All I Am

Chapter 9

This chapter contains references to sexual assault. Reader discretion is advised.

~Irado~

Emperor Kurzon sat at a small table on the balcony overlooking the courtyard of his palace, watching the soldiers below him train. They were good, but they needed to be excellent. He would take no chances when it was time to invade Peria.

"You called for me your majesty?" a fearful voice came from the doorway.

The emperor raised his eyes to find the Perian traitor watching him apprehensively. "Come, sit," Kurzon said with a smile, gesturing to the seat next to him. "Would you like some tea?"

"No thank you, your majesty," Edward declined.

"In Irado, it is a sign of ultimate disrespect to refuse an emperor's offer," Kurzon said pointedly.

Edward's pale face immediately lost the small amount of color it had. Kurzon laughed gleefully.

"I am merely joking Edward. You are under no obligation to have any of our tea. I doubt you would find it to your liking anyway."

Edward managed a pained smile. "Good one your majesty."

Kurzon watched as Edward looked out at the men practicing on the field below them. The pained, fearful expression on his face faded as he studied the scene before him.

"What do you see?" the emperor asked.

"They're good," Edward replied. "But the left flank needs to work on their timing. They are out of sync with each other."

The emperor nodded. "My thoughts exactly."

He took another sip of his tea, fully aware that the silence was unsettling to his guest.

"Your majesty, if I may?" Edward asked after he apparently could no longer stand the quiet.

"You may," Kurzon replied calmly, quirking an eyebrow.

"Why did you send for me?"

Kurzon sipped his tea again before answering. "Now that you've had time to get settled in, I'm hoping to get to know my newest advisor better."

"What do you want to know?" Edward asked.

"Why did you betray your friend?"

Kurzon watched as his companion's body stiffened. It was clear he had expected an easier question – maybe where he was from, his family, any useful skills he had. But Kurzon didn't want Edward to be comfortable.

"My family is one of the noble families of Peria," Edward explained. "But my father went and pissed away all of our money. When I was young, my mother worked out an arrangement that they could keep the land, but I would be sent to the castle to serve King Theodore. I ended up becoming close with Prince Cassius. But Cassius's older brother, Alterius, saw that we were friends, and offered to send a sizable amount of gold every week to my family if I maintained our friendship. As the years went on, Alterius started asking for more information, and for me to try to encourage Cassius to stay single. Then I was supposed to actively sabotage his relationships."

"So you were driven by the money," Kurzon summarized.

"I wanted to provide for my family," Edward countered defensively.

"You're lying," the emperor replied as he swirled a spoon in his tea lazily. "Though more to yourself than me. Your mother's arrangement already provided her with a comfortable lifestyle, otherwise she wouldn't have agreed to it. More gold probably didn't hurt, but I'm sure she saved it, as did you. And this went on for over ten years? By then I'm sure you had plenty saved up, more than enough to call off your agreement and leave the Perian capitol. You didn't need the money, you wanted the money. You wanted to eat the most lavish meals, pay for the most expensive women. Am I right?"