Death and the Emperor

Book 2 Chapter IV: Plots

...terrors and alarms which no man understood were perpetually broached, both in and out of Parliament, by one enthusiast who did not understand himself, and by-gone bugbears which had lain quietly in their graves for centuries, were raised again to haunt the ignorant and credulous... -- Charles Dickens, Barnaby Rudge

"A bargain?" Qihadal repeated, wary and ill-at-ease. "What sort of bargain?"

The translator paused to confer with the Emperor in the strange, lilting Carannish language. Qihadal strained her ears to listen, but she couldn't distinguish any words among the jumble of sounds.

"Emperor Tinuviel--" There was a strange edge to the translator's voice as she said the Emperor's name, as if she was laughing at a private joke, "--will allow you and your child to remain in this palace, unharmed, and in no danger of being sent back to be killed by your father. Whether or not you go through with the marriage is entirely your decision."

This sounded far too good to be true.

"And what does Emperor Tinuviel want in return?" Qihadal asked, shooting the Emperor a suspicious look.

"Information," the translator replied. "Specifically, information that your father does not want to be widely known. In other words, blackmail material."

~~~~

Chief Counsellor Dilves was proud of her almost-sixty years of service to the royal family. Years ago, as a young girl of only nineteen, she had found herself bequeathed a seat on the High Council after her father's death. She had served as a counsellor to Emperor Survadil for the last years of his reign. After his death she had been counsellor to his son Emperor Vretiel for the entirety of his reign. It was Vretiel who had made her Chief Counsellor, a position she took very seriously. She never took any action before first deciding if it was in the Empire's best interests.

And now, in the space of just over a year, she had found herself serving as Chief Counsellor to two Emperors, neither of whom was suited to reign in her opinion. Marin -- well, the entire Empire knew about him. Tinuviel was more of a mystery.

Her first impression of the current Emperor had been of a spoilt young man, barely more than a boy, who was far too used to getting his own way. In the months since then, she had grudgingly revised her opinion. Tinuviel did not disregard the Empire's traditions because he was used to getting his own way. He ignored or protested them because he honestly believed he was doing the right thing. He was too young and stubborn to see that the only way to preserve order was to keep things exactly as they were.

Willfulness was not a crime, though it was a flaw, but in time he could be brought to see sense. But there were other things about Tinuviel that worried Dilves.

There was something strange about how he looked at people. He looked through them, not at them, at something only he could see. And a curiously haunted look crept over his face when he thought no one was looking. Some might say it was grief; his sister was dead and his brother as good as dead. But Dilves suspected something more.

Most worrying of all, she had seen him smiling and laughing as if someone was talking to him when he was alone. And then there was his outburst when he learned of the proposal. All these pieces, put together, painted a very worrying picture.

Even if he wasn't mad, he still needed to learn that the Emperor could not do as he wished. And that was why Dilves was on her way to visit the Chief Inquisitor.

Chief Inquisitor Nimetath was one of the oddities of Tinuviel's reign. She had not been removed from her position as was traditional, which unnerved Dilves all on its own. It suggested there was some reason Tinuviel was afraid to remove her. And she was the sister of the former Empress Consort. She had a powerful family to back her up, even without her network of spies. Removing her now would be too dangerous, so the High Council could do nothing but stand idly by.