"Do you truly believe this is possible? In your condition?" Lady Diana walked angrily around the drawing room in Her Majesty's chambers, feat stomping on the ground like an angry toddler which clashed with her personality completely. She is a serious, composed, well educated, strict lady of manner. Her posture always right, her words carefully picked, but also very allergic to injustice.
""Plan a coronation in two weeks and I have already invited people!"" She repeated Emperor's words, waving around a paper with names of people who needed to receive an invitation immediately or they won't be able to make it to the capital in time. List pf very important people that lived far away, but none of them family.
"It is ridiculous!" Lady Abigail spoke form her seat, she who was always calm, observant of other ladies around her, since she was the youngest, now almost spilled her tea from anger.
"Exactly! What gives him the right to behave in such way!?" Diana started reading the names on the list out loud. "Lord Beverly, Viscount Hillbery, Duchess of Neum, Lord Gumbert? These people needed to be invited yesterday in order to make it in time! Does he know how far the Atlantic border is?"
"He is the Emperor Diana, he knows very well how far the border is." Maria said to her. She was standing next to a mirror instead of sitting down with Abigail and Her Majesty, or fuming around the room with Diana. Instead she was standing there, carefully observing her lady who was sitting in her usual spot, the green armchair next to the window, with a sleeping cat in her lap, Berry. She was looking out the window, tea in her teacup already cooled down a while ago, but she hasn't touched the cup since Abigail poured the tea to all of them. Their Lady has been like this since last night, when she returned form the family dinner. Even the return of her dear friends, Abigail and Diana didn't excite her as usual.
Two ladies came back to the palace after spending some time visiting their families in the countryside, before the ball season begins. The social season is no joke for the Imperial palace, especially since the coming of age ceremony is held in the palace since recently. There are several other social events besides that one, but with the coronation ceremony, there is no doubt there will be many more then usual, unexpected ones, like this one.
"He can be an Emperor all he wants! But this is just childish!" Diana finally sat down with a big sight.
"Tea?" Abigail asked while already holding a cup of jasmine tea.
"Thank you Abigail." Diana took a sip and a big breath with it, and turned to look at Her Majesty. "My Lady, I think we should do something about this."
Her Lady didn't turn around to look at her, she continued staring out the window as if she wasn't even listening.
"Begin with preparations is what we will do." Maria answered instead. All of them looked at her, even Her Majesty and Berry. "What else can we do?"
"We can put our foot down," Diana said in protest. "For years our lady has been tormented by him, we all feel the damage and we know it was never just the hostility towards her." Diana turned to look at her Lady. "With all respect my Lady," her voice got softer. "But this can't go on forever. Authority should be set between him and the Queen's palace. We can not go easy on him every time."
Ladies didn't know about Lady Gabrielle matter, that Emperor invited her to come back to the palace and ordered his wife to make amends. Her Majesty chose not to tell them that. Precisely, not to tell Maria.
Empress looked at them all, carefully taking her eyes from one face to another. They have been with her since the begging of her marriage with the Emperor. Diana, Marian and Abigail, they were her wedding gift from Madam Loise, head maid of the palace at the time. Two of them, Abigail and Diana are daughters of war veterans, ordained by the late King with highest titles he could give them, along with abandoned land of lords killed in the war. Maria was an orphan taken in by the temple, Madam Loise picked her because of her behaviour. Similar to how the late King picked Katherine to be his son's wife. Four of them studied and grew up together. They are close like sisters.
Empress turned to look out the window once again, Berry was starring at her now, the bell around his neck jiggled. It was a pure, calming sound that filled the silence.
"I do not wish to pressure you into doing something you are not comfortable with." She spoke finally.
The way she spoke, left Diana stunned for a moment, it was like her voice was coming from the distance and that it belong to someone who gave everything in themselves to put on a natural appeal.
"You are not pressuring us in any way my Lady." Maria said.
"That is true." Abigail agreed. "We will help."
"I am not trying to say we won't help. There is just to much insolence that I can not stand to watch happen in front of my eyes." Diana defended herself.
"Insolence it may be, but it is the insolence of an Emperor." Her Majesty told them. "I shall do my best to avoid situations like this in future. It is only my fault that the Emperor is behaving like this and I will do my best to make amends, for the sake of all of us." She looked at them. "What happens privately between us should not impact you."
Diana relaxed her shoulders and put a kind look on her stiff face. "Don't speak ill of yourself my Lady. I am sorry, I was out of line," Empress tried to speak, to deny her need for apologizing, but Diana stopped her. "No, I should apologize. There is more important things to do then complain." She stud up and straightened her dress. "We have a coronation to plan. The Coronation, like this empire has never seen."
"It is the first coronation of the empire." Abigail added. "We shall make it grand and glorious." A smile appeared on her face, a bright one, like that of a child.
Diana tidied up her hair and took a strong stance, like a soldier going into battle. "We shall start them. Don't want to disappoint you my Lady. Might as well die if I do so."
"Right!" Abigail stud up with her, but also carefully placed her tea cup on the table.
"Diana!" Maria scolded her for mentioning dying, she saw it as a bed omen to speak about one dying as a joke.
"Mark my words Maria. My Lady, is there a theme we should stick to?" Her Majesty was looking at the two of them, almost smiling.
"The Emperor asked for colours of the empire to be presented in every way possible." She told them, it was one of many instructions she received in a letter this morning along with the list of guest to be invited.
"Blue and white, I might make it all red and black out of spite!" Diana said while going out the door, Abigail at her side, already storming the hallway. "Luckily I respect my Lady more then God!"
Maria closed the door they had left open, silence filled the room. She approached the Empress and sat across from her.
"I am glad to see them energetic." Her Majesty said, her mood seamed lighter in the tiniest way.
"They always are my Lady." Maria fixed her eyes upon a silk robe on Her Majesty's shoulders, covering her nightgown and still visible bruises on her back. Diana and Abigail know about the flare up that happened to her during the court hearing, Maria wrote to them and told them what happened. Their response was coming back tot the palace a little earlier them expected, just in time turns out.
"My Lady I believe Diana is right. In your condition you should not participate in preparations, you should prioritize rest, we will take care of everything."
"I appreciate the concern Maria but-"
"Excuse me for interrupting, but please listen to our advice, we only wish you to get better. High stress might cause the bruises to appear again." Maria almost bit her tongue saying this. She knew very well stress had nothing to do with Her Majesty's flare ups. But keeping her mouth in place has been becoming harder and harder, she might not know the core reason but assumptions were there. "In the book of Marcus, he tells us: One's body is sacred, taking care of it takes us closer to pureness."
"Pray our body is a tool for opening the heavenly gates." Her Majesty finished the verse. "You have been reading the books I gifted you."
"Of course I have my Lady, unlike my old ones these are much tougher, they already lasted many reading times."
"You might know them better then me by this point. I remember the state of your old books, it is wonderful to see them be so loved."
Sunlight was always in interesting places every time Maria would talk to Her Majesty about Holy books, it was like her eyes almost got blinded for a moment, making looking at Her Majesty almost blinding enough for her to need to turn around or close her eyes. "Better then you never my Lady. For all that I know you might know the books better then angles in them."
Empress smiled for a moment, and then took Berry in her hands and handed him to Maria. "You are flattering me too much Maria, could I ask you to go down to the printing office and ask them to start the printing of invitations. They shall deliver how many possible to me by tonight."
"Of course my Lady." Maria got up and so did the Empress to see her out. She stood at the door way for some time after Maria disappeared around the corner, she was look at the guard standing at the begging of the hallway leading to her chambers. It was on of the guards from the court hearing, in the same red glowed uniform that indicated he belong to Queen's palace. This was the younger one of the two, Dolion, he has been in service for few years, since completing his training he's been working as a guard for Queen's palace. Knighted by the Empress herself.
She has been seeing him more often since the incident, and it is causing her many mixed emotions. To trust her husband or not to trust him. Nothing changed in Dolion's behaviour since that day, same was with the other older guard. This caused even more concern for Her Majesty, this meant that was not the first time one of them had tried to kill her. She was stabbed many times, shot with arrows. They both knew how to do both of these things very well, it was a part of their training. Besides their sword skills, imperial guards are very skilled with a bow and arrow as well as knife combat.
They are not assassins, not trained to kill in secret, but if one of them is in her husband's service, he could easily received training for such matter, or even come to do the duties of a guard with previous violent experiences without her knowledge. Possibilities were many. In reality her husband hid many things from her, but so did she from him.
Empress stepped out of the doorway, in the hallway, she approached the window looking out towards the garden, she turned to look at the guard, he took a stance greeting her. She nodded her head in response and returned to her chambers.
Blue tea set was left on the table, tea cups scattered around, most of them still full with cold tea. Empress looked at the tick bell rope for service, she is supposed to call Emily in to clean the tea set, yet she did not do that. Empress approached the small writing table in the corner of the drawing room, she didn't often work there, she preferred her office in the main palace. In that desk there was a small drawer. In that drawer three letters, one of them still unopened, and two pieces of paper with Imperial palace stamp in the corner. She took out he unopened letter and paper, it was in an envelop sealed with red wax with a piece of rosemary, dried out a long time ago. It was a letter from Lady Gabrielle sent this letter, as she did the two before this one. This the only one she haven't told Maria to read, there was something very interesting in her letters, the was they were written, words she used. It wasn't like she didn't write them, even the handwriting was obviously of a aristocratic lady such as herself, but so were the words written in it.
Envelop felt heavy, like there were several pieces of paper in it, yet it was thin like there was only one. Empress took a deep breath and ripped the seal of.
The letter read:
"Madam, Your Greatness, Majesty of our Empire, Empress Katharine, our Holiest Maiden, saviour of our souls, I apologize for taking time out of day to read my letter, in which I must apologize to you once again. From the bottom of my soul I feel remorse for my actions and I am living my life in regret for what I have done. As your humble server, I admire you as a woman and find greatness in what you do, especially in your religious devotion an teachings. I was once ignorant of it and the light has finally reached my sight, my ignorance is cured by the pastor at our family church. I have been going to church every Sunday with my family, as well as on my own will to confess and ask Gods for forgiveness. Our priest has instructed me read the Holy books and I have been doing as he said. With those books I finally understood my life has been full of sin. I am now praying to Gods regularly and seeking their guidance. As part of my healing journey I am begging Your Majesty to give a chance to apologize for my actions, for breaking the rules of palace and disrespecting You and Your daughter in the worst way possible. There is nothing more in this world then to make amends, from the bottom of my hearth I am begging you to answer this letter and give me a chance to apologize.
Wishing Your the very best and sending all blessings to You and Your family Your Majesty, Sun of our Empire,
Your humble servant, Gabrielle von Favre."
Empress looked at the letter for a long time before taking the feather in her hands, even if she didn't want to forgive Lady Gabrielle, she has to, by the Emperor's order. But by the letters she had send, Her Majesty is now very interested in what that young woman want's to say. The hunch she got when Maria read her the first and second letter might be true, but certainly can't be wrong.
Empress took a deep breath before meeting the ink with paper, in her breath one word escaped, so silently even she couldn't hear it.
"Azrael."