Life was harsh, in every sense of the word. Elizabeth was born in a world of hatred and destruction. Her first memories of life were of running away from home with her remaining family.
It didn't take long before her new home was burned to the ground as well. The more they retreated into the kingdom, the more she had to experience the constant evacuation and terrible journeys to a new supposed safe haven.
Only after losing both her mother and father did she start to lose sense of herself. A hatred was born in the deepest parts of her heart. Despair wasn't an option as all her focus was set on getting rid of the people who did this to her family.
Using her hatred as fuel, she grew up to become an absolute beauty, which she carefully made sure to maintain. She entered the politics in her country, without a backing mind you. She was destined to fail, and she did. Or at least that was the case in the beginning.
Her beauty and eloquence slowly brought the people to her side. It was then that she met one of her very first comrades, Galen. A man who, like her, was born into war and survived by the narrowest of margins. He was strong, cold, but surprisingly quiet. He rarely spoke, only following her around and agreeing with her statements.
Together, they gathered more and more people who were like-minded. After a certain point she had enough people to win over the others, no matter the kind of backing. If the people at the lowest ranks of society start to rebel, no matter what the few rich aristocrats may think or do, they won't stand a chance.
She took over the kingdom and promised the people closest to her the best beasts to use as fuel for the ritual, creating a small but extremely powerful group of elites. Elizabeth herself hadn't undergone the ritual herself, keeping it for later.
With a lot of reforms and the support of the people, she built the kingdom back from the bottom she came from. Sadly, her fate hated her, putting Aurelian on the throne not long after. The moment he became the Emperor, her country suffered like no other.
He was ruthless and brutal, but what she hated most of all was that she found no weaknesses in his combat style and strategies. He almost knew exactly what she was going to do, always putting troops in places she didn't expect.
Perhaps he was just gifted or blessed with luck, but the man was an absolute terror, a demon for certain. No matter her tactic or ploy, he always found a way through it, to a point that she was starting to doubt herself.
Seeing no way forward, Elizabeth did what she wanted to avoid at all cost. She would cast away any kind of noble act or respect. She had to succeed in protecting her people so nobody would ever experience what she did.
She started to work on a massive scheme to save her kingdom. For this, she asked Galen and his strongest soldiers to receive a slave mark and infiltrate the Empire. She needed as much information as she possibly could.
After just a few months, she had enough information to form a solid plan. She performed her trial, but contrary to most people, she didn't choose a strong or powerful beast. No, she chose a special kind of octopus, a Mimic Octopus. It was a hard to find creature, she had to look for ancient Rainzones to find any kind of sign.
The biggest issue was that she needed two of these, one for herself and one for her closest attendant who would replace her in her absence. She was fully briefed on the plan and was willing to throw her personal life away for victory.
Using the corpse she gained the ability to slightly alter her appearance to her wish. She couldn't change anything drastic, but reforming her face shape wasn't that hard after some practice.
She gave herself a slave brand of the kingdom and infiltrated the Empire through a trade of prisoners. It didn't take long before she gained influence in the Empire. With her beauty and the support from the spies, she quickly gathered funds and power to rise to one of the strongest nobles in the Empire.
It was then that she focussed on getting close to Aurelian and that's when she noticed how shallow the man actually was. He acted coldly towards everything in life. She had seen him on the battlefield with a straight face, so she thought he found his happiness somewhere else.
First she poisoned the former Queen to make the position free, it wasn't hard to do frankly. The only issue was the Hidden Order that kept a close eye on everything, but through her efforts, she found a way to kill her without anyone noticing.
She didn't bother trying to seduce Aurelian since he never acted interested. Instead, she tried to convince him to take her as the Queen since she had a lot of influence and power. She had the capabilities of helping him take down the barbarians in the south.
After a lot of convincing she succeeded in getting the throne. Her plan was close to becoming finished. Killing of his children one by one, Elizabeth was ruthless in making sure the Aurelian bloodline ended with him.
Since he never asked for intimacy, a child was never born from her womb. She felt a little insulted that in all the nights they spend together, Aurelian never looked at her with warmth in his eyes.
All she could do was stay by his side and attend small needs he had every once in a while. Feeling that her act would break if she never sought to have a child, she offered her body to the man, to fully convince him of her dedication to him.
They were eating dinner, enjoying the best the Empire had to offer, yet the Emperor seemed like he couldn't care less.
"Don't you think it's time for us to have an heir of our own? Especially after our dear children passed?", she asked as she looked the man in the eye.
"To have them die again? I don't see the point.", the blank look in his face was cold, it felt like she was talking to stone.
"How about this? I heard about a tradition in the north where they sit in a very warm room, I think they called it a sauna? I think it would do wonders for you.", she said lovingly, even if all the emotion never reached her partner. Even this, switching topic so quickly, he never reacted or cared, as if the words they just spoke were unimportant.
"Sure.", it wasn't much, but she gained a positive response. To Elizabeth, she needed to play the part of loyal and loving wife until she found a way to kill Aurelian, but nothing she prepared worked all that well.
His body was extremely powerful, no Tier 2 stood a chance and the poisons she tried never seemed to have an effect. What was left? She needed more time, and she had to research a way to remove this man.
The first thing she wanted was to see if he was attached to anything. If a person doesn't want to lose something it there might be a way to remove them from the picture by threatening to destroy what they deemed precious.
Yet the cold eyes and calculated moves the man made were always with the Empire in its best interest. Nothing seemed to get the man's personal attention, not even his wife, which annoyed her quite a lot.
She was confident in her beauty and was certain that she would be able to seduce any man, yet when she gave her body and soul to the man, he just looked away. He found no pleasure in lust. Nor did he desire anything special or wanted to laze around. He felt more and more like something removed from humans.
At a certain point, she started to suggest different ideas of enjoyment, like a theater, an orchestra, a spa, large warm bathhouses, jesters and many more things that most people were able to enjoy.
Yet he experienced each activity with the same face. She didn't understand why he was willing to enjoy them with her, but never enjoyed it himself. At a certain point in time, when they were alone in the garden, the Queen rested her head on his broad shoulders.
Heaving a little sigh, she spoke, "What would make you happy, my dear? I've tried almost everything, yet you rarely show any emotion. How do I know you love me?"
It was a risky move, but if she figured out what he loved, she might be able to manipulate him. The man stayed silent for a moment longer. "What I desire isn't found here.", he waved his hand towards the Stars. "What I seek is far above the Stars."
The Queen could only think of a single thing, he was searching for Death. No, that might not be the case, Starborn come from the Stars. Eventually, they return back to the Stars, perhaps he's waiting for one of them to come here?
She had a hard time figuring out what the man wanted. Time passed as he suddenly came back with a very young boy by his side. He looked disheveled and pulled straight out of a warzone. Having no idea what to think of it, he pointed at him. "This will be our child. Care for him. I'll go and look for a teacher."
"You should wash him first then. Can't have him all dirty in front of the Scholars, they might look down on you."
"No one is qualified to do so.", he spoke normally, but the Queen was surprised by the tone he had. This was the first time his words carried a strong emotion. Staring at the child, she made sure to figure out what was so special about him.
As the years passed, she didn't find anything special except that it was a normal young boy, a bit naive, a bit playful, all cute. She hated to admit it, but she enjoyed the time she played as mother. Of course, she had never stopped looking for a way to kill Augustinus, but it didn't work out.
At least she was able to stop his rampage in the southern lands by causing internal trouble. His conquests of her lands stopped, but it could be restarted as soon as things came to rest. So she made certain to cause as much of a ruckus she could afford without revealing herself.
Still, her husband stayed the same, ruthless on the battlefield, outside his country or not. He pushed down any noble that dared to speak against him. Elizabeth knew that it wasn't going to last forever, so she set up a few spies in the Senate to sabotage the war from the inside.
She was gaining ground and influence in the Empire, but she still couldn't handle Aurelian. He remained the same, intouchable in her eyes. But perhaps the Stars favored her when all of the sudden all her plans came to a halt.
A messenger had come from the Hidden Order, "His Imperial Majesty has passed away. We will spread the news of his passing. His inheritence is described in this scroll. Please take it."
The message came so out of nowhere that she had no idea what was happening. All her work and plans were suddenly useless as the man died on his own. She couldn't tell why or how, but as she rushed towards their bedchamber all she found were members of the Hidden Order.
They were already in place with a coffin and carried it outside without any rebuttel from the Queen. By the time she realized what happened, the ceremony was already over. Standing over the grave in the garden, she didn't exactly know what she felt.
There was joy that the biggest thorn was gone, but there was also sadness. While they didn't have the most intimite relationship, they did share a life together for years. The bond she had was cut off without any warning.
A guard came close and stood by her side for a while. "My Queen, what do we do now?"
"Galen?", she spoke up without realizing she wasn't meant to use his real name here. His focussed eyes brought her back to reality.
"Oh, yes, yes... we.. send a royal guard to Thurin's training camp forbidding him to return, gather the crew and get rid of him. That will be best for us."
"I'll complete the orders without delay.", Galen was more than proficient enough to handle a few orders. He turned around without wasting any time. Their time had come to take back the lands they lost to Aurelian.
"Oh, use one of our own as the messenger, let him frame Augustinus if necessary.", Galen didn't stop his stride, simply nodding.
The Queen, left behind, struggled with his death more then she liked to. Losing Thurin now as well didn't feel good, but this was all for the betterment of her own people. The citizens of this country were the real barbarians that deserved death. She tried to close her heart to all her feelings, but failed.
It wasn't much later when she received a letter from Galen. "A Starborn?"