His Favored Empress

A Wager

This chapter is hella flawed. Give it grace. 😁

The guard was doubled and packed tightly around him. Ignoring the voices clamoring behind him, Shaugn fanned himself as he made his way to meet the ministers he'd called out. Nerves and too many layers of clothing were making him break out into a light sweat.

The handful of ministers called by the empress sat on the edges of their seat whispering to each other. While it was good that smaller ministers like them might be recognized for their efforts by the empress, they couldn't help but reflect on whether they'd offended the empress or been negligent in their duties. A minister who'd been made fun of for most of his twenty-year career, wiped sweat off his forehead and placed a hand on his shaking leg.

He turned to the Minister of Rites. "Again, Minister Ruten. You say we haven't done anything?"

Ruten nodded. "I say the empress called you for a reason unlike the others."

"Yes, yes but is this a g-good thing or..."

"I cannot speak for the empress."

Another minister resumed pacing with his hands behind his back after listening to their short conversation. He too pondered what purpose the empress had seeking them out.

Minister Ruten cleared his throat. A gentle smile lit up his face when the others turned to him. "Breathe easy, ministers. The empress isn't that terrible."

"Compared to the emperor, the empress is rather kind," Minister Emin stroked his beard and nodded in agreement.

The room was suddenly quiet and all eyes were on the two ministers.

Ruten exchanged a glance with Emin and coughed nervously.

Minister of Industry, Midas stood and approached the two with narrowed eyes. Ruten took a step back, crashing into one of the guards that accompanied them.

A shrewd man with an eye for detail, Midas looked at the two looking for clues. "Oh?"

Minister Shifob poured a cup of tea and smiled. Of course he'd seen the empress in a more natural setting. A perk of being doctor to the imperial family. "I'm sure the empress is more than what we see."

Minister Prakah accepted the tea passed to him and took a small sip. He'd never met the empress outside of court. He wasn't the first ranked minister in the department of education so he wouldn't have had the chance without this call out. "Have you met with the empress?"

Minister Ruten blushed. The empress was the first to treat him with real respect and human regard. " I just feel he has a ...noble and elegant temperament."

The ministers stared in disbelief. What noble and elegant temperament? Since the emperor left the empress had been no nonsense and run the court singlehanded making them fear the empress would abolish all ministers and become a dictator.

"Does anybody know why the empress called us?" someone asked.

Hearing their conversation from the hall, Shaugn spoke. "I didn't realize people who spend half a day arguing on something as simple as road repair would be so impatient.

The ministers all turned to the door to see Shaugn standing in the doorway. The color drained from their faces seeing the dense rows of guards with the empress standing in front. The empress was just as commanding and formidable as the emperor before the large army setting off for war.

The uneasy ministers dropped to their knees making a loud thud on the hard tile. Shaugn resisted the urge to cringe and rub his knees.

"The empress is benevolent! The empress is kind! Long live! Long –"