Chapter 86

The whispers had changed.

Aeliana had always been attuned to the undercurrents of the court, the way power ebbed and flowed through the corridors, how loyalties shifted like sand beneath the weight of a single decision. But now, it was different.

There was an unease in the air, something thick and unspoken.

It was not just the usual wariness that followed Tharx's every decree, nor was it the cautious reverence that had become her new normal since the announcement of her pregnancy.

No-this was something else.

The glances that once flickered toward her stomach with curiosity now carried something sharper.

The servants no longer gossiped about the empire's expansion, about trade agreements or royal feasts.

Now, when she passed them, they went silent.

She had overheard two maids muttering in the back halls, their voices low, hushed.

"It is not right."

"It cannot be allowed."

By the time they realized she was there, they had scattered like frightened birds, bowing quickly before disappearing down the corridor.

It was not a single instance.

It was happening everywhere.

The council meetings were quieter. Some nobles had become distant, their pleasantries mechanical, their expressions too carefully neutral.

At first, she thought she was imagining it.

But no.

There was something brewing beneath the surface of the empire.

And she would not sit idle while it festered.

Aeliana knew better than to go to Tharx immediately.

He had been consumed with matters of state, securing alliances, strengthening the empire's forces. The war council met constantly, planning for every possible threat that could arise.

Tharx saw challenges in military strategies, in external forces.

But this was something closer.

Something within.

Something inside the palace itself.

He would not see it. Not yet.

So she took matters into her own hands.

That evening, she moved without her usual attendants, without the ever-present guards that shadowed her every step.

She walked the halls as she once had before she was queen-silent, unseen, nothing more than a presence slipping through the darkness.

The palace was alive at night in a way it never was during the day.

It breathed in secrets.

It thrived in whispers.

She followed the murmur of voices down a corridor near the eastern wing, where the servants often gathered after their duties.

Aeliana pressed herself into the shadows, listening.

"It will ruin everything."

"The emperor cannot see past his own blindness."

"It is not a true heir."

Aeliana's blood turned to ice.

The voices belonged to a group of minor nobles, their backs turned to her as they whispered among themselves.

She stepped closer.

"Continue."

They spun so quickly that one of them stumbled, his goblet clattering to the floor, wine spilling like blood against the stone.

"Y-Your Majesty-"

Aeliana took her time, letting the silence stretch, letting them sweat beneath the weight of her gaze.

"You were speaking of my child," she said softly.

None of them moved.

None of them dared.

She tilted her head, feigning curiosity. "Go on. I would like to hear your thoughts."

One of them, a younger noble with a face too pretty to be intelligent, swallowed hard. "We meant no disrespect, Your Majesty."

Aeliana smiled.

A slow, sharp thing.

"Did you?"

The air tightened.

No one spoke.

Not at first.

And then-

"It is not personal, my queen," one of the older nobles said carefully.

Aeliana turned to him. "Ah. So you conspire against my child out of principle, then?"

The man's face twitched.

"No one conspires," another muttered quickly. "We simply question the future."

The words slithered into the air like venom.

Aeliana's fingers curled.

Question the future.

A polite way of saying they did not want this child to be born.

Aeliana exhaled slowly, evenly, keeping her temper in check.

She had known there would be dissenters.

She had known that the nobles who clung to tradition, to purity, to the old ways would struggle to accept that a half-human heir would rule them.

But knowing it was different from hearing it with her own ears.

She took a step forward, and the group instinctively moved back.

Cowards.

"You seem to misunderstand," Aeliana said, her voice deceptively soft.

"The future of this empire has already been decided."

Her gaze flicked between them, holding them in place, trapping them beneath her stare.

"And those who do not accept it," she continued, "will find they have no place in it."

A long, heavy pause.

And then-

Tharx's voice.

"Aeliana."

The nobles stiffened as if death itself had entered the room.

Aeliana turned her head, watching as Tharx stepped out from the darkness of the hall.

He had been listening.

Watching.

His golden eyes burned as they settled on the nobles before her.

The room was so quiet Aeliana could hear the sound of their breathing.

But Tharx was not looking at them.

He was looking at her.

"You should not be wandering the palace alone," he said, his voice low, even, dangerous.

Aeliana lifted her chin. "I was hardly alone."

Tharx's gaze flicked to the men before her, his expression carved from stone.

"Do you have something to say about my heir?" he asked, his tone deceptively calm.

No one answered.

No one dared.

Tharx's lips curled into something that was not a smile.

"Interesting," he murmured. "You had plenty to say before my queen arrived."

Aeliana watched as a ripple of fear passed through them.

She did not stop what happened next.

She did not need to.

Tharx took a step forward, and the men dropped to their knees.

Not out of loyalty.

Out of survival.

"Please, my Emperor-"

Tharx tilted his head. "I will give you a choice."

Aeliana did not blink.

This was how it had always been.

Tharx did not suffer traitors, even the ones who wrapped their treason in polite words.

"Swear your allegiance," he said simply. "Or leave this empire behind."

One of the younger nobles let out a strangled breath. "Leave?"

Tharx held his gaze. "Permanently."

A heavy pause.

Then, as one, they pressed their hands to their chests in submission.

Aeliana watched them kneel, watched them swear, watched the lies drip from their lips.

They would say the words.

But the shadows in their hearts remained.

Tharx sighed, stepping back.

"Get out of my sight."

They fled.

Aeliana let out a slow breath, waiting until they were gone before turning back to him.

"You knew," she murmured.

Tharx's golden gaze burned into hers.

"I suspected."

Her jaw tightened. "And yet you let me find out on my own."

"You would not have accepted it otherwise," he said simply.

Aeliana exhaled sharply, running a hand through her hair.

She hated that he was right.

She had needed to hear it.

She had needed to see it.

Tharx took a step closer, his fingers grazing her wrist, a silent anchor.

"You see now?" he murmured.

Aeliana swallowed.

"I do."

She lifted her chin, her gaze steady.

"The shadows will not disappear," she said. "Not yet."

Tharx's lips curled.

"Then we will burn them when the time comes."

Aeliana smiled.

She did not doubt it.