Standing before the bowl that reflected the image was the ruler of one of the greatest powers in the empire, Efrideet Capriska her long pink hair flowed down her every curve and cascaded across the floors of her sacred room of divination.
A look of loathing filled her face, several years of planning had been wasted, oh, how she wished to scream it had taken a lot to convince Telamon but even with his help everything failed.
She cursed that weak woman Elizabeth, she had no shame, how dare she bow her head in apology to that underserving empress, the woman who had taken her place on the throne.
She was the first in 17 billion years to reach the level of a seventh-grade diviner and yet she was overlooked on the account of some common village girl with above-average talent.
She was the master of fate, in her heart she knew with certainty that only one diviner stood above her and that was the mother of the seven civilizations Quaria and yet she had been overlooked it made her furious just looking at the bitch who stole her birthright.
Then she saw that child he walked up with such arrogance it made her feel loathsome, it wasn't his attitude that made her feel so but rather his talent.
What did that bitch do to get such unparalleled talent in a child, so long as the child lived, he would be a testament of Taliyah's greatness, they would look at his genius and credit it to her wisdom.
She could never stand for such a thing to happen, just the thought of anyone praising that village whore, made her furious.
She tried to find an opening about the child's past, but the strings had shown her his birth, they showed her that he did indeed come from Scavanour, and she knew the strings well they would never lie to her.
In the presence of her greatness, they were forever bound to her as shackled subject's incapable of overruling her will.
She was the one true master of fate and with time, there would be no other that could compete with her, after a diviner is truly immortal, their bodies are protected from the encroachment of time.
Even a mortal diviner could live as long as the gods themselves, and she would use that to her advantage to become the sole ruler of everything, and eventually even surpass the mother of the seven civilizations, the great diviner Quaria.
She knew that it was her destiny, fate had shown her the way, and she had sacrificed more than anyone would ever know to make that dream a possibility.
She once more focused on the images in her divining mirror listening to every word that Lirian spoke and in doing so she understood that his words were an insult to her actions.
But then he said those words, mentioning her name she had used so very long ago and she felt her pink irises shudder, before furrowing her brows as she thought more carefully.
'Do they know? but it can't be how could they, I just learned how to manipulate a fate strings by influencing them, there are no records of it anywhere, no it must be some ploy of theirs to attack me,' she reasoned.
It was at that moment that the strings seemed to rebel against her, for he looked in her direction and mouthed a few words, that left her shaking in fear and the strings seemed to enjoy the feeling, "No,", this time she screamed aloud, ", he must be commenting on Telamons place of seating," she reasoned with herself once more.
But those eyes, she had felt that gaze like a searing hot iron branding her skin and that smirk it felt like it was meant for her, mocking her failure.
Then the fool came up, most of the nobility had disliked Lirian for the little game he played with them, she had reviewed the video a thousand times yet she saw nothing, it was not at all like what others had said it to be, at most he learned the position of the seals, impressive for the boy's age but that was all.
But as time went on more and more nobles told her of its peculiarity, she then viewed the memories of her subordinates that told her that it was the same for them.
But in their memories, it appeared as ordinary as when she watched it herself, it was only that she noted her followers' reactions that made her suspect that something was wrong.
She contacted the lesser diviners who could never compare to herself, it wasn't that she needed their help.
She needed only a confirmation to prove her theory, the trick the boy used could not work against a diviner was her final conclusion.
The world offers special protections to diviners and she reasoned that this was why it failed to react to her, but she still knew not the purpose of such a trick.
The boy had made so many nobles angry with his declaration, she had an entire list of people she could use but the problem was who to choose, who would be the most effective to get her point across and that was when she landed on the Jane family.
They were the first dogs to support Taliyah, so turning her against them would aid her cause greatly, she could picture the headlines she would make, 'The Empress Slaughters her First Supporters', 'The Ungrateful Empress', 'The Bloody Hand Strikes Again'.
Alastor walked off the stage and then she saw the empress coming forward to address the people and she slowly tightened her grip on the fate strings around her.
Whilst all of her plans had fallen apart, she could still use this moment to influence the empress into attacking, the Jane family.
She knew the empress well, even if she was going to overlook what had happened, never would she truly forgive anyone that tried to harm her child it was the perfect opportunity to influence her and make a mess of the situation.
She raised her hand and the strings began attaching themselves to blue markings etched into every inch of her skin, the markings were unique to her race the Yasaratches.
She smiled in ecstasy, most of her plans might have been foiled but this would be enough.
The strings of fate bundled together like fibers of muscles to form a point and they moved forward with the intent to strike.