My Empire

Chapter 7: Hidden History

                            ~~~Their Excellency The Eclipse Tsuki~~~

The dye dripped down my fingers, rose-gold pink swirling in the bowl of water I was using to wash my hair after setting the dye in.

I had servants who could do this for me, but it was fun and easy and my magic made it take minutes instead of hours, so why not have some fun?

The pink hair looked awesome, maybe not the look one would expect for the most feared emperor on the continent, but I liked it, so everyone else could go eat horse poop for all I cared.

Respectfully, of course. They could respectfully go eat horse poop. Or not, whatever floats your boat. You know, I bet there was probably some animal out there who liked horse poop.

A coo echoed from the area of my bedroom, and I frowned absently at the door, absently wringing another lock of pink hair out. I didn't have any birds, so it must have been a messenger bird. Probably from either Sylvie, Indi, or Cat, since they were the only ones with messenger birds trained to go directly to me instead of to the general post.

With a quick rune drawn in the air and a word of magic, my hair got significantly drier, if not completely dry, and I tossed a towel around my shoulders to protect my shirt from the wet, padding out to go see what the birb wanted.

It was a cute Arcefracti dove, and it chirped at me as I got closer, its wings half spread and showing off the letter attached within the messenger tube on its leg.

I slid it out, giving the birdie a soft pet on the top of its head while I unrolled the letter, scanning it. Horror overtook my earlier relaxation, the dove startling and flying off with a squawk as I dropped the letter and spun, racing for the closest opening to the outside big enough for me to hurl my entire self out of it and into flight.

I magicked on my royal robes and mask-crown with a hastily snapped spell, skidding out into the hall and running full tilt towards the balcony at the end of it, ignoring the shouts of surprise from the servants and nobles also using the hallway.

I burst right through the glass, shards scattering everywhere with a screech from the pane as I twisted and dropped, letting myself fall into a dive and then spreading my wings, the agile purple, silver, and midnight blue hummingbird wings flapping speedily and easily as I propelled myself full speed through the windy gales of the Pearlescent Dynasty's icy mountains and down into the open grasslands that made up the stretch of land all the way to the sea, containing both the empires of Arcefracti, Nocturne, and Ethiria.

Normally, the flight was around two hours or so straight.

I did it in 45 minutes.

Which, hey, was absolutely not healthy for me in any way and I was probably going to wake up tomorrow with one hell of a back-and-shoulder ache, but that didn't matter now. I had to get to Arcefracti.

I swooped down towards Amissan, the bustling city busy as ever, scents of dried hay, various plants and petrichor reaching me as I flew overhead, heading for the tower at the center of the city, the home of the royals of Arcefracti.

There were plenty of entrances for arriving avians, and I dropped into the one I knew was closest to Sylver's bedroom, folding my wings back and striding towards the room. Servants and nobles passing by all stopped what they were doing to bow, some of them acknowledging me with mumbled "Your Excellency"s and the like. I ignored them all, which I usually did for the dramatic aura of the mask and levitation heelies and all, but this time I had more pressing things on my mind.