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...28...
EMPRESS TO BE👸
After a long warm bath and a super light breakfast because she was barely hungry, she headed out of the emperor's quarters for a walk in the garden because the weather was nice in a floor length A-lined coral coloured dress that made her look pretty. She was just in the mood for a walk because it was an overly sunny, warm and beautiful day. Xiera and Vura followed right behind her, still bickering about what had happened earlier that morning. She didn't say anything to stop them. She thoroughly enjoyed their childish actions. They walked through the manor's living room slowly, encountering the butler that had been left in charge of the manor by the emperor directing a few maids on how to move some boxes that had arrived. She presumed that they were either eatable or perishable items. He acknowledged her with a bow in passing and she in turn acknowledged him with a nod before they stepped out of the manor completely and into the open. Xiera suddenly came forward, somewhat leading the way to the garden.They had hardly gone far, not even a quarter of the journey to the garden, when they came upon something definitely cruel.
There was a small scene in the manor's courtyard where the seven empress seemed to have gathered, for what she could not actually say. They seemed to be gathering a lot in the manor in the emperor's absence all thanks to the bitch, Hera-Mera. She moved a bit closer to observe them and also to see what was causing the talkative gathering. To her chagrin, she discovered that Hera-Mera was whipping a kitchen maid ruthlessly. She was shocked for words, but not as shocked as when she discovered which maid it was. It was Hayeesha, one of the kitchen maids who had helped her a lot during her escape periods with her escape plans. She ran up there.
'Stop!' she yelled at Hera-Mera, barging uninvited into the small gathering. The bitch looked up at her with questioning eyes.
'What business of yours is this? You had better stay out of this you concubine!' she warned and returned to whipping the maid as hard as she could with the whip that mercilessly tore into her skin time and time again, mercilessly.
'Please, please, save me My Lady,' Hayeesha begged.
'Stop!' She screamed one more time as she rushed over to the helpless maid who was screaming and pleading and pushed Hera-Mera away from her angrily. The lady glared back at her, equally angry.
'What business of yours is this?!' she screamed at her, infuriated.
'What on earth has she done to you Princess?' she asked her with so much disdain in her voice.
'I do not see how this is any business of yours also, you sneaky little whore,' she screamed at her in return. She raised the whip again.
'Bitch! Don't you dare!' she said holding unto the whip before it was even able to descend onto the poor helpless maid.
'You dare to open your filthy mouth and call me a bitch?!' She barked angrily at her, seemingly totally pissed. She shook madly with her rage as they both stared at each other with poisonous venom.
'I will do so again if you give me a reason to Princess,' she said to her in a sarcastic mocking tone.
'You would not dare!' she threatened her with a sharp glare.
'Bitch!' she said that to further annoy the raving mad lunatic.
'You... You... You, who the hell are you anyways?!' she snapped the question out loud, trying to find an answer to it. 'Whatever are you in the Royal manor for demimonde?!' she inquired in a vexed voice.
'Be rest assured, She is only here for geisha duties,' Zoë supplied to them all with a huge glint.
'Geisha duties? Oh, concubine I see,'Hera-Mera said in mock understanding.
'Whatever are you doing here, in this place?' she asked Hera-Mera, gesturing with her hands.
'We were just having a little get together concubine until this thing ruined it with her ill luck,' the lady answered her with spite.
'And you are doing so with whose permission bitch?' she retorted. Hera-Mera's glare intensified.
'I do not need anyone's permission to host a get together in my fiancé house,' she provided. 'And I do not think that his concubine should be asking me this sort of questions. You are just jealous that you weren't invited,' she told her.
'Jealous? As if!' she said with a laugh that made the other woman seem quite unbelievable.
'Yes you are! You are jealous of me being his fiance! You are jealous of the untold authority that comes with it, one that you my dear will never ever possess,' she said to her with a very evil smirk.
'You are ridiculous! How can I be jealous of you and the authority that you only exercise in his absence?' was her straight forward retort. 'The authority that makes you hit a maid as you please with all the wickedness in the darkness of your heart.'
'I Hera-Mera will do whatever I please in this manor!'
'No you will not!'
'You must be insane to even think of challenging me like this!'
'You are the insane one if you think that you can just do wake up and do about anything that you want because he is your fiancé!'
'You concubine is the one insane if you think that you have a right to question any of my actions!'
'Oh I do! I actually do have such right! I am not like these sick mute donkeys who sit here and watch you display high madness,' she said indicating the six other empress candidates. 'Besides, that fiancé that you keep shouting for isn't yours. He is mine you hear, mine!'
'No he is not!' The lady snapped at her in fury coming face to face with her in an angry staredown.
'Well well, just see who says that he is hers? Someone who has never touched you?' The question made her speechless. 'Someone who comes to me every night, that is whom you claim is yours?' The smirk that followed the question was enough to make anyone morph into a lunatic, especially someone like her.
'You... You...'
'Save your stutter,' she advised her, leaning towards the bloody maid and helping her up. 'Go,' she said.
'Thank you My Lady,' the maid said to her in gratitude.
'I did not dismiss the maid yet,' she simply said to the both of them, lady and maid, causing them to halt and look at her.
'I never asked you if you did. Besides, I do not care.' She turned back to the maid. 'Go Hayeesha,' she commanded her. The maid scampered away as quickly as her battered self could allow her.
'How dare you?' Hera-Mera barked at her the moment the maid left and she turned back to her. Her eyes burned with the intensity of her anger and obvious hatred.
'How dare I?!' she said. 'You know what, go to hell Dracon Princess!!' she snapped at the lady. She began to turn away when she flew at her. She stepped to the side, dodging the attack cleanly, causing Hera-Mera to stagger forward from the force of her motion. She almost fell but eventually found her footing. She raised a brow at the lady when she turned back to her. She smiled broadly at her.
'You...'
'Get a grip will you?'
'I wish to tear you apart, to make you learn your place, but I really do not know how.'
'Let her take the maids punishment,' a voice suggested. They both turned towards it. It belonged to none other than her second enemy, Zoë. For a moment, they all just stared at each other until Hera-Mera smiled, totally loving the idea.
'Thank you Princess Zoë of Xing,' Hera-Mera said. 'Maids!' she shouted. A retinue of maids appeared. 'Strip her completely for a good whipping!' she commanded them.
'Yes Your Highness,' they said to her with a bow.
'Strip?! You wouldn't dare,' she said. But, to her chagrin, they obeyed her, coming forth to do just as they had been ordered. Vura and Xiera quickly drew their weapons to protect their Lady, stopping the maids.
'Guards!' Hera-Mera commanded, 'Seize her escorts!' The guards answered to her, coming to them with weapons drawn.
'The Emperor has ordered that no one is to touch My Lady except him!' Vura said raising the emperor's seal. Shocked gasps escaped the small crowd and even Hera-Mera took a step back at the sight of the seal.
'Did you steal that?' Hera-Mera asked Vura with shocked eyes. The seal represented the Emperor. If the seal was in Vura's hands, that made Vura equivalent to the Emperor at that instant.
'It was the same thing I asked her when she said that he had given that to me to freely use,' she told Hera-Mera with a confident smirk.
'No! You all -the three of you, you all stole it didn't you?!' she said. 'Charges of theft has been added to your insubordination charge!' she announced. 'Seize them, Seize them all and bring me a two mouth whip!' she screamed. They all hurried to obey her, afraid of the beats they could see and rather than the beast that wasn't there. Face the one on ground now, we will think of how to face the other later, they all thought to themselves. They came upon the two in numbers. it was a fierce fight and the two warriors fought bravely to keep them all off their Lady, unyielding.
'Xiera, Vura, back down!' Their mistress suddenly shouted, causing everyone to halt.
'My Lady?' Vura asked her with questioning eyes.
'Leave her be to do as she pleases,' she told them. The both of them gasped at her suggestion.
No, you can not do that! We can not let that happen!' Xiera told her quickly in protest.
'Do as I say!' she commanded them. 'Do you listen to me or not?!' she demanded.
'I listen to you My Lady,' Vura said to her with a bow.
'I in turn listen to the emperor and he asked that no harm come to you while he was gone. I should see that I do that wether you like it or not My Lady!' Xiera spat.
'For once Xiera, Listen to me!'
'No My Lady!' she protested vehemently.
'Then, I have no choice but to command you to do so with the emperor's seal!' she told the aide. Xiera's eyes widened in surprise at her Lady's cunny tactic.
'I... I can't believe you would do that My Lady!' Xiera whined.
'Shall you or shall you not listen to the emperor?' she demanded.
'I surrender My Lady!' she said with a sigh as she sheathed her sword alongside Vura.
'Very well.' Then she turned to Hera-Mera, 'Dracon, do as you please.' It was an open invitation that made Hera-Mera delighted that she didn't even stop to think for a moment why the Lady was doing all of it.
'I see that you know that it is better for you to surrender to me. The whip?!' she demanded. A maid brought it to her. 'Get to work you fools!' she shouted at the maids still suspended afore her. 'Quickly strip her before I have your heads for it!' she warned them. The imperial maids weren't like the imperial guards. They knew very well what power the emperor's seal held and didn't dare to do anything to the one who had brandished it, stolen or not.
'Please forgive me your highness!' one maid screamed as she fell to her knees. The others followed suit, pleading to be spared because they could not dare do so.
'Incompetent fools!' she sneered. 'Guards, lock them all up!' she commanded the guards. She then turned to her aide, 'Winnie?'
'Yes My Lady?'
'Do the needful!'
'Yes My Lady,' her maid bowed and proceeded to do as her mistress had order her. Xiera tried to stop her once more, glowering at her.
'Stop it Xiera,' her mistress said. 'Let her be!'
'The emperor will have your heads for this!' Xiera announced. 'You and your mistress inclusive.'
'Nothing of that sort is bound to happen warrior,' Hera-Mera said to them, 'For I am Princess Hera-Mera Dracon, the only daughter of King Dracon of the Draco Kingdom, betrothed to the Emperor at birth and affianced to him when I came of age as tradition demands. I am in this useless competition for the sake of protocol for I am indubitably Empress to be. Therefore, I am allowed to tutor a lowly concubine like you to accord me the respect that I deserve,' she said as she brandished the two mouth whip.
'You know Hera-Mera, you will regret this,' she said as Winnie stepped away from her after taking off her dress, leaving her in her quite decent joint garter underwear. The black put together was kind of like a thigh length swim suit with openings made out of black rope at the front and back, revealing lots of skin. Hera-Mera stared the woman over with spite and jealousy, recalling how the emperor had insulted her because she was not as well endowed as this. The thicker the better, he had said. Today, she would beat all that weight out of her and starve the bitch to death. She quickly went up to her, ready to do to her just as she wanted.
'You know Hera-Mera, you will regret this,' Lady Rose said to her in a low murmur as she raised the two mouth whip. The other lady laughed out loudly at her words.
'The only one who will be regretting this is you concubine.' The two mouth whip descended at that moment with brute force, bearing with it all off her anger and hatred for the Lady. Surprisingly, she didn't cry out at the impact or the next one or the one after, infuriating her assaulter. 'Hey! Cry! Plead! Beg! Ask for my mercy concubine!' she screamed at her after the third whip.
'In your dreams,' she replied.
'Plead! Plead you concubine,' she advised her after the fourth whip, 'and I might just take pity on you.'
'Well, I would rather die than do such Dracon you hear?'
'Then, so be it. Die!' she whipped her with all of her might only until about half of her anger was properly exterminated. When this happened, she threw the whip to the ground and shouted, 'Let this serve as a warning to you all! Anyone who dares to challenge me, anyone who dares to set herself above me shall go through this.' She paused for a moment. 'I am Hera-Mera and in this empire, no woman is above me,' she finished in an authoritative voice. She turned to the remaining maids as the other retinue had been taken away and locked up by the imperial guards and spoke to them. 'Take her away! Noone is to treat her wounds you hear! Anyone who does so will face thrice of what you have all witnessed here. No food neither water is to be provided for them.'
'Yes Your highness,' they all chorused as her aides rushed to her side.
'My Lady, are you alright?' Xiera asked her as she quickly covered her lady with her cape. Vura went and snatched her dress from Winnie before returning to them.
'My Lady?' Vura said.
'I am copacetic,' she assured them with a smile that revealed the pain she was enduring.
'No you are not My Lady,' Vura protested as Xiera helped her into her clothes quickly and efficiently.
'I should really kill her,' Vura said out loud in anger.
'I told you to leave her be did I not Vura?' she asked again with a wince.
'I'm sorry My Lady. But, this is too much to bear. I really cannot take it all in.'
'Then allow me to do so and keep yourself out of this matter,' she snapped at her.
'I am sorry for my offence My Lady,' she swiftly apologized.
'Throw them into the dungeon,' Hera-Mera ordered with a smirk. 'That is exactly where filth like them belong!' The guards all bowed to her in acknowledgement.
'That is too much!' Vura screamed as she attempted to unsheathe her sword in a fit of anger.
'Don't!' Lady Rose warned her.
'No My Lady, I will not allow her to demean you so! You are worth more than millions of her to the emperor! If I allow them to do this, I might as well fall upon my sword and die!'
'Please Vura, do not resist! I am tired. I will rest well in the dungeons,' she said to her. 'Please listen to me, I do not have the energy to keep having arguments with you.'
'My Lady,' Vura said to her with a deep sigh.
'Please!' she nodded in surrender. Vura hissed as the guards came to lead them away without attempting to touch any of them. They followed willingly because their lady did so. They didn't understand her at all.
'Rot there for all I care!' Hera-Mera shouted after them. The happiness in her voice was obvious and disgusting all at once.
The dungeon was unexpectedly neat when they arrived there. The both of them helped their Lady to sit on the cold hard stone floor and then sat beside her.
'Why did you let her do this My Lady?' Vura asked her, staring strangely at her mistress.
'Sometimes, you let your enemies lead themselves to their downfall by succumbing to them.' The two aides gave themselves confused looks, understanding nothing of what she had said.
'Let me take a good look at your wounds My Lady. It is bleeding,' Xiera offered.
'Don't,' she said.
'It'll leave a scar My Lady if it is not tended to and bandaged,' Vura protested, beating Xiera to it.
'Let it,' she said, 'I do not care if it even does.' She leaned against the rough cold stone wall and sighed in resignation before she closed her eyes.
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...OmaPhinaPhire🔥