I have been back from the Empire a couple of weeks and Emily had already recruited me to go with her on a trip. I suspected that she wanted me to go with her just so I wouldn’t be alone with her husband, something had happened between Faakhir and some of the girls that have arrived at the Palace for the Festival, and that had made Emily’s jealousy skyrocket. I had no problem going with her, because even if I missed Kimball, I preferred not to be close to Faakhir. My illusions had worked on Faakhir and his interest wasn’t as strong as before, but the idea of having to use my powers to avoid him was enough to disgust me. It was a good thing that I didn’t have to let him touch me, but just by watching his fantasies and making the illusions was enough to make me feel weak and vulnerable… Even Kimball wasn’t enough to keep the nightmares at bay after having to use my illusions on Faakhir, his fantasies were too similar to the memories I tried so hard to forget.
As I walked to Emily’s office to talk about the incoming trip, I found my way blocked by one of the Palace’s maids. The young girl was in my way, and I was surprised by her actions, for a moment I thought of simply pushing her away, I had a reputation that would make it acceptable, but there was something about her that made me stop. I could see her gathering her courage to speak to me, and again, I stopped and waited for her to say what she needed to say.
“Can you read my mind?” That wasn’t what I was expecting her to say, her question took me by surprise, but also reminded me who she was.
“I can do a lot of things, like making you regret you’re wasting my time. Move, if you don’t want me to move you.”
“I know what you did,” she said out loud, but also her mind was screaming something else. ‘I know you killed my roommate, I can see energy and I saw your power move her body and push her. It was you who caused her death.’
“If you know what I’m capable of, why do you keep bothering me?” I couldn’t feel any negative feelings out of her, so I wasn’t sure what she wanted. ‘If you think you can use that information to blackmail me, then you are mistaken, all you would accomplish is to end up like your friend.’
‘I know you saved her. She was already dead, since Faakhir and the others started abusing her, she became someone else, but when she got pregnant, that’s when I finally lost her. I think she was waiting for death, you set her free.’
‘It’s an interesting idea, and if you are done, I’ll leave, I have a meeting with Emily.’ I wasn’t sure why I kept talking to her, I shouldn’t have wasted my time with her, but I felt like I needed to listen to her, and the fact that she was communicating by having me read her mind and push my voice into her mind, told me that she didn’t want anyone else listening to us.
‘There’s someone else who needs your help. I heard them planning the kidnapping of the wife of one of the Representatives, she doesn’t deserve what they are planning for her. You helped my friend, I wanted to see if you would help her.’
‘Do you want me to kill her too?’
‘I want you to help her. If someone can do it, it’s you.’
“I don’t know what you are thinking, but you are wrong about me. Now move, it’s the last time I will ask.” The maid moved, but I couldn’t help but listen to her mind as I walked away.
‘The wife of Representative Pierre Dupont will be arriving here at the Palace the same day Queen Emily is scheduled to go. She is a well known artist, loved by many people. She doesn’t deserve what they want to do to her. No one does, but there are so many people who would do anything for her, there’s many people who love her.’
I couldn’t help but think about her words. I hated Faakhir for what he did behind Emily’s back, and sometimes even in front of her, but I needed to worry about the consequences of my actions. There was nothing I could do directly, if I got involved Faakhir would suspect me, his attention would move back to me. The problem was that knowing what he was going to do, it would be very difficult for me not to do something about it. I didn’t have a lot of time to act if I wanted, Emily’s trip was approaching fast.
“It’s about time you showed up,” Emily said as soon as I entered the room, “there is a lot we need to go over, we can’t lose time waiting for you.”
“All the planning is done, all is left is going over the details, everything is under control, I made sure of it.”
“It better be. I need some time off, I need time away from Faakhir. Maybe a few days without me will teach him to appreciate me more,” Emily said wishfully, not knowing that Faakhir was waiting to get rid of her so he could fulfill his darkest fantasies. “After what happened to Faakhir in that trip a few weeks ago we can’t get overconfident.” Emily continued, making me forget about Faakhir’s plans. “It’s hard to believe that even after all this time some people is still trying to change things. Even you understood who is in charge, why can’t other people do it? How hard it is to accept their place in the status quo?”
I decided not to answer, taking to Emily wasn’t worth it, she wouldn’t understand. So I stood there, listening to her bullshit without speaking once, letting her vent her imaginary sorrows. But as she talked, I started planning how to stop her husband from hurting another woman.
At the end the solution I found was simple, but dangerous. There were many people and situations involved in what I wanted to do, so it was almost impossible to predict the result. If everything went according to plan, then I would be able to save Madelaine, if not… I had learned a lot about Madelaine in a short time, she was a legend, an actress that was loved by her public, not only in her country, but in all the Domain. She had been out of the stage for years, but people still remembered her.
The group going with Emily was bigger than usual, which only made my job even more difficult, the more people there, the bigger the chance of someone finding out what I was trying to do. I was especially worried about Thalia, she was a very strong telepath and if she paid attention to the details, she could piece together what was going on.
Once we were on board, a group of people moved around Emily, blocking her from me. I didn’t need to be close to her to do what I had to do, but it was easier if I could at least see her. As soon as the airplane started to gain altitude, I started talking to one of the guards. Telekinetics couldn’t use their powers and have a conversation at the same time, using their powers required concentration, so I was sure no one would suspect me if I was talking to someone. As I talked to the guard, I was using my powers to take the air out of Emily’s lungs, suffocating her. I didn’t want to kill her, just scare her. When the people around her noticed she couldn’t breath they immediately tried to do something. The airplane was ordered to go back, and as soon as we started to descend I let my powers go, while trying to appear concerned, just like everyone else.
Since everyone knew that Emily hated me, I didn’t think that staying out of the way would be suspicious, so I let the rest of them take care of Emily. After a while Emily decided that she was well enough to continue the trip and told the pilot to resume the flight. As soon as we gained altitude I attacked again. It wasn’t easy, I was expecting someone to notice the air current getting out of Emily, but everyone was worried about her so they weren’t paying attention to details like that. Again the airplane turned around and went back to the ground.
Emily was taken to the infirmary attacked to the airport where she was checked by the physician. I stayed away, but I could hear the different theories of what could have happened to Emily, most agreed that it was Emily who was causing herself the attacks. The more likely diagnostic was that she was stressed, which caused Emily’s rage, because this trip was Emily’s chance to relax and be stress free, away from Capital City. In a matter of minutes we were on our way back to the Palace. When we arrived Emily tried to send us to the barracks, but someone insisted on escorting her back to her room, luckily for me, because I didn’t have to do it myself.
As soon as we arrived at the door of her apartment, we could hear a woman crying. Emily ran the last steps and opened the doors, storming into the room, clearly mad.
“How dare you bring one of your whores to our room?!” Emily screamed. The rest of the group entered the room behind her, most of them because they were curious to see what was going on, even if most of us already had a pretty good idea of what was happening inside.
The sight froze me for a moment. Madelaine was naked, on top of a table, her body looked different than the last time I had seen her, her curves exaggerated. One of Faakhir’s guards had a rope around her neck, while another, one of Jonas’ friends, Carmina, was holding a knife against her chest. Faakhir was also naked, and clearly surprised by Emily’s presence.
“What are you doing here?” Faakhir asked.
“What are you doing? How could you? Can’t you even wait a day before you go grab one of your whores?” Emily didn’t seem to notice the bruises on Madelaine’s body or how she was being held down, she didn’t acknowledge her crying and her fear, she only saw an enemy, not a victim of her husband.
While Emily was yelling at Faakhir I used my power on her, suffocating her again. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but I needed to keep pushing. I was surprised to see Faakhir run to Emily’s help when she started suffocating again and fell to the floor. One of the guards that had been with us explained to Faakhir her previous attacks. Faakhir was scared, he started screaming for help and I stopped my attack before Emily passed out.
“Emily. Emily! Are you ok?” Faakhir asked when she started breathing again.
“I will be ok as soon as you get rid of her,” Emily said, pointing a trembling hand to Madelaine. “I don’t want to see her ever again.”
“Of course, my men will take care of her right away,” Faakhir accepted.
“No! I don’t want her at the Palace, I don’t want her in my city, I want her gone, I want her dead.” Emily tried to get up, but couldn’t. Faakhir helped her to her feet and then she turned to face me. “Kaiserin, I want you to get rid of that garbage, I don’t want anything left of her.” I didn’t say anything, but turned my attention to Faakhir, as if I was confirming the order. “Didn’t you hear me? Do your job and kill that woman, I don’t want to see her ever again.”
“If that’s what you wish,” I said once Faakhir nodded, apparently he was worried about Emily and he didn’t want to add to her stress.
“Let me do the honors,” Carmina said with a twisted smile, lifting her knife over her head and letting it drop on Madelaine.
Madelaine managed to move her arm and intercept the knife, and that action gained her a deep wound on her arm, several inches long. There wasn’t much Madelaine could do to protect herself, she was at disadvantage against Faakhir’s people. The other guard pulled the rope and Madelaine moved her hands to the rope, trying to get enough room for her to breathe. For them, she was just a toy they could play with, a toy to break.
While Faakhir was calling his people, getting ready to take Emily to the Hospital, the other two were pulling at Madelaine as if she was just a rag doll. I used my powers to induce Madelaine in a deathlike trance, at the same time that I used a simple illusion to move her head in a way that would made it look as if I was breaking her neck.
Once they noticed their toy was already broken, they went to Faakhir. I thought I was alone, but then I noticed someone else had stayed behind, and it was Thalia. We were alone, and I wasn’t sure what to do. My plan was to take Madelaine’s body out of the Palace, but with a witness it would be harder to treat her with the care and respect she deserved. It was already a hard situation and Thalia was making it even harder.
“I always like Madelaine,” Thalia said. “My father took me to many of her plays. I liked her movies too, but her live presentations were the best. Her powers made her the perfect actress, she could adapt to any role. It’s a pity it also made her the target for a sick man like Faakhir.” I was surprised by her words, she was supposed to be one of the loyal followers of the King, but maybe I was wrong. Thalia walked out of the room, only to come back a minute later with a blanket that she used to cover Madelaine’s body. “Do you need help moving her?”
“No, I can’t take care of that, don’t worry.”
“I hope so. Take care of her,” Thalia said, and I wondered if she knew the truth of what I was doing, and if it was possible I could turn her into another ally.
Kaiserin Novel 