.
He was a hindrance to morning preparations. Chiefly, a distraction in the shower from their last bout of foolishness.
Lucky for Imperatrix, most her companions were late risers and uttered no grievances for the delayed start.
"Heads up!"
Nyx barely heard the warning and managed to catch a duffle bag thrown at him. Imperatrix kept him from tipping into her by pushing on his back and setting him upright.
"What the hell?!"
"I did warn you, good fellow." Ardyn breezed by, carting suitcases up the ramp. "Be a good boy and help with the bags."
"What bags?! And who's is this?!"
"Stop shouting." Nebula hopped off the ramp, plucking the duffle out of Nyx's hands. "This is mine, hands off."
He didn't wait for the glaive to speak and slogged towards the red convertible, retrieving the other bags belonging to him and his sister that couldn't fit in the motorcycle's compartments.
"Calm yourself, Nyx." Imperatrix chided when he looked ready to jump someone.
"I'm up to here with people's attitudes." He gestured to his level of annoyance by marking his hand higher than the princess's head.
She laughed at him, waving for him to follow her into the airship.
Nyx chilled at watching her new gait with heeled boots versus the flat combat-boots she sported before. The cape billowed behind her.
"I'm digging the new look." He muttered to himself, speeding after the woman.
"To see the shoe on the other foot, how curious..." She smirked once he matched pace with her, leading him down a bright and open hallway.
"Wha, what? I wasn't that aggressive or rude to you!"
"I beg to differ."
"Okay, I'll bite. What's the worst thing I did or said?"
"Besides taking me hostage?"
Nyx bent backwards to groan.
"By Fenrir's fur, I'm gonna have that hanging over my head forever!" He waved a hand impatiently. "Besides that."
"Threatening me with your kukri." She fluttered her eyes, cheered at getting under his skin.
"Cut out anything to do with Insomnia, Princess."
"Hmm, the accusations…the derogatory race remarks…" Imperatrix smiled patronizingly. "Do I need to go on?'
"No." Nyx sniffed, crossing his arms. "But let me remind you, I did take a mighty punch from you for the insults."
"Indeed you did, but you said it was a love tap, nothing to complain over."
"I won't complain if that's your idea of foreplay."
Imperatrix halted.
"What?" He smiled innocently.
She huffed and proceeded to give him a tour of the airship, rewriting Nyx's knowledge on classic airships and bringing out a geekier sider to him.
The dining area and recreational room were briefly explored. The bridge where the controls for flying the vessel was where they took a lengthy pause as the glaive threw question after question at Imperatrix and bugged her for the chance to fly it. She gave the request a go-ahead, already familiar with his skill.
It proved to be a trial to remove Nyx from the room to continue the tour, but he conceded when she looped their arms together and dragged him out.
He was all whistles and grins as the princess took him to the final stop of the tour, the living quarters.
Six rooms were in the hallway and the glaive was told to pick one that wasn't locked, as his.
"Hey, hey! Why are you leaving? Don't you want to show me the room?" Nyx skipped in front of Imperatrix when she disconnected their knotted arms.
"I am sure you do not need my help figuring out what's what in your room."
"Welllll…" He drawled with a lopsided smirk.
She frowned only for a second before smiling coyly. "I suppose...I could help you."
"Yes, you can, Princess." He quickly agreed.
Imperatrix lightly pushed him into a door, still smiling unassumingly.
"I was pretty disappointed to not be woken up with you tussling on top of me." Nyx kept flirting, paying no attention to the woman fiddling with the doorknob.
"So sorry, Nyx. Can you forgive my grievous error?"
"For a kiss, yeah." He ducked to her height.
The princess leaned close and the glaive really thought his curiosity would be sated, but the door behind him opened.
He fell into the room.
"Try harder next time, Sir Ulric." Imperatrix waved goodbye at the man sprawled out on the floor.
Nyx's laughter could still be heard as she turned the corner for the commodore's quarters, where she knew Ardyn waited.
"Think fast."
Th princess's lighting reflexes caught the object and turned it over in her hand. "A cellphone?"
She clicked it on and softened at the background. A picture of simpler times with her sisters, father, and uncle.
"Wait a moment. How does this have my data on it?"
A slew of messages, emails, missed phone calls, and voice mails popped on the screen. The notifications dated from recently to all the way back to the peace treaty.
"I took the liberty of installing your chip for you. I know how confusing it can be for you." Ardyn shifted on the bed, kicking at the suitcase in front of him. "Passports, bank cards, and all the other nifty trinkets can be found inside."
Imperatrix came to stand before the chancellor.
"You are…prepared beyond coincidence."
He steered her between his legs, holding her hips and rubbing circles over the areas he knew were tender from all his grasping.
"As I said, I had every bit of confidence in your ability to triumph."
"Non ducor, duco." Imperatrix imparted with minimal vexation.
Ardyn chortled from her unknowingly parroting him. Her words were of a different warning than the one he gave to Nyx.
"Do not use me so treacherously again, Ardyn!"
He hushed her with a smooch to the forehead, offering up no promises for what was to come in the following days. "Dearest Musa, permit me to taste you a final time before parting."
Imperatrix had only a fleeting second before she was swallowed into strong arms and mouth seized. His impassioned kiss and consuming embrace lulled her into the enduring depth of love that was known as agape.
The princess would've crumpled to the floor upon separation were it not for Ardyn gently depositing her on the bed.
"By that kiss, I vow endless bliss." He ran his knuckles down her face, sparring her the gimmick and revealing a fragmentary glimpse of genuine attachment.
The kind of attachment someone of his cursed state shouldn't dare to have.
"Ardyn." She cradled his face, but he regretfully removed her hands.
"No, no, no. We've both had our fill." The chancellor moved away from her before he could get caught in her spell. "Temperance, my dear."
"Ardyn, wait!"
He stopped at the door, giving her his ear, but not turning around and making his departure harder than it needed to be.
"Ama me fideliter. Fidem meam toto: de corde totaliter, et ex mente tota. Sum presentialiter, absens in remota."
"Impera…you are making it beyond impossible to leave..." The red-head exhaled pitifully, shoulders sinking and chest aching.
He swirled around to catch one last glimpse and blew a kiss in farewell.
"Till next we meet, my dearest love, Meus Musa!"
The door closed and her love gone with the wind.
"Valeas quam optime, Darling Caesar…" The princess fell backwards, becoming a victim of melancholy.
Her new phone buzzed next to her head.
Bubbles could only last so long...
While Fortuna's wheel may spin with her Ardyn on top, it spun with her father on the bottom. Imperatrix was terrified to see if he left any messages for her.
She was scared to move forward after such a blow.
- 9
- 10
- 11
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