The Emperor's Concubine

Chapter Eighty-Eight

Emperor Cabel sits in his office, sipping a glass of wine.
A lady with light brown hair styled into a high elegant bun, sits on a sofa across Emperor Cabel.
She sips a cup of tea, staring at Emperor Cabel.
"Drinking after lunch?" She scoffs.
"I don't need to ask for permission, do I?" Emperor Cabel rolls his eyes, sipping his drink.
"How cocky." She sips her tea, snickering, "Put the small talk aside, what do you want?"
She places her teacup on the coffee table.
Emperor Cabel scoffs, snapping his fingers.
Lance approaches handing a folder to him.
Emperor Cabel reads it, smirking. He throws it on the table in front of the lady, a chess board on the table rattles.
"Follow everything I tell you to do. Don't trip on your tail." Emperor Cabel uninterestedly speaks.
The lady picks up the folder opening it to read. She raises her eyebrows, staring back up at him.
"Is this a joke?" She spits out.
"Do I look like I'm joking?" Emperor Cabel grins, raising his glass taking another sip.
"What game are you playing?"
"A fun one. I suggest you play along, there's a favourable prize for you, Canella." Emperor Cabel downs his drink, grinning from ear to ear, "This is going to be amusing."
Emperor Cabel snickers, crossing his legs.
Canella reads the folders, and scoffs. She grins slightly, throwing the papers on the table.
"Fine, I'll play along." Canella shrugs, "I'll be your pawn, only if you tell me what the prize is."
"A great one. Trust my words or you can just be a gambit of mine." Emperor Cabel's hand emits a smoke, it picks up a pawn from the chess board, levitating it into the air.
He tightens his fingers into a fist, the pawn smashes into tiny pieces, falling onto the table.
Canella sighs.
"Must you ruin my tea?" Canella picks up the teacup, the insides filled with bits of the piece.
Lance walks up to her, bowing. He takes the cup from her.
"Just reminding you that you're replaceable, but I'd rather have my main piece stay in this game." Emperor Cabel brushes his lap from remnants of the piece.
"Fine. Make this a worthwhile game, your highness." Canella smirks, leaning back.
Maids clean up the dust and remnants as Lance hands Canella a new teacup of tea.

Luna sits in her room, the rain drizzling outside.
She sighs, staring at the pages of her book, unable to focus on reading as her eyes wander outside the window.

"Why you moping around?"
Luna jumps, turning around.
She see's Cethin enter from the door.
"Oh my god, you scared me. Since when do you ever use doors?" Luna stands, scoffing.
"It's raining out and I'm too tired to climb up. Here." Cethin throws a bag on the table.
Luna hesitantly opens it, pulling out a folder and a heavy rolled up leather pouch.
She reads through the folder. Multiple pages with different information for various people.
"Who are they?" She looks up at him.
"I thought just silencing the main leak wouldn't be enough. We silenced everyone else. The only people who know now is you, his royal highness, us, and that butler."
"Silenced? What'd you do to silence them?"
Cethin grins.
He moves closer, taking the rolled up leather fabric, unravelling it.
Knives and weapons stained with blood sit in each pocket.
Luna's eyes widen.
"D-Did you kill them?" She exclaims.
Cethin stares at her, grinning.
"Nah, I'm playing with you, we killed a bear we ran into." Cethin breaks his expression, joking around.
"A bear?" Luna stares, confused.
"Yeah, it was causing us trouble. We had to." Cethin shrugs, "Anyways someone has abilities."
"Someone?"
"Yeah, we're keeping it quiet though, but they can erase memories and bend them so we went around kidnapping everyone who knew and did it."
"I see..."
"Oh but not that annoying princess. I assume you've silenced her yourself?"
"Hm... I'm guessing you got back sooner and spied?"
"Well, duh! I had to wait for the right time to meet you. So, is she an issue? I'm sure her carriage isn't across the border yet, I could catch up to her and-" Cethin takes his thumb, quickly dragging it across his throat to mimic slicing her neck.
"Don't do anything unnecessary. But no, she won't be an issue, and even if she is then I'll deal with it." Luna shrugs, smiling.
"Look how far you've come!"
Cethin jumps to hug Luna, smothering her.
"My little girl is all grown up!" He laughs.
"S-Stop!" Luna struggles to get away from his hug.
"But look at how strong you've become! I'm so proud!" Cethin pulls away, messing up her hair.
"You treat me like a child." Luna scoffs, lightly laughing as she fixes her hair.
"You were when we first met. I remember you clinging onto his highness but now look at you! You do things on your own and fight by yourself!" Cethin smiles, proudly staring down at her, "How have you been since coming back here?"
"I'm okay... His highness is busy for a while so I might not see him for a bit..."
"What are you thinking of?"
Luna fiddles her fingers,
"The concubine... Ming's still going to become a concubine. I'm happy being by his side, but it's irritating that I can't know what he's up to..."
"Want me to find out?"
Luna pauses. She smiles and shakes her head.
"No. I told him I'd be patient. I trust him, and this is an unsettling feeling but I need to trust him."
"See? Stronger every time. I'll follow your wishes then. Just don't hide everything that bothers you, you know you can rely on me."
"I know, I'm forever grateful for that." Luna smiles, holding his hand.