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Clarissa

TWO HUNDRED YEARS LATER

Aris,

Your presence is requested in the council room at precisely eleven o’clock. I trust this gives you time to coordinate your extraneous activities so you will be prompt and prepared for our meeting.

Signed,

Everen Stryker

I narrowed my eyes at the message, sliding my tongue along my teeth as I crumpled it in my hand. Whirling to my desk in the far corner, I yanked out a fresh piece of parchment and pencil.

I spat the words aloud as I wrote them. “Thank—you—for—your—note—Lord—Stryker.” I paused, the pencil biting into the paper. “Kindly—go—shove—your—foot—up?—”

“Well, I certainly hope that message isn’t for me .”

Glancing up to the door, I saw the familiar blonde-and-gray hair wrapped in a low bun, kind hazel eyes, and wrinkled features of my mother, Evadine.

With a sigh, I set the pencil down. “Of course not, Mother. Just taking some frustration out.”

“On your desk? Sweet girl, I don’t think your father would approve of his antiques being treated as your battering ram.”

“Well then, he shouldn’t have left them here.”

My mother’s low hum was the only reaction to my comment. I closed my eyes and scratched at my brow. “I’m sorry. Lord Stryker and the rest of the council are getting to me.”

She strode across the room and began straightening the haphazard pile of books, decrees, and letters on my desk. Ever the dutiful caretaker. Even more so since she recovered from a sickness that had her incapacitated in bed for over a decade.

Almost sixteen years. The same amount of time it had been since I lost my father.

“You don’t have to be perfect all the time, Clarissa,” she said quietly. “Even the great Empress of the Veridian Empire is allowed to have moments of weakness.”

“ Future empress, remember?” I scoffed. “There’s still four months left of the provisional period.

” Even though my father had once been Veridia’s emperor, when he abdicated the throne, he voluntarily gave up his line of succession.

Emperor Theodore Gayl, the man who took his place, had to go through a similar provisional time over twenty years ago.

In the eyes of the law, it didn’t matter who my father was. I had as much claim to the throne as anyone else.

Mother waved her hand in the air. “Technicalities. You’ve been running this empire for eight months now.”

“Try telling that to Lord Stryker.” I threw myself into the emerald cushioned chair behind my desk.

“He’s always there to remind me. To catch every imperfection.

Every slip of the tongue. And constantly comparing me to Gayl, as if I could ever forget the man.

‘Emperor Gayl wouldn’t have allowed such frivolous travel among provinces,’” I mocked.

“Well, my beloved predecessor also subjected thousands of people to a sleeping curse, so I’m not sure he’s the best role model. Thanks, though.”

My mother simply gave me her tight-lipped smile as I went on—her normal response when I went into my tirades. I had so few people I felt comfortable slipping out of my “official empress persona” around, and she was one of them.

I had stepped into this new position of power only eight months ago, after Theodore Gayl died.

While some days it felt like I’d been preparing my whole life to take on this role, what with my father being emperor before the late Gayl, in the back of my mind, I never truly thought this time would come.

I’d spent years fighting against Gayl’s rule from the shadows, forming a rebellion made up of those he’d wronged in his reign of all-consuming power.

His entire purpose was to elevate the strongest of the land and crush the weaker beneath his boots.

To create so much division and strife between his people that they resorted to fighting in the streets, forced to flee from their homes or hide away in seclusion.

For so long, my sights had been set on the day we finally removed him from the throne and started to make things right.

But perhaps I hadn’t fully prepared myself to move into the light. To trade my secrets, covert meetings, and network of spies for a title and a place on the world’s stage.

“You’re twenty-eight years old, Clarissa. The youngest ruler this land has ever seen.” My mother rested her hands on the desk across from me. “You have caused a shockwave of change, my dear. If you believed the rebellion was difficult, leading these people may prove to be infinitely harder.”

I pursed my lips. “Not exactly the encouragement I expected.”

She dropped her chin and gave me a look. “Since when have you ever shied away from a challenge?”

Toying with my bottom lip, I ran a finger along the inside edge of my desk.

It was my father’s when he and Mother ruled this empire.

I didn’t have any memories of those days.

My twin brother, Leo, and I were too young, barely toddlers when our father, Branock Aris, abdicated his throne and sequestered our family away to a lone cottage in the woods of Veridia City—the only home I’d ever known.

I knew next to nothing about what he was like as an emperor, besides what he and my mother used to talk about.

Was he as firm and just of a ruler as he was a father?

Did he love his people the way he’d loved Leo and me?

Did he fight to protect them at every step, or did he let them make their own mistakes?

One thing I knew for certain was that he wouldn’t have let his council walk all over him. Branock Aris had a steady hand. Brash at times, but unflinching. Unshakeable. Strong.

Strength came in many forms. If I had learned anything in the sixteen years since he died, it was that.

Mother crossed to my side, kneeling before me and taking my hands in hers.

“You have done such wonderful things in such a short amount of time, Clarissa. Hold your chin high. Don’t let the words of men who are threatened by the power of a woman make you think you are anything less than the rightful empress of this empire. ”

Swallowing, I nodded and squeezed her hands. Fates, I didn’t know what I would’ve done without her by my side this whole time. I was thankful every single day she came out of her illness to be with us once more.

The Veridian Empire certainly looked different today than it did eight months ago when Theodore Gayl died.

My predecessor spent his two decades on the throne bolstering those with a greater magic in the six provinces that made up our empire.

He made everyone feel isolated by banning travel across each individual border, and he praised violence in his citizens.

I’d never forget finding the families from Emberfell, the northernmost province, who moved to the capital of Veridia City to get away from dangers at their border.

They came here for safety and were met with brutality. The image of their ransacked cottage and blood-stained walls often appeared when I closed my eyes, and the smell of decay and fear still lingered in the air, more potent with my Shifter instincts.

I couldn’t count the number of times I’d come across Gayl’s Royal Guard in a back alleyway beating some poor Lightbender or Alchemist to a pulp.

The attacks that my rebellion, the Sentinels, had stopped, the people they’d saved, the bones they’d broken in an effort to keep peace on the streets of Veridia City were an endless ledger.

But that was the past. We’d put those dark days behind us and forged a new path. One of hope and safety and freedom . One where my people didn’t have to face fear when crossing their borders, one where they could openly explore this world and the rights they’d been given.

It seemed, however, this was not the future everyone envisioned. Those still loyal to Gayl, for example, thought my ideas were too weak. That I was carving the way for foreign threats to swoop in and stake their claim among a people too defenseless and unprotected.

They were idiots.

But they were idiots on my council, and I had to appease them to keep my life running somewhat smoothly. At least until my year-long provisional period was up in four months and I could kick them out of the palace for pissing me off.

A knock on the door made both of us look up. My mother used the edge of the desk to help herself stand, and when I offered my hand, she shooed me away.

“Come in,” I called.

The heavy door swung open. On the other side was Larken Everest, my closest friend and advisor. Her dark features soured as she wheeled herself through in her wheelchair, scowling at me before I even had the chance to speak.

“I happened to notice there aren’t any guards outside your door, Rissa,” she said.

“Your powers of perception are amazing.”

“It’s not funny. Why do you keep sending them away? They’re for your protection .”

“I didn’t need protection in the five years I was your Sentinel leader, and I don’t plan to start needing it now.”

Lark crossed her arms over her full chest and rested her elbows on the arms of the wheelchair. “That would be far more believable if you hadn’t almost been assassinated two weeks ago.”

I brushed off her words. “That was a misunderstanding.”

“Yes, I’m sure I misunderstood the dagger in your pillow.”

My mother let out a sigh as Lark continued to glare at me. “Clarissa, Lark is right,” Mother said. “Times have changed. You have people whose responsibility is to protect and guard you. Let them do their job so you can do yours.”

I knew this wasn’t a fight I could win, not with the two of them teamed up against me. We’d been having the same argument for weeks, ever since the messenger from Drakorum found his way into my bedchambers and tried to put a knife through my skull. He left with a few less fingers.