Empress Natsume ✓

XLVII

Days passed by like a wind. It has been three weeks already, although she frequently received a letter from her husband in the Northern border, informing her about the current situation and their son's fare. Her heart cannot be at ease, Dark clouds is looming in her heart. She feels cold. What is it? She doesn't know herself.

She can't be able to sit still, her mind is full of suspensions and threats. The human slaughter by the Dark Cultists in a small village near Sayta is still under investigation, strange enough. As soon as she sent out people for further investigation, the disturbing matter quiets down. It was as if they were provoking her.

Provoking her to do something to change the situation immediately. Her husband is out for battle in the Northern border along with the three generals and the formidable Izumi Ryuu is out to hunt for the Dark Cultists and only Eiji Arata is by her side. Thinking of this, her thoughts makes a turn. Was the previous occurrences by the Dark Cultists a leeway? Stirring troubles far away from Nagataka for Izumi Ryuu to be send out to lessen the securities in the capital, and then causing trouble near Sayta, provoking her to send out the only general by her side at the moment, Eiji Arata, instead of the people at the office of the investigations.

Faced with this dilemma, she doesn't know what to do.

If she were to sit still without taking actions, surely, they will be the one to strike first.

Exactly how much patience do these people have with Dark tinted souls? They have been waiting for a while now, they couldn't wait any longer. Offering their hands to Yuan Kang shows their impatience.

If they can't make her go to them, they'll come at her. But a month passed and there was no further movements by the Dark Cultists that were reported to her after she sent out the office of the investigations. It was a slow torture, dragging the situation longer makes a person grew anxious even more. She can't sleep peacefully at night, she can't even bear to sleep without her chamber being brightly lit.

The night drags on longer than than the previous ones.

A lonesome thin figure sat on the settee near the window, gazing at the cold moon. Her long silky black hair illuminated by the moon flows free past her shoulders and stopped at her waist, she looks like the goddess of the moon with her sleeping white robe. A cup of wine in her right hand, taking a sip of the wine that she can't even taste. Those beautiful Dark orbs were in deep thoughts.

A calamity is about to fall.

What's next?

She's already expecting the worst but she doesn't know how to counterattack if their next course of action is left unknown. She closed her eyes as she leans back on the settee.

What do they want?

Is her son not enough for them to harm? Do they want to overthrow the monarchy, the rulers, or the whole states of Sang?

Their objectives unknown. In this Cold of the darkness meets with silence, creates an eerie presence. Frightful and threatening.

Suddenly, the previous eerie silence was shattered with a scream of terror. A mass of smoke billows up to the sky from the Eastern and Western sides, frightened voices and shouts could be heard around the palace. Even the sky has turned orange and black. Fire is fastly spreading.

The palace is burning!

Natsume slowly opened her eyes with a calm expression, her eyes no longer held the confusion, no longer in deep thoughts. Revealing a clear black eyes in the Dark. The enemies have finally infiltrate the palace.

"So this is how it is..."

She quietly whispered, followed by a soft low laugher. She can hear the clashing of swords below. They have found her.