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"It's not going to bite you." Her voice pierced the confines of my mind as I stared at the weird pasta-like item that she made as I weighed my choices. I didn't want to appear rude, so I ignored my misgivings, pierced the outer shell with my fork, and brought it to my lips. The smell wafted off up to my nose and gently caressed it, further loosening the last bits of my doubt.
I took a deep breath and prepared myself as I brought it closer to my lips. I pushed it into my mouth, tired of teasing myself. The heat radiated off of it in tantalizing waves and tickled my lips. The first wave was the taste of butter, thick with herbs as it flooded into my mouth, which quickly matched the pasta's light, fluffy taste. The flavors quickly melted together into one as I bit into it. "This is fantastic."
A low chuckle emanated from under her mask as she regarded me with her emerald orbs. "I'm glad you think so. Feel free to take a few more. I don't really have a way to keep them right now if you like." She waved her hand as she walked over to a table, pulled a chair out, and sat down.
I wandered over to the container and grabbed a few more of whatever she called it, and hurried to the table that she sat at. The palatines stood behind her and stared at me with an icy gaze. "Empress, where is Alessia?" I glanced nervously once more than I sat across from her.
"She's training with Nyx right now." She settled into her chair, interlaced her fingers, and regarded me with a guarded gaze.
Ah, yes, the princess. I was still shocked to see that she had a daughter. I was even more shocked to see that she looked to be only ten years of age. Even though she looked to be mostly human, it was still clear that she wasn't. Scales as black as night adorned her neck and faded into pale alabaster flesh. The most striking appearance, however, was her eyes. They looked just like the ones that were gazing at me now. "I'm far too aware of how that goes," I replied to her, but it was more for me in all reality.
"Do tell." She leaned forward in her seat and interlaced her fingers.
"I grew up in a noble house, so I was forced to do many things, some of which I never wished to know." I felt the start of a sad smile slowly cross my face as a mixture of regret and nostalgia found its way into my heart.
"Ah, well, I will only teach her what she needs to know in her case. Nobility has always had such strange customs. Some of which I'm not fond of." She sat back in her chair and crossed her arms.
"That they do. But it's the way of the world." Saying those words made me feel weak. I wanted to change the world, but I still lacked the influence and power. It would take me a long time to get in a place where I could openly defy the norms without losing my head.
"That may be so. Where I come from, the nobility is all but extinct. Perhaps it's for the best." She nodded slowly as the words came in a whisper.
"What could have possibly happened that could ruin that?" The words that left my mouth were clad in astonishment.
"Cultural shifts mostly. Everyone saw that nobility had no merit. Though titles changed, so in a way, they evolved with the times. Not that they are totally extinct, mind you."
I tried to wrap my head around the fact that nobility didn't exist for her. Everything has always been split into those who serve and those who rule for all my life. To consider anything other than that really hurts my head a bit. "Tell me about where you come from, then." I tried to steer the conversation into an area that I felt a little more comfortable for me, all while trying to gather more information.
"Really, there isn't much to say. Though I feel that you aren't yet ready to learn about all of that just yet. Besides, you are here for the inauguration, no?" She sat forward again and interlaced her fingers. The black of her gloves seemed to drink the light from the various torches that lined the room. For the briefest of seconds, her eyes seemed to flicker as if they were a shifting pool of water.
"Ah, yes, it reminds me of something that I wanted to talk to you about." I was slightly annoyed that she said I wasn't ready, but I would drop it for now. After all, I came here for something important. "Kharon tells me that the inauguration is for a hero of some sort for Asteria."
"Ah yes! It's for Octavian. I've already held the private ceremony, so now it's just for formalities."
"I see, well, from what I heard from Kharon, I have a cause of concern. Empress, are you a necro…" As the words left my mouth, a gust of wind slammed into me, threatening to throw me from my chair. My plate of food was torn away and slammed into the ground with a heavy clatter.
"That's enough." The Empress' voice ripped through the air like an explosion, and I felt the cold tip of a spear pressed against my throat quiver slightly.
The two palatine guards that stood behind the Empress closed the distance in the time it took to blink and had their weapons drawn. The male had its spear pressed to my neck, and the female drew a long knife and pressed it into my chest. My heart strummed quickly as slivers of white-hot pain danced across my flesh.
At the command of the Empress, the two took a step back and quietly sheathed their weapons. But the fury that they restrained earlier was now roaring fire. "Please forgive them. No one here likes that word." She gestured for the two to come to join her once more.
I quickly smoothed out my shirt and wiped away some of the blood that had come to the surface of my flesh. "I suppose I should watch my words. Forgive me." The incident did wonders to restore humility within me and a healthy amount of fear. They moved faster than anything I've ever seen.
She cleared her throat and adjusted her cloak. "It's alright. I just didn't expect them to react how they did." She cleared her throat and sat back. "But to touch on what you said, no. While the dead may listen to my commands, I do not treat them like slaves. Everyone in my empire has a choice, and I will not punish them for it. In the case of Octavian, he came back to life of his own accord and will lead my legions once more, as he did in life."
"I understand that; I do. The issue is that the outside world may not see things as such. Many are already wary of you and the undead that inhabit your domain. So I suggest that you tread carefully for a time, at least until the world warms up to you." I rubbed the spear's spot and found the flesh warm and still wet with blood.
"I wouldn't worry about that. Just let me take care of it." Her emerald eyes glittered with wisdom as the words left her mouth with such self-assurance that I couldn't help but agree with her. Yet, I still wondered, what did she have planned?
when you almost call the empress of a foreign power a necromancer, in the presence of multiple of her subjects
TFTC!
Remind me why do she wear that mask? Why hide her face?
No real reason
Any more at least xD
@Raizia
I see. It is cool factor then. I have to say that she is not very smart leader then. Let me explain:
No leader would be leader if he/she hid his/her face behind the mask.
Fact is that her wearing mask is detrimental her goals because when people only see her mask they think she has something to hide. They think that maybe she is monster and she try to pass as human. It reinforces negative perceptions of person. She probably is the necromancer or something worse if she hides her face. Only bad people hides their faces after all and at least they have something negative to hide. Imagine if nobody had ever seen face of USA president because he hid his face behind the mask? Would he be president? No. People wouldn't never choose nor follow person who hides himself. Mask is utter pointless and harmful for her cause here.
Another reason is that seeing face is fundamental component to human interaction. It is most important thing we see from human and we form opinions of person from their faces. Faces and those micro facial expressions gives us important indications of in social situations without that it is really hard to form social chemistry. Why do you think we humans shows our faces in conference calls and not use audio only? The reason is because seeing face is most important thing there is when interacting with another human. Those facial expressions are part of the communication. It is easier to understand another human when you see their face. It reinforces positive feedback of dialogue.
Lucky is that she is dealing with mindlessly loyal undead who follows her no matter what but funny thing is she doesn't wear that mask when dealing with them. She wears the mask when dealing with humans when her existence hinges of good will of those humans. One would expect that one would do anything to try to appease them that in essence she is not so much different from them. Humans fear unknown and things which are different from them. That mask just reinforces the judgement toward her.
The leader is always figurehead and front of the country and she should always show to the world her best side. Not to try to intimidate them especially when her agenda is peaceful existence between humanity.
---
In fiction there is huge misconception of cool factor of masks. You might think them as some sort of helmets in medieval era combat where you didn't probably see much of enemy face. Helmets with face mask of course offered protection in combat. Flip side is that the enemy is much easier to kill when you don't see his face directly behind the mask. It makes them seem like inhuman but same time fearsome. Killing inhuman enemy like that is like killing robot. In war people often falters when they try to kill human when they see their face. Somehow in fiction masks has transferred to be some sort of cool factors. Maybe that comes from superhero genre where heroes needed to hide their true identities but in reality masks has no value outside of combat expect some odd masked ball parties or something.
@RavenWolf
Well, let me reply in kind to that, There will be minor spoilers but nothing that will ruin the story:
The undead are not as mindless as you would think. The only people she doesn't wear her mask around is Nyx and Alessia and Kharon. All of the undead equate the mask with Calixa, and see it as a badge of office.
The mask it self serves as a figure piece, With Nyx bieng her face outside of the mask. No one But the three mentioned above know what her face looks like any more. Due to the Whispers trait, it's a memory that's been wiped away, though it's something I'll be exploring more in the future.
Also, it serves as a piece to represent the two sides of her. The masked Empress when she deals with the public. Is she human? Less than human? No one knows, but that's the point. It's synonymous with her playing the role.
But in private she sheds the mask, "usually" and when she does in those moments she is just Calixa. It seperates the two personalities that are slowly becoming one.
@RavenWolf Dang you really wrote a whole essay
@Enelthrei an essay... more like a damn story book like holy
Didn’t she just feel like adding a bit of mystery?