Take Me Away, Dark Lord!

” If one approaches you without my permission, I will freeze the wine in their stomachs.”

”They smell like Auntie Genevieve, Papa,” Seraphina whispered back, wrinkling her nose. ”Too much lavender. It hides the stinking smell.”

Kaelus’s lips twitched with a dark, fiercely proud smirk.

They proceeded down the grand staircase, an impenetrable island of black ice cutting through a sea of glittering silk.

Suddenly, a massive flourish of blaring, golden trumpets echoed from the far end of the ballroom, demanding absolute attention.

”His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Valerius the Fourth!” the herald bellowed.

The crowd immediately parted, dropping into deep, sweeping bows and curtsies.

At the far end of the hall, standing on a raised dais beneath a canopy of spun gold, the Emperor appeared.

He was young, perhaps in his early thirties, and possessed the kind of striking, golden-haired, blue-eyed beauty that bards wrote nauseatingly repetitive songs about.

He wore a crown of sun-forged platinum and smiled with an effortless, charismatic charm that seemed to light up the room.

Seraphina squinted at him.

’Wow! Look at that bling bling hair! He looks like a shiny bulb!’ Seraphina deduced instantly. ’That smile is entirely fake. He looks like a guy who would trip you down the stairs and then ask if you were okay just to look good in front of a camera.’

Beside him stood the Empress.

She was undeniably beautiful, draped in cascading white silk and pearls, but her smile was tight, her eyes cold and calculating.

’Ah. There goes the powdered donut,’ Seraphina thought, remembering her own roast of the woman to Genevieve. ’She looks exactly like someone who would mail you a cursed baby ghost.’

The Emperor raised his hands, officially commencing the banquet with a long, flowery, incredibly tedious speech about unity and the prosperity of the Empire.

But right as the Emperor finished his toast, raising his golden goblet... the massive side doors of the ballroom slammed open.

The entire room gasped.

The murmuring didn’t just stop; it was sucked out of the room entirely.

Seraphina tried to stand on her tiptoes to see who had just arrived to cause such a synchronized societal malfunction. The crowd was parting, stepping back in hushed awe, their eyes wide.

”Who is it, Papa?” Seraphina whispered, tugging on his sleeve.

Before Kaelus could answer, the Archduke’s hand tightened around hers.

”It does not concern us,” Kaelus said, his voice unusually clipped, his jaw tight. He didn’t even look toward the newcomer. ”The Emperor is gesturing for us. The political theater demands my presence in the private antechamber. Come.”

Before Seraphina could even catch a glimpse of the mysterious, room-silencing VIP, Kaelus swept her away, guiding her swiftly through a set of concealed side doors that led away from the main ballroom and into the royal receiving chambers.

The Emperor’s private antechamber was suffocatingly opulent.

Emperor Valerius was lounging on a velvet chaise, swirling a glass of amber liquid, while the Empress sat rigidly in a high-backed chair, her sharp eyes immediately locking onto Seraphina.

”Kaelus!” the Emperor beamed, his voice dripping with artificial warmth. ”My dearest, oldest friend! You have finally emerged from your frozen rock! And you brought a plus-one!”

”Drop the theatricality, Your Majesty,” Kaelus sneered, completely abandoning all aristocratic protocol.

He stood before the Emperor, radiating pure hostility. ”I am here because the law mandates my attendance. Not to entertain you.”

”You wound me,” the Emperor sighed dramatically, placing a hand over his heart.

He leaned forward, his blue eyes dropping to Seraphina. The playful charm vanished, replaced by a sharp, calculating, incredibly dangerous intellect.

”So,” the Emperor murmured. ”This is the little stray that managed to melt the Reaper’s heart. A Tier-1 Water Mage, according to the Spire’s registration. How... delightfully mundane.”

The Empress leaned forward, her sweet, sickly perfume wafting across the room. ”Come here, little one,” she cooed, her voice a cat’s purr. ”Do not be shy. We simply wish to welcome you to the family. Tell me, do you like your new home? Does the Archduke treat you well, or is he as frightening behind closed doors as he is in public?”

It was a blatant, transparent interrogation. They wanted to see if she was a terrified hostage they could manipulate, or a brainwashed pawn.

Seraphina’s adult mind analyzed the threat matrix in a second.

’If I act smart, they will see me as a threat. If I act sassy, they will punish Papa. It’s time for the Oscar-winning performance of the century.’

Seraphina didn’t answer.

She took an exaggerated step backward.

She grabbed the heavy fabric of Kaelus’s velvet coat in both of her small hands, burying her face directly into his leg.

She began to tremble.

It wasn’t a subtle tremble; she physically shook like a leaf in a hurricane.

She let out a soft, pathetic, incredibly frightened little whimper, refusing to look at the royals, acting as though the Empress were a terrifying witch about to eat her.

Kaelus looked down at her.

He knew exactly what she was doing.

He knew she had the intellectual capacity to verbally annihilate the Emperor and his wife in three sentences.

But seeing her do the ’terrified, shy toddler’ protocol with such flawless, manipulative perfection made him want to burst into proud, yet hysterical laughter.

”She is overwhelmed,” Kaelus stated coldly, placing a large, protective hand on her head, glaring at the Empress. ”Your aggressive posturing frightens her, Your Majesty Empress. She is not accustomed to the stench of the Capital yet.”

The Empress’s fake smile twitched, highly offended.

”A pity,” the Emperor sighed, sitting back, convinced by the act.

He saw a terrified, pathetic little girl clinging to a warlord. She was useless to him.

”I had hoped for a more... interesting addition to the court. Very well, Kaelus. Send the child to the menagerie with the other brats. We have border disputes to discuss. The Verdant Reach is complaining about your trade blockades again, we must discuss and reach a proper agreement this time.”