Chapter 3

An armor belonging to an imperial army general or one of that minister in the court weighted more than tons of gold bars put together, the heavy weight was the constant pressure from the emperor who seemed to look everything and everyone with suspicion.

His blue bead eyes squinting at someone showed the distaste even though the tone remained magnanimous and polite and once his suspicions reached a certain notch he had the person removed from the face of the earth as if they did not existed, none of the people in the household of the deceased were allowed to live either.

The death was said to be awarded to them by the majesty, the emperor himself, the way to die however was decided by the household, once all the people were declared dead by the imperial physician the people must be buried in some anonymous place.

But there was one way to escape this horrifying death. The women from the house of the deceased if virgin and talented may go to the emperor and serve in his harem as an imperial concubine.

Empress Seycea started her journey in the same method, her father one of the generals who had accumulated a huge army was said to be threat to the throne and his greedy nature did not helped too so an execution was ordered ten years ago, the same time Seycea entered the palace to be with the emperor making him spare her life.

Starting at an early age of seventeen her beauty was rivalled throughout the nation, sparkling green eyes with long lashes were looking down as tears dripping like small diamonds down her eyes were making her look like an angel descending from heaven.

The glossy blood red lips trembled as her long sky blue gown pooled like a lily flower fallen upside down on the ground as she kneeled on the floor, silent tears streaming down her eyes.

Her jet black hair was opened showing that the young woman was mourning the death of her father.

“Please accept me as your humble servant imperial majesty, else this servant will die a worthless death.”

That was the first time the emperor who was then almost thirty met his Queen. There was no love from neither side, one was bound with a beauty worthy of conquering lands while the other saw the power that came with it, enough to make people dance on her fingertips.

The emperor was never the most handsome man but was not plain either, the dull blue eyes were framed with a face worthy to look twice, brown cropped hair making the face glow but for the most beautiful woman who had her eyes set on the someone else…it was close to ugly.

But when King Alexander wore dark Brown leather boots with beautiful pearls from the south, Seycea wore it on her head showing her respect.

When the assassination attempt from Gaerin tried to annihilate the king she put herself in front of him getting injured showcasing her loyalty.

When King Alexander was ill the woman instead of fighting with other imperial concubines went to the imperial physician and along with him grinded the medicines into paste working hard the whole day.

Every day step by step the woman rose to a level higher and there came a time she was the most famous of the women in Harem soon elevating herself to the level of the empress.

There is always a warzone in the inner chambers of the king but it was very less that the queen herself was challenged because although the empire and its king viewed the woman to be kind hearted and loyal to the bones the women knew secrets far and beyond, besides most of them did not had any power or resources and were recruited by the queen herself.

The palace was a golden cage and if one wanted to have power greater than what was bestowed already one had to go through various life threatening circumstances and that was what separated Seycea from others, she was not afraid of death.

The Assassins from Gaerin were truly brutal and wanted to take the life of king anyhow thus they had disguised themselves as palace guards but before their sword could pierce the king, it went right through Seycea.

Unafraid and honored, the only woman in the kingdom whose status was not a mere trophy for a man but her identity herself was a powerful presence.

And in secrecy…the biggest admirers of Azarios. She wanted to marry him before but promised herself to the Emperor instead.

Eighteen years ago when Seycea’s father was still alive, the girl had the luxuries from all over the world, her each desire was fulfilled and each demand was to be taken as an order. It was the first time the woman saw him, a child maybe seven or eight, two years older than her, walking inside the pit in a calm demeanor.

His clothes were tattered and body was covered in dirt but when he raised his head searching the crowd to look into the eyes of her father as if promising and chanting a secret to the devil himself that instead of him Azarios would take the man’s soul himself, Seycea was fascinated.

General Bezus was the commander to capture more than thousand rebels living in the outskirts of the Ambrose empire, they were attempting to cross the borders of Ambrose and go to Gaerin and after mingling in there become citizens of it in the process.

The truth that Ambrose was on the verge of collapsing or that it was cruel to its people and people wanted to remove the King was like a thunder stoke on the head of King Alexander. So a mass murder was order by the king itself.

But the people that suffered were not only those rebels but the clan from which they belonged was punished too in the process by taking away their children.

Young girls were to be sold to high officials for pleasure and work while the male children were to be collected as a gladiator to fight in the pits with whatever animal the royalty and aristocracy deemed worthy.

Along with thousand others who were collected and snatched among bloodshed and tears was Azarios. At that time seven he saw how merciless were those who slaughtered the ones refusing to let their children go so he himself complied promising his parents that he will return one day after killing the one responsible for this chaos.