𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐈𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐀 𝐒𝐔𝐂𝐂𝐄𝐒𝐒 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘. 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐈𝐒 𝐀 𝐑𝐔𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍.
It's the beginning of a new age when Jaylah Imperatrix seemingly returns from the dead to reclaim her throne. And in perfect timing.
In her absence, evil has be...
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Act 1 Chapter 81 JAYLAH
The sun blazed directly overhead on an unusually hot spring day when the Navrikans returned. Jaylah waited on the front steps of her palace to receive her betrothed and his father, hands clasped just as her mother used to do. It was time to present herself as a welcoming hostess rather than one forced into such circumstances.
A series of tightly-clothed Navrikan soldiers led the group, each boasting a wicked sword on their left hip. It struck Jaylah how vivid the crimson of their uniforms were against the blue sky, and she wondered how expensive the dye had been for the Morokov to keep up their ancestral color.
The Czar and Czarevich were in the center of the group, followed shortly by a handful of foreign courtiers that would supposedly aid Ermalai's rule from abroad. Jaylah's gaze laid on Adrik. He looked the same as he had at her ball—dark hair styled to perfection, the easy, self-assured air about him—and yet it was all brand new to her. She had always seen him as a tentative friend. Now he was her future.
His gaze was on her too. As well as Ermalai's, though there was something much darker, more triumphant there. It flushed trickling dread into Jaylah's chest. He was a threat she would just have to deal with. A threat she opened her home to with outstretched arms.
The red soldiers parted for their leaders to meet on either side of Jaylah. Giving no sign she hated it, she turned and the three of them walked into the palace together, Adrik strong and sanguine, Jaylah with a straight spine and a fake face, Ermalai unreadable and reeking of barely veiled malevolence. They were not even within the threshold yet, and already Jaylah was caged. If she focused on the grand marble entryway, she could see her father standing there disappointed.
Ermalai had been right. Her father would have killed him on sight.
Instead, Jaylah cling to the idea of her mother, whose exhausting daily lessons in court etiquette mirrored what she carried out now. It would be uncomfortable to entertain her enemies. But she had to do it. Gone was the woman who incinerated a third of the City of Luck. If she still existed, Queen Euadne would block her from walking that path again. Jaylah could not destroy Oceana. She could not. So she would simply have to become her mother.
Oceanic soldiers stood at attention within the entrance hall, distrust and hatred written all over their faces. One foul move, and they would dive to protect Jaylah from the Navrikans. It would be war.
Along with a few other high-rankin officials, Antinoch stood before the soldiers like a general. She was like a new, bold person as she watched Jaylah's every step, trying to discern whether she needed to escort her away or not.
Jaylah stopped. Behind her, every footstep on the marble floors did the same. "Our meeting, Your Majesty," Ermalai reminded her kindly.
