Diviner Sharin walked up the stairs leading to the entrance of the emperor's castle in a hurry. She hadn't even bothered to dress properly before leaving her home.
As the main Diviner to the emperor, her job was to inform the emperor of steps to take to bring the empire more glory and prosperity, she was also to inform the emperor of any upcoming cause for concerns or calamitous events involving the empire or the emperor.
She hadn't seen a cause to truly be concerned when she first divined the empire's calamitous future.
It had been something of a distant possibility that could have been avoided if the emperor had played his cards right and with caution.
When she had then informed the emperor of the possible coming calamity, she had been asked to divine a solution to either avoid or stop this calamity, what she had then gotten was more than what was expected. It seemed the heavens smiled down on them because the cause of the calamity and the solution to stopping it could both be discovered in a small desert city on a faraway continent on the other side of the planet.
The emperor's hidden knife, the head of the empire's hidden protectors, had then proposed to send a hidden protector to said city. It would have to be somebody in the middle of the hierarchy, as the ones at the top were now well-known and monitored, the empire's enemies would try to find out their whereabouts, and this operation warranted the utmost secrecy. Everybody in the know had been made to swear to secrecy.
The emperor's knife had then nominated one of their upcoming talents, a former soldier who had uncovered a plot to have a child of one of the empire's pillars kidnapped. It seemed the soldier had hit the jackpot, as he was then raised from a mere common soldier to joining the hidden and feared ranks of the empire's protectors.
It was said that the man had taken easily to the art of infiltration and assassination, rising quickly in a few short years from the bottom of the barrel to a master hidden protector.
He had been brought to face the emperor and told of his task. He was informed of the calamity and was then promised to be made a hero of the empire and would be sponsored by the emperor himself to the ranks of the hidden pillars if he could complete his assignment and save the empire from calamity.
Ever willing to serve, the man had happily accepted and sworn to see his assignment completed, thereby unknowingly swearing himself to secrecy.
He should have been informed of what he had just done, but it was required, the emperor didn't want him getting cold feet if he discovered how secretive this was been kept, he had been told to be tight-lipped about it though.
It had been two weeks since then and they had been receiving steady information from the master spy.
The previous day, they had been informed that his cover was blown by a random stranger who uncovered his origin and his occupation as a hidden protector, he was then told to acquire information from the stranger by any means necessary.
It had been hours past the time he was supposed to report in, but they hadn't heard a single word from him aside from the information that he was tracking down the stranger.
On a hunch, sharin had then tried to divine the future again, and what she saw sent shivers down her whole body.
The distant but clear possibility was now a single wrong step away from becoming a close future.
She had quickly rushed out of her mansion, forgetting to dress properly and rushing up the castle's stairs like a demon on a furious rampage.
Approaching the gate leading into the castle, the guards must have seen her face because they didn't bother to greet her, they just stood up straight.
Getting into the castle, she turned down a passage leading straight to the emperor's secret room. Only a select few people knew about it, seeing as it was used for discussions not meant for the other nobles.
Grabbing a servant who was passing by. "Go to Pillar Samon and inform him I said he should come and meet me," She didn't bother specifying where to meet, Samon would know.
Ignoring all the golden murals on the passage walls depicting the empire's battles and the emperor's wins, she matched down to the hall.
Turning left down another passage that led to the emperor's quarters, this one had fewer servants moving about. Instead of going straight down to the emperor's room, she turned down another passage, this one dark, at her level of power, she didn't need light to see in the dark.
She took five different turns before she came upon a dead end with a single door at the end, four guards protected the entrance, but she knew there were more guards hidden in secret rooms along the hall, all sworn to secrecy about the room and its visitors.
Approaching the door, she reached for the handle, channeling a strand of her unique energy; despite the door's simple design, it would take someone as powerful as the emperor hours to completely break it down.
Opening the door, she entered. It was bare, with no chairs, no tables, and nothing to decorate it with. It was made for one thing only, quick secret meetings that required quick solutions.
Going to stand at one side of the wall, she waited while her mind toiled about what she had just learned.
It was a few minutes before the Samon entered.
"Why do I keep hearing about how you walked into the castle looking and acting like the world was about to end," The man said just before he saw Sharin's face, because he stopped, and then nodded, his face tightening a little. "I'll send a summon to the rest of the council,"
"Don't bother, I don't have time to wait for a messenger to reach them, Sharin, tell me what the matter is," The emperor entered and immediately questioned.
Despite her being disheveled and her mind trying to think of a solution to their newest problems, she still bowed deeply, and so did Samon. The emperor wasn't one to ignore formalities, even from close advisors.
Emperor Solaris was a man of small stature, but he carried himself as bigger than anyone around, seeing as power-wise, he was the most powerful person in the empire, reaching the realm of the spirit lord at the stunning age of thirty-eight, hailing him as a genius of the millennia. She wasn't so sure about that, but she wouldn't dare challenge the claim.
He was a handsome man, alright; even with his small stature, he looked like he was sculpted and not from a woman's womb like the rest of them. There wasn't a single mark on his body, and his face was chiseled into complete handsomeness. He always made sure to play the handsome hero who would liberate the world from the other kingdom rulers, saving their kingdoms from tyranny.
"The egg has broken," Sharin said.
The atmosphere became tense; they all knew what that meant; despite taking massive steps to protect their secret, it seemed it was all for naught.
"Who was it," The emperor asked.
"The spy we sent to monitor the desert city," Sharin answered.
"Tell me how it happened," Solaris said.
She then went on to explain how the man was supposed to report a few hours before, after his information that he had been made. And how she had gotten a bad feeling and decided to divine the future, she then warned of how the empire was a single step away from total calamity.
She told of how she had come to after her divination, and finding the oath egg being broken, tracing the source of the leak to the soul of the master spy.
When she was done, the emperor nodded.
"This is still salvageable; both the cause and the solution are in the same city; send in two pillars to the city; I want that city destroyed and the cause with it. Find the so-called solution and bring it to me," Emperor Solaris said.
Sharin nodded, even though she didn't agree with the decision, it never paid to argue with the emperor.
"Inform me when it is done," He said.
The emperor turned around and left.
Leaving both Sharin and Samon to stand there, staring at each other and wondering what future they were heading into.