I wasn’t sure I’d heard the mage correctly. Head over heels? Was the emperor...in love with Nadia?
“Oh?” remarked Six, raising an eyebrow when he noticed my silence. “You didn’t notice? It’s an old story. Karl suspected a connection between the mountain capital and the relic beneath the imperial capital, and so he made a point of visiting the survivors. That’s where it all started.”
So it wasn’t just a matter of gods and customs, then.
This matter was something one could only learn from Six, due to his proximity to the emperor.
“Well, from what I’ve heard of the mountain capital, it shares one thing in common with the relic—extraordinary technology.”
“Bingo. Back then, Karl left the imperial capital whenever the mood struck. On this occasion, it was to thoroughly question the mountain capital’s royal family, and that was when he met Nadia.”
Arrendle seemed to have no distinct connection to Nadia’s home, but deep beneath the imperial capital was the box in which Six was trapped. And now that I had heard the stories of the mountain capital’s ceremonies and the arrival of people from other worlds, it was hard to believe there wasn’t something connecting the two places.
“But Karl didn’t get any of what he wanted out of his little investigation,” continued Six. “He brought Nadia back to the imperial capital, but she didn’t know anything. He had no further use for her, and I was certain he was going to execute her, and yet he never did. Instead, he kept returning to her, almost zealously. It wasn’t hard to sense what was in the air.”
“Okay, I get it,” I said. “But knock it off with the creepy giggling, please.”
It was anything but an elegant gesture.
“Karl saw the mountain capital as a nation of blasphemers against the one true god. He seemed hell-bent on seeing them wiped out completely, but he stayed his hand at the last members of the royal family. Ordinarily, he would have just murdered everybody. Wiped them out completely. He’s insane and completely out of his mind, but in this I realized that ultimately, he’s human.”
And when I thought about it, Six made a good point. Why would the emperor have chosen to spare Nadia? She was beautiful, certainly, but for more than twenty years now she had remained as part of his collection of wives, even though she had no support behind her nor any safety net to speak of.
I don’t even want to get into the mess of a web that is the inner palace. Falkrum, Arrendle, both of them are called “inner palaces,” but they’re just hives for schemers and the power hungry.
“Does the empress herself know of the emperor’s love for Lady Nadia?” I asked.
“She knows about it, and she can’t stand it. But actually, it’s Nadia herself who can’t see the forest for the trees. She loathes the man. Nadia is only allowed her life because of this fact—Cornelia wouldn’t let things stand otherwise.”
Cornelia, full name Klarissa Cornelia Delia Balderas, was Karl’s official wife and Wilhelmina’s mother. She was known for spending the majority of her time in the palace, rarely showing her face outside of official duties. I’d seen her only once, at the emperor’s birthday.
“And because Cornelia allows Nadia her place,” continued Six, “so too do the second and third empresses.”
“Oh, I see. And it’s the fourth empress and up who remain stable in their positions, yes?”
“Correct. The first, second, and third empresses all have strong support behind them and maintain the balance of power with those around them. The rest have no such authority.”
Anybody of lower rank than the four empresses had been shifted up or down the hierarchy at least once or twice. After the emperor’s birthday, one had even lost her position entirely.
“It’s a bit surprising that the first empress would accommodate Lady Nadia,” commented Reinald.
“You thought Karl always got his way, no matter what?”
“No, but the way you speak of it, it’s like the empress does so begrudgingly. Almost as if...”
“She’s in love with Karl,” said Six, finishing his sentence.
“Am I mistaken?”
“Relax. Yes, you are indeed mistaken. The woman simply can’t stand for being anything other than the top of the heap. The second and third empresses, too, wouldn’t have stood for an inner palace in which they couldn’t strengthen their positions through alliances within it.”
They all sounded very much like women I did not want to get involved with.
“But if you ask me, you should be more concerned with your own family than the inner workings of the palace,” said Six.
“Me?”
“I mean your sister, former concubine of the king, and mother of the one approved governor general of Falkrum. A beautiful single mother. The fact that her husband is gone only plays into Karl’s preferences. If she enters the imperial capital, you can safely put your money on her ending up in the inner palace.”
“Ugh, that. I don’t even want to think about it.”
“But you haven’t forgotten either. Do you have a plan?”
“Unfortunately, no. I would like to say the best plan of action would be for the empire to adopt her son and send him back to Falkrum upon the conclusion of his education.”
“Marrying her to Reinald is one option, but there are better, more convenient choices for the wife of the crown prince, and so making her a concubine is the most likely outcome.”
Claude had already said something similar. We were scrambling for some way to keep Gerda from ending up in the inner palace, but at present, it appeared a very difficult problem to solve. In the end, making Gerda concubine was the best way for the emperor to smoothly take full control of Falkrum. Reinald didn’t deny it, and Six’s take on things only made the burden on my shoulders feel that much heavier.
“It’s a long way from Falkrum to the empire,” I said, “and it’s not the kind of distance you want to make a newborn travel. We still have time.”
“Time, you say...” muttered Six.
There was a thoughtfulness in his words, a seriousness that stood in contrast to the mage’s usual lackadaisical nature.
“What’s going on with that bird of yours?” Six asked. “How far have things moved along?”
“It’s hidden in the shadows, as usual,” I replied. “When it doesn’t come out, it’s sleeping. I haven’t noticed any big changes since we last talked about it—if I had to point out something, I’d probably say it looks more energetic now.”
Six couldn’t hide his disappointment. I felt bad, but I didn’t know how to push the data analysis along. Our best option—our only option—was to wait. As for me, I’d been hyped on frustration upon my arrival, but with things cooling down, I felt the usual drowsiness kicking in. It made spending time with Reinald so hard.
“I was talking to Reinald about this before you arrived, but it looks like a finish date has been established for repairs to the box,” stated Six.
“Are you serious?” I asked.
“Would I joke about this? Even as we speak, they’re doing everything they can to get what they can out of your friend’s corpse. If you want the details, I’m happy to indulge you, piece by piece.”
“I don’t need that. But tell me how much time you have left.”
“Wow. That’s a bit harsh. Weren’t you two besties?”
“I’m putting you first.”
Ern’s body had been carried away after she died. I did not know why they needed her or what they were doing with what was left of her, but just the thought of it sent a shiver down my spine. I knew that it was something I had to know, but I wasn’t sure I’d be able to handle it at the present moment.
“When I need to know, I’ll ask,” I said, quietly clenching my fists. “But I can’t easily process that kind of information right now.”
“Hmph. Well, whatever,” shrugged Six.
The mage rarely had much sympathy for the life and death of others, and Ern’s passing was no exception. He brought forth an apple and took a bite of it, but he still lacked his usual vigor.
“The schedule isn’t set in stone, but we’re looking at about half a year,” Six said. “That’s how long they expect it to take to complete the supplementary seal that will support the one already in place. That said, it might take longer, but it might also be done sooner.”
“A half a year...”
“I don’t know if that means I’ll be locked away in an instant or if it means my willpower will slowly fade away until it’s nonexistent. Regardless, I’ve been ordered to keep clear of their area of work. I can still go there if I wish, of course, but I’ve chosen not to—they’re keeping things very secure, and I don’t want it known that I can lie.”
The timeline was tentative, and while nothing could be confirmed in any concrete way, Six had come to this conclusion based on experience, listening carefully to the mages involved, and spying on available materials. In this, he’d been aided by co-conspirators in the House of Magic and the palace.
“Who’s helping out from the House of Magic?” I asked.
“That’s confidential. They couldn’t save your friend, and not all of them are helping Reinald out of the goodness of their hearts. For some, it’s very much a deal.”
“So there are people for whom this is a game of give and take,” I commented.
“There are times when such people are the most trustworthy. Just be glad you got an introduction to Nadia, yes?”
“I’m not a child. It’s not like I’m sulking over it.”
I held back from asking if those co-conspirators would be okay. It was enough to know that they weren’t all as loyal as the likes of Moritz and Nika.
“I can’t tell if six months is a lot of time or not enough...” I uttered.