~Unsavory~

"Should we inform Meéarine?" Faeradaigh asked, his lips pulled down into a frown as he wrung his hands in worry. "She can easily decipher the nearest future and we would know—"

"Faeradaigh, you worry too much," Magnus took only one glance at the eunuch before cupping his hands in Hermes' direction. "If one woman is enough to ruin His Majesty's empire then he will be found undeserving of the throne."

"And that Deádim is the Empress Dowager's people," Eugene said distastefully, twisting his fingers into the silver chain on his neck. "Only the gods know what they say to her, what she says to us might be completely tuna."

"Don't disrespect the gods," Hermes admonished the man's flippant attitude towards the head of his nation's religion. "It is Meéarine's duty to be truthful. Once an oath to the gods is made, she cannot lie. She dares not to."

"I have one more thing to report," Magnus said and inclined his head towards the bedroom doors causing some of his blonde hair to fall out of its ponytail. "There is a maid outside that wishes to see you. She says that she is one of the nun's maid. She has been waiting for an audience since dawn."

"And you only choose to mention this now?" Hermes raised an eyebrow, sure that the man was still angry about what had happened on the first day of the selection.

"I didn't think it was important," Magnus defended himself with a smile that was not in any way penitent. "I didn't think you would want to save the nun. I apologize for the mistake."

Hermes felt tempted to run is hand over his face at the man's unapologetic tone but managed to restrain himself.

It must just be one of those days, he thought to himself as he took in the happiness radiating from the man's golden eyes. "Where is she?"

"In the imperial prisons—"

"The maid, Magnus," Hermes tipped his head back in an attempt to curtail the urge to strangle the cheeky advisor.

"Oh, she is right by the doors, Your Majesty."

"How did she get there?" Hermes narrowed his eyes at the man, hoping that he was not about to witness another carefully planned scheme. He had had enough of this from his mother of late and her manipulative behavior was getting more and more tiring to ignore.

"I've washed my hands clean of this matter long ago, Your Majesty. Feet not, I did not stage her presence. I'm afraid that she has the required clearance to march right up to your bedroom doors and demand an audience."

"Who is she?" Hermes asked, more curious than anything. He knew of no one with such audacity.

"Andrea Varehir," Magnus answered with a small, knowing smirk. "Your mother's former companion. You two have met before."

"She is the maid that got missing the day I escorted the Lady Of Inqa into the palace," Faeradaigh piped up helpfully to jog Hermes' memory.

"The one who tried to kill herself in the Great Hall?" he asked

"The very one," the eunuch confirmed with vigorous nodding.

Eugene looked between the three men a couple times before falling to floor, resigned. He crossed his legs and rested his chin on the heel of his palm. "I really don't know what you all are talking about."

"If you got your head out from under women's skirts, you would," Magnus said coolly, his gaze locking with the man's.

"You know who's skirts I'd rather be under," Eugene replied right away with an extremely suggestive tug of the cross dangling off his chain.

Magnus turned back to Hermes, his face slightly flushed as he touched the piercing on his right ear. "Should I send her off?"

Hermes shook his head, amused by what had just taken place right before his eyes. Magnus, flustered? It can't be.

"Let her in," he said.

"In here?" Faeradaigh squeaked and rushed to his side. "Your Majesty, that is improper. You cannot let an unknown maid with dubious intentions into your living space without any guards present. Your mother instructed me to ensure your safety. This simply cannot do."

"She is over half my age, Dai. And if she can manage to do something with all of you here with me, then she has gotten more impressive since the last time I saw her," Hermes dismissed the eunuch and shooed him in the direction of the bed. "Go sit down. You look like you're about to keel over."

"Your Majesty," tears sprung into the man's ears but were promptly mopped up by his sweat rag. "You even let me rest atop the royal mattress. You are too good to me. I will remember this kindness up till the moment I die."

"Okay big guy," Eugene got up to lead the weeping eunuch to the bed. "The Emperor is naturally gracious but praise him too much and it'll all go to his head and we wouldn't want him to have a big head paired with that elephant-sized ego of his. Would we?"

"You just don't want to foil your ruse of being sick with your own hands," Mikeal said with a laugh, quite aware of Hermes' thoughts. "If any servant sees you out of the room, you can expect the ministers to come knocking to check up on you."

"Only Dai treats me with sincerity," Hermes sighed and pushed the chuckling knight away from me. "The rest of you are simply mercenary."

"Hey!" Eugene felt utterly mortified to be lumped with the rest of the group. "I serve you with no ulterior motives."

"Yes," Hermes, being naturally good-natured, agreed. "That is why you only appear when Magnus is present."

"Well, that's not. . . I just," the man fumbled to explain himself and failed for a lack of words, choosing in the end to collapse on the bed when he came up with nothing.

Just then Magnus pulled open the bedroom doors and Andrea stepped in demurely, a folded cloth in her hands.

She had changed from how she looked as a child tottering by his mother's side, Hermes found. The little girl was growing into a fine young lady. He thought it unreasonable that she had to serve as a maid when her family was so influential but his mother had been firm that day. The girl was not to return to her side.

"Your Majesty," she curtsied, as perfectly behaved as she had been in his memories yet vastly different from how she had been days ago when she had attempted to take her own life.

Her father had given him hell, having been present in the Great Hall that day. He was one of the few ministers that asked that the nun be spared despite belonging to the Empress Dowager's faction.

"Are you here to be beg for your mistress' release?" Hermes asked, about to tell her that it was useless to do so. It was kind of her to try but she herself had gotten a taste of how cruel his mother could be.

She shook her head, denying it immediately. "This servant is here to report an injustice that needs investigation."

"If you had something to report, you could have done so at the Ministry of Justice," Hermes said, running his eyes over her petite frame and scanning her mannerisms for deceit. "Your father is a top minister in my court."

"Your Majesty," she got to her knees, terror rippling through her mask of calm, "my father has nothing to do with this servant's actions. This is all my doing. My mistress' situation—"

"Ah," Hermes held up a finger to silence her. "You said that you were not here to beg on her behalf."

"My mistress has been poisoned!" Andrea wasted none of her breath explaining and held up the cloth in her hands. "Your Majesty please investigate."

When Magnus took the cloth from her, she lowered herself further until her forehead was pressed against the floor and waited.

"What is this?" Hermes asked, motioning to the cloth in his advisor's hands.

"Since we arrived at the palace, my mistress has been sick. I discovered that her plates and cups had been laced with poisoned just—"

"So that is why you assume she has been poisoned? And you come in here to plead her case. For all I know, you planted the poison or poisoned her yourself."

"Your Majesty. The poison was added to the ceramics before they were baked," Andrea argued fiercely. "I would never do anything to harm my mistress."

"If the poison was baked with the ceramics, how did you get it?" Magnus asked, appraising the folded cloth with his usual skepticism.

Andrea raised her head to see him about to open the faded cloth.

"Be careful, Milord," she warned him. "A plate was shattered on accident and I found powder among the shards while cleaning it up. When I tested it with a soaked needle, I found it poisonous. I took the shards and ground them then sieved out the powder as evidence. There are several items in my mistress' room that when tested are found to be poisonous. She was very sick when she was taken, please send a physician to attend to her, Your Majesty."

"You want me to send her a physician," Hermes mused, "when she is destined for an execution."

"Whether my mistress committed a crime or not, it is my duty to serve her and maintain her health. And if she is found guilty, I would have no problem following her to the grave," Andrea replied, defiance audible in every word.

He knew that she was using her life as a bargaining chip. At the moment, her life was more valuable than the nun's. If she died, he would lose her father's support. And though the man was one of his mother's people, he was responsible for keeping dissent at court at bay. Without him, it would be a lot harder to keep the throne.

"Rise," the emperor told her, knowing that he had no choice. "I will look into it."

"Thank you, Your Majesty," she got up and curtsied again, her bearing far from that of a commonplace maid.

Hermes motioned for Magnus to lead her out.

"Feisty little thing," Mikeal said the moment Andrea was out of the room, revealing where he had hid himself.

Hermes turned around to see the man balancing precariously on the railing along the balcony.

Eugene and Faeradaigh popped their heads through the curtains that dropped to surround his bed, both men sporting large grins on their faces.

"If I remember correctly," Eugene started, his smile sly. "She was a prime candidate for Empress back when the court was still being reorganized."

"I would not have married a child," Hermes scowled, disgusted by the mere thought of it.

"If I remember correctly," Mikeal said, mimicking Eugene and still on the wrong side of the balcony, "she rejected the proposal before you did. Must have hurt your pride a lot."

"You two are simply insufferable."

The two men laughed while the Emperor returned his attention to his returning advisor.

"About what she said—?"

"I didn't detect anything untrue," Magnus said as he examined the cloth in his palm. "If the poison truly came from the ceramic it would be easy to tell with a simple investigation. . . But if it proves true I'm sure you know what it means."

"Only a select few have access to the potters that work for the palace," Hermes acknowledged with a tired sigh. "And of course, having ceramics that have been tampered with here in the palace means that someone I'm supposed to trust has been meddling behind my back."

"You already have a suspect in mind, don't you?" Magnus prompted, not willing to say it himself.

"My mother would never stoop to such methods."

"A full investigation will be necessary to determine that. Killing the nun would only worsen matters, as I'm sure you are aware."

"I do not trust to you to prove my mother's innocence," Hermes told his advisor honestly. "You have too many misgivings about her to not jump too hastily to the wrong conclusion if there is any incriminating evidence against her."

"Then investigate this yourself," Magnus hissed and shoved the cloth into the emperor's hands. "See with your own eyes the kind of woman your darling mother is."

Hermes watched the advisor storm out of the room, the beginnings of a headache already building up behind his brows.

"I didn't say anything wrong, did I?" Helpless, he turned to Mikeal and the rest.

Faeradaigh shook his head, his mop of brown curls quivering from movement, but Hermes didn't take the eunuch's opinion seriously. The man agreed with nearly everything he said even if he needed to be corrected.

Mikeal finally pulled himself onto solid ground, flipping over the railings to land gracefully a few steps behind Hermes.

"He's just upset that you haven't made the Empress Dowager abdicate yet," he answered while straightening from his crouched position. "She dabbles a little too much in court politics and that is far from tolerable. You know how much Magnus appreciates order so it's understandable that the whole thing is ruffling his feathers."

"I should go console him," Eugene offered, jumping off the bed and heading for the door without waiting for anybody's response.

The man's strawberry blonde hair bounced off his shoulders with each step he took, belaying his excitement to be left alone and unsupervised with the advisor.

Hermes turned to Mikeal, feeling a surge of fatigue run through him. "Not you too."

"She may be my mother," Mikeal placed his hand on Hermes' arm as a sign of understanding, "but you are my emperor. Your needs come first and right now, her reach needs to be shortened for you to reach your full potential."

Hermes rested his head on his friend's shoulder and the man wrapped his hands loosely around him. "She's everything to me."

"I know," Mikeal said after a short pause. "But there are things an emperor must do. This is just one among a list of other unsavory items."

~

OH MI GOOL. I did it guys. The chapter is out and I plan on writing 3 moreee as an apology for being late.

I hope you're all staying safe? Wash your hands and if you do sneeze please Sneeze Like A Vampire.

I'm just hoping Corona doesn't sneak its way into my state or all hope will be lost for my side of humanity.

I did a lot better in this chapter in regards to character descriptions... I haven't edited the last chapter but I will soon!

What's up with Eugene and Magnus???? Anyone sensing anything?

And yes, who Mikeal is has been revealed! What do you all think? Was it obvious? If you look back, Hermes only refers to the Empress Dowager as my mother a handful of times, the rest of the time he just calls her Mother in Mikeal's presence.

Remember when Oris called Mikeal a prince?

Hahahahaaaa.... *dies from laughter*

By the way... Meéarine is pronounced Me-Air-Ah-Rine (like in tangerine).