The 14th Emperor of the Eastern Empire was just a puppet of his mothers.
He was just a boy when he became Emperor, and he never regained power over his own country. It was the Empress dowager who had all the power, the one who controlled the shots and let the country sink further into deprivation.
The 14th Emperor wasn't entirely guiltless, not by a long shot, but neither was Livia. If she could avoid her own fate, then maybe he could as well.
Once they escape to the forest, she will put a barrier on the Palace wall, making it impossible for them to follow after them right away. It would buy them enough time to get lost in the forest. From there, they would head up the mountain, the exact opposite way in which their pursuers would think to go.
Livia just needed to get them out.
A clammy hand falls on top of hers, bringing her attention to the Emperor. He was pale, his lips were nearly blue, but he still tries to offer her a brave smile, weak as it is. He was losing to much blood. She would need to take the barrier down if she wanted to heal him again.
The other soldiers have joined Saer outside the barrier. Saer steps back to get medical attention to his arm while the soldiers take his spot in weakening the barrier.
"Bring me the void weapons," Saer can be heard saying as a medic tends to him.
She needed to do something, and fast.
Slowly, she starts to weaken the barrier around them to put more emphasis on healing the Emperor.
It will still take too much time.
She glances back at the exit and then to the soldiers. Eventually, they will break it. Since her magic was split, the barrier would last for a minute or two longer, but that was it. They would kill her before she could put up a new one, and the Emperor would soon be dead after.
She forms a new plan.
"L-lea-ve m-me." The Emperor gurgles, and she shushes him.
He outweighs her by more than a few pounds. There was no way she could carry him for long, but it would be enough, she would make it so.
Livia puts his arms around her shoulders and slowly maneuver him to her back. Blood quickly seeps into the thin fabric of her revealing gown, one of the thin straps falling down her arm. She doesn't care. It was already beyond ruin, and if she accidentally flashed a few soldiers a little of her cleavage, she could care less about that too. She was beyond being embarrassed about who saw her body. Her stay in the Empire made sure of that.
She trudges ahead as the Emperor mutters deliriously on her back. She pours a small amount of magic in her arms in legs to close the distance faster. Splitting her attention and magic in three ways. The closer she gets to the door, the more she can shrink the barrier so it is just around the two of them, making it denser and harder to break.
The exit is swung agar. She can even see the tall shrouding trees just beyond it.
Just a little closer.
It happens in an instant.
The only warning is the soft whistle in the air.
Then there is the wet sound of metal slicing into flesh and a small grunt. Her body jolts forward from the force of the blow, she feels pain at her own back and stumbles through the exit with the Emperor slumping over her.
She isn't given a second to think, her magic flickers, as if it was once again on the brink of being nullified. She crawls from underneath the Emperors body, dislodging the metal that sunk into her back with a grimace.
Livia then sees it.
Sticking out of the back of the Emperor, embedded deep in his flesh, was a harpoon. It had struck him dead center in the chest, went straight through his heart, and a few centimeters into her own back. The metal glinted in the same way the binders around her wrist had. If it had sunk any further,
Livia would have been helpless once more.
She follows the cable to white-gloved hands holding the other end. She meets Saer triumph grey eyes. Her barrier shatters around her, her healing spells fail. It was pointless anyway. She felt it. The moment his heart had seized up and eventually stopped altogether.
The Emperor was dead.
She had failed him.
Saer raises his sword once again, as do the soldiers.
That's as far as they get before Livia throws her head back, and screams.
A wave of raw magic travels out from her, over the corpse of the fallen Emperor and straight to Saer in his men. They fly back from the force, crashing all the way back to the entrance of the garden.
Saer regains his footing, inhumanly fast as usual, and flings two slashes at Livia.
They don't hit their target. Her hand snaps up, and the blue barrier is up once again. The slashes slam into it and are redirected. One cuts the cable connecting the Emperor to the harpoon while the other is flung at Saer who barely manages to dodge it.
When Saer looks up again, Livia and the corpse of the Emperor is gone.