Revolutionary Princess Eve

CHAPTER 4

Mikael carried Eve's corpse to the Emperor's Chamber.

Light shimmered bewitchingly from the center of the hall where a giant obelisk made a unique red mineral ore stood. The Philosopher's Stone—an all- powerful, alchemic artifact that responded only to Hadelamid blood. As a man in desperate need pf miracle, Mikael was drawn almost instinctively to the stone.

He lad down Eve down softly and rested her head upon his thigh. The ripples of red light wavered over them like underwater plants. To a simple observer, Mikael and Eve could been taken as lovers resting in the midst of a sunny, red- tinted glade.

Mikael spoke in a hollow tone.

"Not once did you grant me the ability to be by your side..."

For three days, Mikael refused all the food and water, never leaving the Emperor's Chamber. One of his devoted retainers requested a private audience with him in the chamber, worried for his health.

The magic in the chamber had stopped the flow in the time, preventing any decomposition of Eve's body. Mikael still held Eve in his arms when the head of the Privy Council came to see him. She looked like she could have still been alive. But before the man could speak, Mikael gave him a command.

"Gather all mages and alchemists in the empire. Someone must revive Eve. Money is no object. I don't care what it takes or how long."

"B...but Your Majesty, it's not possible to revive—"

"The Philosopher's Stone makes the impossible possible, does it not? Oh, and of course... We'll need imperial blood to use its power. Have Rosinitte brought to me immediately. I'll lop off her head and collect every last drop of her blood."

"Y...your Majesty!"

Mikael's purple eyes gleamed with something akin to madness. The head of the Privy Council looked appalled.

"Pray, desist, Your Majesty! The eighth princess is the last living member of the Hadelamid family. Did you not plan to keep her alive until you had full control of the Philosopher's Stone?"

"Why must I do that?"

"Why...?"

"Eve is dead. What use to me is the Philosopher's Stone—or even the empire—with her no longer here ?"

"...!"

Mikael was serious.

The man realized that his liege's obsession with Eve ran far deeper than anyone could have imagined. It occurred to him then that perhaps it had been this unruly princess, Evienrose, that had motivated Mikael to revolt in the first place.

" You heard my orders."

Rosinitte was soon brought to the emperor's Chamber, trapped in a cage made for an animal. She was filthy and disheveled that is it was hard to remember her high station.

She was crying as they brought her in.

"This is all Evienrose's fault. That girl took everything I had! She had ruined my chance at happiness! This is so unfair!" she sobbed.

Rosinitte, the heartless murderer who'd poisoned her own sister, cried not out of remorse, but instead out of self pity. Her tearful eyes flashed with a sudden venom as she noticed Eve's body.

"Mikael! Mikaelis Agnito! How...how could you? You dare to hold her like that while in my presence?"

"..."

She screamed at him, " Get that woman out of my sight and beg me for mercy on your knees! Do you realize how big of a mistake you're making? Who do you think made it possible for you to become the emperor? And whose child do you think is in my womb?"