Zephrun’s Imperium

"Alright..." She yawned. "We should sleep soon."

"Well, he's my bodyguard. He's not going back to the palace. Is he?"

"Well, I... I'm barren, obviously; I'm far too old to have children. But if I did have children, I'd want my son to be just like Fischer. He's a good boy."

She shook her head. "It doesn't matter. You're not cold to me. But about Fischer... I was wondering about making him my son."

She turned away from his affection. "I was talking with Fischer," she said. "And he told me you were the coldest man he's ever met. I..." She shook her head. I don't know why that disturbs me so.

Riva hung her head. "I suppose not.... I will not sleep well."

"To never leave the castle... Whatever shall I do here? Bake? Clean? I couldn't get ingredients from the outside and I don't trust servants to do it. And why should I care to rebuild my book collection? It's not as though I'll be using my research anymore... The king has stripped me of my one and only purpose. I was trained to be the torturess! Raised to be the torturess!"

"That's what I tried to tell him! I was only doing as ordered. But... if I use my skills again, I will be burned at the stake." She held onto Caden, shaking. "Oh, Stars. He'll let the populace at me. And they'll tear me to shreds..." ------------- Rest did nothing for Nicolae Kimby. He woke up tired and sour, hating the world and himself. With a groan, he rolled out of bed and dressed, walking to wake the king with breakfast. "Good morning, Ivian..." Nicolae opened the curtains. His voice lacked its usual mirth. @Channelknight Fadran

Riva looked up at her husband with tear-stained eyes. "I told Ivian what I'm doing with Allivia. He took me aside and threatened to kill me if I tortured anyone again. I only escaped having to do jail time by a promise he forced out of me. And then he told me I was an evil, sadistic freak."

"The king..." she whispered. "He called me evil, told me he would execute me for doing my job. He... he did this."

"My life's work!" she screeched. "RUINED!!!" With a sob, she fell to her knees again.

Riva stomped over to a burned book. A potion had been shattered near it and had soaked into the pages. She grabbed the book and held it in shaking hands. "Does this look sAlvAGeAble? Does it?!" She threw it on the ground and pointed at the empty shelves once fully stocked. Not a single potion had been left unsmashed. "I spent years working on some of those potions! Some of those books are as old as I am, written by my mother!"

"But... my work... Caden, my work. What will I do?"

Riva shuddered, leaning into her husband. "All my work... Decades of work.. gone."

She stood up. "No, I'm not safe! Whoever did this, they'll come for me next! This-this is a warning! A sign of what's to come." She grabbed his shoulders.

"I don't know! You were the one at home when this happened! My research is GONE!"

"Caden!" Riva was on her knees, sobbing. "My office, look what they did to my beautiful office!"

The head of an ax slammed into the window of Riva's office. Maverick broke glass, stepping through the hole he'd created and into the house of the woman who had tortured his poor little brother. It was time for a little revenge.... ------------- "As you well know, my own mother-" Riva gasped in horror when she walked into the room. She’d seen carnage before. Seen blood pour down tables to pool onto the floor. Dissected human bodies to get a real feel for anatomy. Smelled burning flesh and reveled in it. Nothing. Nothing she’d ever seen compared to the horror that awaited her. It was all... Broken. Bottles smashed. Ingredients dumped out to mix on the floor. Burned books, mangled models, torn tomes. Carefully made potions dripping down the walls, cases of meticulously organized substances knocked over. Her entire life’s work. Laid to waste. Riva gaped at the sight, utterly speechless. Tears rolled down her cheeks, but she hardly felt them. Glass crunched under her feet as she walked a little further in the room and she knelt down, shaking hands hovering over the floor. Finally, she broke the silence: “No…” That one whispered word broke the dam. A scream was torn from her throat, a scream of loss, horrible grief, and potent anger. The sound was a chilling one, like the howl of the dead; in that moment, despite her frailty, it was not hard to understand why the court found her otherworldly. Whoever had done this… they would pay dearly. "CADEN!"

"And why not?" "Then you have to decide what makes something good, or evil." Riva nodded, thoughtful. "Makes sense. But it's lazy." "No, I'm just denying myself a tool for the lazy. Branding someone as evil will only make you hate them more. It can't help, only harm." "I suppose as a solider, wrong and right are harder." She contemplated, then shook her head. "Bah, it doesn't matter. We must go home. Caden will want to hear what Ivian said to me. That rat." Fischer chuckled. "Would you consider him evil?" "No. Just a foolish arse of a man who forgets my power." The carriage door slammed shut and Riva Praetorium sat sourly, the carriage beginning to roll towards the Praetorium estate. She drew the curtain on the window closed; the landscape of the trip from the palace to her keep had grown too familiar to be interesting. She could picture it just fine in her own mind right now. Once they left the kingdom walls, the terrain would grow grassy and rough. Fallen leaves of autumn would litter the muddy new path through the woods and she would be able to spot the occasional furry creature scrambling to get out of the horses’ way. Boring. Riva spun her wedding ring on her wrinkled hand. "I'm not allowed to torture Allivia anymore. Something about preserving the citizen's dignity." "She doesn't deserve the dignity of a sinner, much less a civilian." "No. No, she doesn't. But frankly, I'm more concerned with what I'm going to do for the rest of my life. I know nothing else." "Nothing? Doesn't everyone have a hobby or something?" "I make potions. I experiment on people. And I garden for the sole purpose of making ingredients with which to do unspeakably horrible things." "Your potions can't cure people?" "Now why on earth would I want then to do that?" "I mean, it is something to do." "I want people to fear me!" "Yeah, that would be hard if you started helping people." He nodded. "Or learned that you are happily married." "Everyone saw Caden hit me at the ball... My reputation is effectively ruined." "Yes, that would definitely be bad." "And there was that unfortunate incident with the pie..." She growled as she said it. "I have no idea what that is." "It was before your time, dear. Right before Caden and I were wed. At a ball, someone had the nerve to throw a pie at my face." "Who the blazes would dare to do that?" "They got away..." "I wouldn't have known if you hadn't said anything, so maybe it's not as bad as you think." "The whole court saw it! And then they saw me get thrown in the mud by Caden... He slapped me and hauled me by my dress!" "And you say you love him?" "Of course I do; who else would?" "Well, if it was as bad you say . . ." "He has apologized profusely for letting his anger get the best of him. I... In truth, I still fear he will do it again, but I can't bring myself to leave to deny his love." She sighed. "The night after he hit me, I came home to find him sobbing. I comforted him that night and in the morning, we made love for the first time. That's not something you forget." Fischer shook his head, unable to summon that image. "You must mean a blazing lot to him if you made him cry." "Don't swear, dear, it's unbecoming. But yes. He was distraught. Didn't stop crying until he fell asleep on top of me." "Were you comforting the general, or a child?" "Oh, it was the general." She sighed. "I remember his hulking form shaking with ugly tears. I almost killed him, you know, in his moment of weakness. but then he admitted he loved me." Fischer looked towards the floor of the carriage, disbelief evident in his eyes. "The general never shows weakness. He is the unshakable pillar of the Praetorium Guard." "Not in front of his wife." Riva winked. "What did you do to him to get him to break?" "He just felt bad for treating me poorly, I suppose." "You know this all sounds ridiculous, right? The general is the coldest, most uncaring man I've ever seen. He's been hacked practically to shreds and barely blinked an eye." "Haven't you seen the way he kisses me? He's my husband, he loves me dearly." "I can see why those guys thought a potion, I guess." Fischer shuddered, remembering times when he stood guard just out of their door, no matter what he heard. "But you do seem nice enough. I've never seen anyone even think of kissing the general." She nudged him. "Oh come now, you're attracted to men, you think he's as appealing as I do." Fischer grumbled. "But I've never thought of kissing that guy." "And why not?" "Were you listening to my whole spiel about that guy?" "Mmmmm." Riva closed her eyes and leaned back in her seat. "I can't wait to get home to his embrace. You've cheered me up, Fischer. Good man." "I . . . don't know how." "I'm thinking about my wonderful husband now instead of that worthless king Ivian." "Oh, I think I get it." "Yes." She smiled at him. "Nicolae doesn't deserve a lovely man like you." "I disagree . . ." In all truth, he wasn't sure of that anymore. "I'll be fine, ma'am. But thank you." Riva kissed his forehead. "You're very welcome." Fischer blushed, not sure how to respond. He silently cursed himself for sitting there silent like an idiot.

"It's fine; he didn't hurt me. But he did make his opinion of me very clear." She turned towards Fischer. "Do you think I am evil, son?"

"No, I imagine not." She hissed. "His royal Highness threatened to have me executed."

"Very." She stuck her nose in the air, walking off towards where they'd left their carriage. "That did not go well. And I can't imagine your conversation went much better, considering that pregnant lass on Nicolae's arm."

"Finally!" Riva tapped her foot. "Where were you, Fischer?"

Prompt 11: Sour, featuring Pearl Blaze, Star's youngest child from CBST. Pearl is an adventurous young Narrator, more inclined to create her own worlds than stay at home with her over-protective mother. Star keeps her dressed in lavish gowns like the one I've drawn, much to Pearl's chagrin; short shorts and crop tops are much more her style. You could say she's rather sour about it. Anyway, I'm sorry these last two drawings have looked so similar; tomorrows will be very different, I promise.

Okay, we're back!!! I'm skipping prompt 9 because I tried it and it turned out so bad, but we're just going to ignore that. Prompt 10: Pick, featuring Nyx Thadel, Riva's mother from Masquerade. Despite the horrors she's committed, Nyx is honestly one of my favorite characters I have ever conceived. As the picture implies, she has a lot of blood on her hands. Maybe not as much blood as her daughter (eventually) but enough to make her one of the most heinous women I can think of. Of course it should be mention that a good amount of that blood was her own. Before her eventual death at her daughter's hands, Nyx had a nasty habit of self-punishment, spesifically in the form of picking at her arms; raking her long fingernails across her skin.