The Solune woman crossed her arms and leaned back, then jumped, startled. Then she sat straight up once more. The seats in the Emperor’s council room were unconventional. They all tempted their users to lay back, to relax. Sinisterly, the Emperor’s seat was different. It was instead a decidedly upright plush throne. Most of the Solune’s party was lounging. The quarter N’Tariel woman was asleep. Hannah used this particular council room whenever she needed an upper hand in negotiation.

It was apparent at the instant that she had seen Gwenhime’s fruit, the sweet Prince, her voice sweet as treacle and intoxicating as syrups. This fruit had not taken the bait of the seats, and Hannah had known at that instant that she had been right to use this room. It was covered in red, a very distracting to those who were not colour-blind. Hannah had realized very quickly that two of the fruit’s party was colour-blind to the reds. It was the two with N’Tariel blood.

Hannah Dear Alzeneheneya-Aeur had been Emperor for six clean years. She did not like to talk about her past, but as emperor, privacy in anything was not a luxury she cared to afford, for the cost often involved hiring certain undesirables.

Now, this fruit, this Prince was asking her about it. She wanted something, and Hannah had an uneasy and excited feeling about it. That, and her nobility, was the only reason that Hannah hadn’t refused the fruit. Instead, curious, she took a bite, and took the bait. Hannah knew that the Prince sought a specific sort of person, and so she had asked that Hannah’s entire life story be shared, to see if she was worthy.

Everyone but the Prince was asleep, and only now did Hannah start. She open her mouth and released all that lay hidden within, bloodletting the memories that only her dear priest had heard before.

Once she realized that she could trust the Prince, Prince Chloe Yaska Rhye completely, the bloodletting became exhilarating, the more she spoke, the more she needed to say. But Hannah kept her composure. She was not just the Emperor.

She was about to explain all this, how she had started as a Harlot and learned of body composition. How she joined the church and met her priest, and became one herself. How she later became recruited into the guard and became Leftenant-Commander, and how she uncovered a deep secret that forced her to become the stand-in Emperor. And how finally, she was voted in as the official Emperor only one year later.

Chloe was certain that Hannah would qualify for her army, but that wasn’t the only reason she needed to know everything. Chloe was to become intimate with every member of her group. She had to know their weaknesses, and more importantly, their strengths.

Technically this is a flash fiction 🙂

Daniel Triumph.

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