A day passed, and Leudora faced the turmoil caused by the Serpent's death. She spent her time in the Fasma Sanctuaries in Belgrade, doing her best to appear terrifying. As quickly as she could, Leudora sent a message to Kosar, starting her pro-Serpent campaign. With her silent consent, Kosar and Blažetin talked about the noble scientist, who had joined the Alka to serve his kin. The 'weird Serpent', the 'freak with artificial eyes', the 'mad scientist' was forgotten, his blurry face replaced by a carefully crafted image of a valiant hero and an example for the generations to come. Even his combat abilities became a myth, turning Leudora into a sly assassin who had betrayed the trust of a man who had agreed to negotiate with her. Leudora's plan worked perfectly: other Offcasts avoided her like a widening Veil breach, believing she was truly all-powerful and trembling at the thought of unleashing her wrath upon them. She wanted them to sign the Treaty, and so they did. Out of fear. She let Kosar tell them that nobody but the Serpent could stop her. And so he did.
Leudora barely raised an eyebrow when Ferenc Szemere, Veselina Gurova and her cousin Sava swept into a small Fasma Sanctuary in Belgrade, their faces twisted with horror. They showered her with questions, but she did not deign to justify any of her actions. Leudora did not mind all those beautifully-woven lies – there was a grain of truth in each of them. Veselina trembled, Szemere suspected something was amiss and Sava immediately branded her as a power-hungry maniac. Leudora only gazed at the walls of the Sanctuary with her dark empty eyes, picking at the pages of an old book she was holding: "I have nothing to say." When Szemere tried to approach her, she shot him an extinguishing glare. "I would not advise trying to read my timeline, Ferenc. It can be dangerous." He was not moved by the threat, but stopped anyway.
She was neither surprised nor revolted to witness most of her predictions come true. First, the gravity-switchers wanted her head. Then Despina Asenova and the Bulgarian energy-twisters entered the scene, rejecting the requests of her enemies. Predictably, she became a hero to the most radical Byzantine Bloods, much to her own distaste: Veselina's father and his followers loved her enough to kill everyone threatening her life. Isolated, she watched them name her their savior and their chance to take all the power beyond the Veil. And Leudora did not dissuade them. "The more they think I can take over the Realm, the better I can keep this fragile balance," she thought. She knew they would not strike without her guidance and leadership, and she was not going to lift a finger. Leudora had other plans: she was going to put Kosar on the Council and reform the Fasma. But just when she thought she could predict every move and every reaction of her opponents, she failed.
When Kosar reached out to her, she hurried to his rescue, hating herself for her sudden sentimentality. Leudora could not leave her debts unpaid. But instead of saving the keepers of the giant blood lily as well as the Magister of the Alka, she found a broken man clutching a dying child. She saved the child, wondering why all the Magisters were so quick to turn away from seemingly neutral Slovenian gravity-switchers and their own peer. The balance shifted again, and Guardian Jurčević became Magister Jurčević, making Slavoj Kosar a fugitive. Leudora's absence raised questions she could not fully answer, and she never bothered to explain, planting seeds for new rumours and suspicions.
When long-legged Laurenția with her thin braid appeared in Bucharest during Leudora's negotiations with the Archon, she claimed the Lovrens had stolen the blood lily.
"I have been in Koper, where the murder took place," Leudora said calmly, "Kosar escaped, but there was no sign of the Lovrens."
"Ha!" Laurenția fumed. "Two of them were stupid enough to challenge me! I will kill them!"
"That may not be wise," Calimachi interjected, but she stormed away, cursing and shouting at them. Something was very wrong, but Leudora was too occupied with the conditions of the peace treaty to pay enough attention to Laurenția. She asked Calimachi to supervise her: after all, the fulfilment of all the treaty's paragraphs was in his interest.
YOU ARE READING
Byzantine Purple
Fantasy"History is a survivor's tale. It knows no villains. Only failures." A decade ago, Leudora had her major enemies eliminated - the scientist known as the Dalmatian Serpent, and his followers, who sought her people's blood. A ruthless guardian of her...
