The Counterfeit Empress

The Luckiest of Nights

For a moment, Jin just considered her. He made no attempt to get up.

"You will lose your face. There'll be assassination attempts. You will have to work day and night to catch the subtlest of her mannerisms. The cost of a mistake, the slightest slip, would be the fall of the empire, and your head in a guillotine. I will not woo you with the promise of a comfortable life. From this moment onwards, there will be no going back, dear Chetal. So let me ask you again- are you sure?"

With the death of Ahar, her life here anyway was over. He'd been her tormentor, her tyrant, but also her protector. Now he was an upside-down smile in an empty hall, all his power just smoke in the wind.

More than anything, Chetal wanted to be this man, this shaper who had casually walked into her life and changed everything. A man who would leave here with no consequences. Who knew secrets no else did. This was true power.

"You don't have to worry about me. I'll do it. I'll go through with whatever I have to."

Jin rose up from his chair, which melted into the floor behind him. "Then it's time to go."

The door behind Chetal swung open.

"We'll be flying through the night. I need you to hold onto me," he said pulling out a card from his belt.

The card had a painting of woman climbing starlit stairs towards the moon. Under it was the word 'Levitate'.

Chetal felt herself rising through the air along with Jin.

Within moments, they were flying into the night, the city a maze of hazy orange streets below her. It was mesmerizing.

Chetal tried to take in every little detail - the wind in her hair, the scent of kitchen smoke from a thousand fires, the towering gopuram of the Temple of Vishwanath in the distance - for who knew if this would ever happen to her again.

"Are we going to the Palace?" she asked.

"We are."

On the Hill of Giants stood The Imperial Palace, grand and glittering in the moonlit night. The hill had been named after an old rumor -  that the giants who'd ruled the kingdom in the Age of Ice had risen to the skies here.

The homes of lesser nobles littered the foothills around the palace, potted plants and creepers decorating the terraces. Soon they were past the terraces, and the Palace gardens filled Chetal's view.

They landed softly on a high balcony. A pair of orbs lit the palatial bedroom, illuminating a scene of eerie death. Two men lay sprawled on the carpet, their bodies stiff and cold. Chetal had bent down to check. Death wasn't scary. There was nothing dead men could do to her.

Princess Ara's body floated a foot above her bed, bound by some kind of shaping magic. The sheets were dark with blood, and her nightgown was stained.

"For this to work, I need you to be very still, understoo-"

The doors crashed open and a handful of guards came rushing in.

"Murderers! Assassins! The Princess has been attacked!" the guard at the back shouted as he ran to wake the palace. The remaining four guards pulled out their falchions and surrounded Jin and Chetal.

Chetal's heart was hammering in her throat. 

Quick as flash, Jin held a card up. As the guards caught sight of it, their eyes widened and bodies froze.

Jin put the card back in his belt. "Hm. I should've expected that. Perhaps we can turn this opportunity into a lesson. Tell me what you perceive of this situation, Chetal."

"Um, there's a guard running around the palace raising alarm. Shouldn't we...you do something about it?"

"All in due time. Until then, I'd like you to illuminate the situation for me. An oblivious princess is a dead princess," Jin said gesturing to Princess Ara's body. "I'd like you to be better."

"The guards came in already expecting things to be wrong. They raised alarm a little too quickly, adjusted to the situation a little too fast. They likely knew about the assassination. Which would imply they had been sent by the same people responsible for the assassination."

"That's a good start. The rooms of the royal family have a magical seal that cannot be broken by palace guards. The assassins broke it to enter the chambers of the Princess. However, I resealed the chambers before I left."

"So they have a shaper on their side who helped them break the seal, both for the entry of the assassins and later the guards."

"Indeed. What course would you suggest we take now?"

"The entire palace force will be here soon. We need to get out. Possibly with the body of Princess Ara, and one of the guards so we can interrogate him," Chetal replied, nervousness thrumming in her chest.

"The guards, unfortunately, won't tell us anything. Their incriminating memories have been locked behind a memory wall. As was the case for the assassins. But yes, the rest of your advice is sound. However, Let's do something a little less sound."

Jin pulled out another card from his belt, and the guards crumpled to the floor. Then he went to the huge double doors the guards had come through and pulled them close. When he moved away, the tell-tale glow of magic surrounded the lock.

"That should hold them for a few minutes. In the meantime, we'll go through with your transformation. It will only hurt a lot. Are you ready?"