Responsibility Ch. 27

Rahela didn't need any more encouragement. She crawled out of the tent with more speed than a spider reaching its captured prey, although she felt she certainly didn't have that hypothetical spider's confidence. If anything, Rahela thought she was more likely to become the prey.

There the Traveling Tall Maiden was, her back to the Emperor, who stood some feet away. That maiden had her front pointed towards the disturbed horse and mule, and both of those creatures seemed nervous. Their ears were quickly swiveling. Ureche was pawing at the earth. Both of their mouths were tight. Their eyes were darting about. Rahela was afraid they'd attack out of desperation, since they were both unable to flee from any danger.

Her hand against her bosom, vaguely feeling her own heart pulse as if it was close to collapsing, she watched and listened as the Emperor firmly but not exactly hatefully said, "I won't let you have the horse, nor the mule. Regardless, they shouldn't have a pleasing taste. Wouldn't you rather have something else?" One of his hands rose, fingers closed, as he made a light gesture. "If you'll have some patience, I could send you a lovingly simmered stew, or a well grilled steak."

As if someone had flicked her nose, or tugged her earlobe, or slapped her shoulder, Rahela's mind was suddenly jerked over to something she probably should've thought of before. She turned back to the tent and partially crawled back in. She snatched up the previously forgotten fish gelatin from the tent's cloth floor. Then, shaky and feeling weak, Rahela stood back outside, tore the wrapping away from the snack, and held it out and up as if she expected a bird to take it from her grasp.

Possibly having heard Rahela's feet and skirts disturbing the forest floor, His Majesty turned his head over his shoulder to get a look at her. His eyebrows were higher than normal, but not outrageously so. Rahela chose to ignore him. He wasn't her target.

She used her free hand to pick up her skirts so her legs could have more freedom. She hurried over to a spot vaguely between the Emperor and the Tall Maiden, who still seemed to be looking at the horse and mule. Well, Rahela assumed she was.

Still holding her snack out, Rahela forced down a lump of saliva and blurted out words that were nearly crude. "I have something!"

The Maiden's reaction was quick enough. Her feet moving with expertise, she turned her whole body around. Her skirt barely moved. Goodness, the forest litter was hardly even rustled!

Rahela made a mistake here.

She craned her hear up to look at the Maiden's eyes.

Only ...

There were grand, dark pits there. Stretching the skin around themselves. Wide. Seemingly bottomless. With a horrible swirling, pulsing feeling from inside. Or was it a feeling at all?

Cold. Dizzy. Rahela couldn't move yet she knew she'd faint if allowed.

The Maiden's face lowered and approached. Closer and closer.

Until all Rahela could see, all she could know, was that darkness, that peculiar, breathing darkness.

"Awaken!"

Finally, she could know something else. Nausea. Vomiting. She was vomiting. She felt something on her palm. Leaves and twigs. Then something on her knees.

Clothing and more forest litter. She was on her hands and knees. She was vomiting. There was a world. She was part of it. Never before had she ever been so relieved to be vomiting!

"Water. Have this water."

She was sitting now. Her backside made a little puff of air and rattling noises on the busy earth. Someone was putting something to her mouth and tilting her head back.

Water! Cool and exciting in her mouth! Rahela greedily swallowed.

Finally, she coughed and gasped, and she could see the cold forest and sky. Then the nervous horse and mule. Then she looked up and around to see the Emperor.

His dark eyes were tight and narrow. His jaw was tighter than that. Rahela looked back down. He was holding a flask of water. She could smell and taste it, her vomit too.

"My ... My Lord?" She pawed at her belt's accessories, looking for something to wipe her mouth with. "Where is ... the Maiden?"

His Majesty snapped his flask closed and put it away. "She moved towards you. I thought everything was well. She plucked your food from your fingers, but there was a grave issue. You seemed to be entranced, nearly dead, but also frozen in place. Not only that, the Maiden's face was grossly horrifying. Her pupils, or I assume they were pupils, stretched open ... so wide that the rest of her eyes disappeared."

A hand moving to a temple, dealing with a growing headache, Rahela said, "The pupils of the eyes ... are they not little holes? And ... I believe what actually controls their sizes ... are the irises? So ..." here, she gasped a few times and groaned, "the irises are what opened the holes? And what of her corneas?"

"Her eyelids were much wider," the Emperor said as he helped her up to her feet, keeping behind her. Rahela felt her plaits on her back. It seemed that he'd kept her hair away from her vomit. Of course. He wouldn't want anything defiling such a beloved part of his wife's beauty.

"I thought her eyes had turned black and grown," he said. "Perhaps even breaking out past her face." His voice hushed as he said this, and he let a hand stay on Rahela's shoulder. The fingertips massaged her for a second or more. "I couldn't move, or no ... not quickly. My legs were lead and my arms weren't better. For a time I could only stare at that ... that fairy."

Rahela sighed. "My Lord ... was there a time when you could do more than stare?"

His hand made two pats on her. Then he said, "Yes. I can't be certain how long I needed, but soon I could move again. I was heavy and ill, but I was earnest. I realized you were still entranced by the Maiden, your arm high. Then I saw that Maiden move to you. She took your gelatin from your hand and held it up to her face, and then she disappeared. Only then could I move with strength, and only then did you fall."

"If you wouldn't mind speculating, My Lord, how much time passed?"

His hand rose away from her. He cleared his throat. "At first, time felt as if it was clawing at the air, clumsier and weaker than the oldest people I've seen. Now, I believe only less than a minute had passed until the Maiden had left."

Rahela took a moment to give a painful little moan with tight lips. Then she swallowed down budding saliva in her throat and said, "It's been confirmed. Food can be used to advantage where that fairy is concerned."

This time, he patted the top of her head, right through her veil. Rahela flinched at that.

"We have no reason to speak of his encounter to anyone else," the Emperor told her.

***

Ammas' thick leather shoes didn't make much noise as they were pressed against a brown rug with every step. Back and forth, he slowly paced, his shoulders and chin high. His shadow was harsh in the afternoon's cool light. His voice was calm but still very firm.

"Not long ago, the Empress Consort handed me a package of money, and she told me to leave for a holiday. Later, I discovered a message she'd left a secret letter hidden in the package." He gave a light nod to himself as he remembered the Empress' precise yet soft handwriting. "The message held instructions for traveling off to learn important information concerning a certain noblewoman that boldly assumed she could trick and betray the Empress Consort."

His feet halted roughly in the center of the rug. Then his feet shifted to turn his body around. Ammas was then facing the new recruits. A man and a woman. Aside from their healthy and athletic figures, they seemed average. Their clothing was normal. Their faces were normal. Their easy-going expressions and relaxed eyes were normal too. It wasn't healthy for a bodyguard to always be tense, or that's what Ammas believed. Too much stress will make anyone useless.

"This fact should remind you of how important your new positions are," Ammas told the duo. "The Empress Consort is incredibly valuable to Yahsin. To lose such a thorough asset, that would only be dangerous for us. We can't allow the Empress to come to any harm."

Ammas gave another nod, although he was certain it wasn't necessary. The people before him seemed unfazed by his short tale. One of his shoulders quirked up as he said, "Tonight will be a fine test for the both of you. The feast will be a pleasant evening, but it will also be lively. We must never lose sight of our Empress."

And the feast seemed pleasant indeed.

The new female bodyguard sat fairly close to the Empress Consort, sipping a honey flavored beverage and munching on thick puddings. The new male body guard sat a few seats away, keeping an eye out for anyone that would approach in a suspicious matter. Ammas stood a bit behind the Empress Consort, occasionally chewing on some tart or putting a palm's worth of dried fruits into his mouth.

One of the Empress Consort's ladies-in-waiting, the blonde one, she often turned her head back to look up at Ammas. There was almost always a tiny smile on her bright face. Ammas didn't know why, but he did occasionally think to himself, "What a silly child that is!" Honestly, he knew he wasn't worth caring much about, or at least not to that child.

Sometimes he wanted to approach, grab one of the few dangling strings of beads on her headdress, and drag her face right back where it belonged. Perhaps she'd been gossiping about him recently? That wasn't a far-fetched concept. She'd always seemed to be a gregarious little thing.

There was a slightly rigid little moment blurred within the merriment. A servant went up to the smiling Emperor and said something that was apparently important in his ear. At this apparently important something, the Emperor's face darkened. Deep lines grew under his nose and around his lips. He waved the servant away and turned to the Empress Consort.

"Little Empress," he said to her once she'd finished chewing and swallowing something, "it seems the rebellions in Testoa have begun anew, and with an amazing potency. Nearly every city has riots every night."

Pausing his own jaw's movements, Ammas watched and listened. The Empress' tall headdress sparkled as she moved her reserved face to one side. One of her arms rose, her outer gown's long sleeve fluttering. Her fingers moved in close to her pink lips, and she spoke quietly. Ammas couldn't hear her. The Emperor must've heard her, though, because he nodded and gave an approving smile.

The feast went on. There was music and dancing. There were excited and lustful looks shared across great spaces. There were innocent and curious looks shared across similar spaces. The Empress Consort was careful with what she consumed. She wouldn't even touch a cup of wine. Other than that, Ammas didn't notice anything peculiar.

Later on, when the party was dying down and the Empress Consort said she was growing far too fatigued for all the activity, Ammas and the other bodyguards followed the group away from the hall. The Emperor had given a pat on her shoulder along with his good night statement.

Feeling inquisitive, Ammas caught the opportunity to ask the Empress something before she could order the men out. "Your Majesty, when your great husband told you of the riots in Testoa, how did you respond?"

Helping a chambermaid remove some pins in her headdress and veil, Rahela coldly replied, "I advised that he should send even more troops. Enforce the law. Extinguish the rebellions."

"Ah. That seems correct." Ammas nodded and waved the other male bodyguard closer. "I wouldn't expect anything else. Rest well, Madam. I'll leave you be now."

***

Rahela's hair was being held out, almost like a bundle of threads, by a few chambermaids. Two other ones were combing through the mass. It should've been a calming moment. The gentle tugs were like scratching an itch.

Instead, Rahela's mind wasn't being calmed. It was buzzing and cranking.

Rioting in Testoa.

She remembered the relieved faces she'd seen, many of them common, when she was paraded about as the Emperor's new betrothed. She remembered realizing how thrilled everyone had been. The best outcome for a conquered state. Their former queen, their highest ranking princess, was off to marry the conqueror. That meant mercy. That meant a light hand. Living under the Yahsin Empire had turned out to be nowhere near the apocalypse that it could've been.

Maybe Rahela's perspective was too naive, too clouded by privilege. Still, she couldn't imagine that large portions of Testoa's population were earnestly rebelling against Yahsin. It wouldn't be a very wise thing to do. Not from a military nor an economic perspective. Not from much of any perspectives.

When her hair was finally as well groomed as it could've been, when the chambermaids were arranging the materials for washing her face, Rahela's eyes bulged as she found a possible conclusion.

What if someone was funding a dishonest rebellion?

What if someone was paying people, people that might not have even held negative feelings towards Yahsin, to make enough chaos to cause trouble?

To trouble Rahela?

It wasn't impossible. She'd heard of stranger things before. Rahela was quiet and bitter for the rest of the night. That's how deeply the concept bothered her. When she was trying to sleep, not even her sister's innocent presence could comfort her. A headache grew. She whined a few times into one of her pillows.

The next morning was full of quiet little grumbles. Quite a few adults were still sick from all the drinking last night. Being pregnant, Rahela wasn't among them.

However, despite all of the hungover moods, people were still much busier than they'd normally be.

It was time to send the Emperor off to his next conquest.

The Emperor and his troops gathered together outside with their carriages. His family stood out there too, preparing to greet them. And of course, all the attendants and the Empress Consort's bodyguards were there. It was quite a large amount of people.

The Empress Dowager kept a calm smile as she reached over and patted her son's arm. "Return safely, you wild fool. You have a pregnant wife here."

Smiling, although slightly less calmly than his mother, His Majesty took her hand and held it up to his own cheek. "Rest your heart, Old Hag. I haven't failed you yet." After a quick squeeze, he let her hand go. Then he looked to his sister, who was rubbing one of her eyes as a child might do. Rahela had heard she'd been taking much longer naps and sleeping later in the mornings.

"Are you well?" he asked quite boldly. When Princess Tuya only gave a light groan as a reply, the Emperor turned to Rahela and said, "Tell the cooks to adjust her diet. She must have more beans and eggs."

Funnily enough, Rahela thought to herself that the pitiable princess might end up breaking more wind than she was accustomed to.

With a short bow, Rahela told the Emperor, "I'll comply, My Lord."

At that time, the Emperor moved over to Rahela and held his palm out to her. It was empty, and nothing worthy of note was attached to his wrist. Rahela stared down at the hand with a frozen yet still calm face. It was a disquieting few seconds, but they passed on without any complaints. Then the Emperor's fingers jerked up a few times and he said, "Give me a token."

Rahela's brow furrowed. All she could think of was the times when she had to keep the Emperor's handkerchief while he'd been off on his favored campaigns. But now, he wanted her to give him something? What in the world would he accept?

She was still looking down when His Majesty's hand moved and his voice rushed out with it. A light, hissing noise blended with part of a rough groan. His fingers pinched at one of the ribbons weaved in her plaits. Rahela's face heated as she watched him tug and unwind.

When he was almost done, one end of the long ribbon held in by a metal case, he simply took a knife from his belt and cut the ribbon free. Rahela's plait was partially loosened and overall ridiculous looking by the time he was finished.

It wasn't one of the fine ribbons Rahela had in her collections. It wasn't made of lavish silk nor soft cotton. It was of a coarse linen instead. The colors weren't expensive, no indigo, nothing even dark. The ribbon was only a bland color that suggested nobody had dyed it. It was something like an old person whose blond hair was weakened and turned almost gray.

Why did His Majesty want the silly thing?

Lightly wrapping the ribbon around his wrist, which wasn't difficult since it was a long thing, the Emperor cheerfully said, "Now I have a token of yours. This way, I won't forget you while I'm gone."

Rahela's eyes quickly blinked at the sight of the man tying the ribbon with a few knots. Then she looked over to the Empress Dowager, who seemed completely indifferent. She was even admiring a pendant in a necklace of hers, her expression truly calm and content.

Rahela then looked to Princess Tuya, who was muttering something under her breath but not looking at anyone. Her attendants were so tense. Rahela sighed and looked over to Ammas, who only gave a light tilt of his head to one side and a twitch of a corner of his lips.

She disliked having part of her hair nearly unbound in front of so many people, especially males. However, Rahela believed she had little choice but to pretend she was complacent. Even when the Emperor was finally leaving with his retinue and troops, Rahela didn't touch her hair, and she didn't let anyone else touch it. She let the plait remain disorganized until she was in her bedchamber again.

***

It was a sharply cold Imperial Court Meeting, although the body heat from the great number of people helped. The tall and colorful windows were being pelted by snowflake after snowflake. The opulent cloaks each person wore were lined with the richest furs. The heavy tunics and gowns were thick and dense.

Rahela, the Empress Consort, was on the throne.

Her snug inner-gown was a dark red-violet color, which bore a small pattern of golden circles bordered by even tinier little circles. Her black open surcoat was lined with ermine and held an finely embroidered scene on the skirt, a predatory bird of brown and gold ready to swoop down to capture a gray rabbit. Her long and bejeweled veil was silvery. Her white headdress was tall and coated in beading. She wore her largest jewelry, including some of the Emperor's, and she had his scepter and cloak.

She was the image of what a consort or wife was meant to be in Yahsin. She was the manager of the metaphorical house, in the case the government, while the breadwinner, in this case the ruler, was gone.

Her movements were smooth and refined as she addressed people. She judged each case as fairly as she thought she could.

However, close to the end of it all, during the time when last minute cases could be brought to the floor, something happened. The River Priest, the one that had protested some time ago concerning Rahela's preferred hairstyle, he approached the throne with his apprentice. Then he presented a scroll to the court. "A list of the Empire's highest names requesting an inquiry into Empress Consort Rahela's ability to justly rule." That's what he called it.

The Empress Dowager's eyes hardened and she spun a ring of hers around and around its finger. Princess Tuya sighed and turned her head to gaze off at who knew what. Ammas' eyelids contracted just enough to show that he wasn't amused. Both of Rahela's ladies-in-waiting gasped into the backs of their hands.

Rahela looked around at the stony audience. They didn't even look like they wanted to gossip. Then Rahela looked back down to the priest and asked, "Will you please read these names aloud, and then hand the scroll over to my attendant?" At that question, Yana rose from her nearby seat and stood on the rug in the center of the room, closer to the priest.