~The Letter~

"Your Majesty! Your Majesty!"

Hermes heard Faeradaigh presence more than had he saw him, more focused on leaving his mother's former room than in paying attention to those around him. Now hearing the eunuch's voice, he paused to turn around and saw him giving hand signals to the guards he passed.

On receiving their orders, they beat their fist to their chest in salute and departed at once, not noticing that he had caught the exchange.

Good, he thought, and continued walking. Labored breaths alerted him of the eunuch's proximity, just a few steps behind him. He slowed down by a step to make thinks easier on the man but that only made the walk to his chambers feel longer than it truly was.

Faeradaigh nearly keeled over when they stopped. Hands on his knees and chest heaving, he shooed away the men guarding the Emperor's bedroom with one menacing look.

The moment they saluted and abandoned their posts to patrol further down the hallway, Hermes lost the little bit of strength he used to carry his pain-wracked body. He allowed himself lean against the doors, still aware of their eyes on him.

If they had been his, he wouldn't have had to be so cautious, but he knew that their eyes belonged to his mother.

"Your Majesty?"

"Dai—" the hand he slapped over his mouth muffled the rest of his sentence. Ignoring the warm slickness now coating his fingers, he asked, "Did I seem enraged?"

"Very, Your Majesty," the eunuch answered then flicked his gaze to the guards keeping watch over them.

"Did your meeting with the nun not go as planned?" He forced his voice down to a whisper. "I have already given Andrea the letter."

The doors opened before Hermes could give a reply. He was dragged into the room and ever the dutiful servant, Faeradaigh followed, shutting the doors quietly behind him.

"If you were not angry, why did you walk so fast?" he complained, starting the conversation anew. "Ah, you know this form of mine—"

"How unbefitting you are for an eunuch," a frigid voice interrupted him, "you cannot even look after your master."

Faeradaigh hurried to make himself look presentable, smoothing his sweaty uniform and hair into order before speaking. "M-Magnus, what are you doing here?"

"If I'm not here, where then should I be?" The advisor asked, then fixed a wary gaze on Hermes. "What form of stupidity did you enact now?"

Hermes smiled behind his hand, tasting copper on his tongue, lips, and his fingers too. He straightened his stance in preparation for being scolded by his irritable advisor and let his arm fall away from his face, exposing his bloodied lips.

Faeradaigh's gasp rang through the room as he said, "I took off my rings."

"You must be joking." Magnus grasped him by the shoulders and peered into his eyes. When he found no deceit in them, he let go and took a step back. "Are you mad?"

"Would you follow a mad emperor?"

With a sigh that was answer enough, Magnus reached into his pocket and pulled out a small jade flask sealed with thread and red cloth. "Meéarine gave me this with instructions that one pill would be enough to reverse the consequences of your injuries flaring up."

When Hermes, pulled the cloth stopper off and tilted the flask over his palm, only one pill fell out.

He leveled a questioning look on his advisor and the man offered him a sly look in return.

"She also said that if at any time you needed more than one she would have to take a break from ciphering the future to speak to you about personal safety."

Hermes bit back a groan and swallowed the medicine with a grimace. He handed the bottle back to Magnus, muttered a word of thanks, and scanned his room. As usual, there were no servants present. No one dared intrude on his personal space after what had happened to a handful of his mother's servants.

At present though, he really desired a to take a bath.

Faeradaigh read his discomfort with practiced ease and handed him a clean handkerchief to wipe the blood with.

He walked around the room as he cleaned his face. His gaze recoiled when it touched the balcony, knowing that he would not see his brother there.

With a hand pressed to the side of his head, he sat himself on his bed. It didn't take long for the pain in his chest to recede. He tested his shoulder and felt none of the burning ache he had endured on the walk here.

Yes, Magnus had been right to question his sanity. Why had he taken off his rings to spare someone else of pain, at his own expense?

"If not for Meéarine taking precautions, you would have been in a more dire state," Magnus began, his ever diligent protector in Mikeal's absence, "it would be best if you refrained from taking such risks in the future."

"I appreciate both your efforts. Truly," Hermes said and beckoned his two friends closer to a distance where only they would hear his words. The room might have been empty but the guards at the door were good listeners. "Tell me, Dai. How are things with my mother?"

"She is rebuilding her spy network," Faeradaigh wrung his hands as he spoke and his voice betrayed his nervousness, "so word of your meeting with the nun should have reached her by now."

"Those guards?"

"None the wiser, Your Majesty," he said with surprising confidence. "They spy for the Empress Dowager under my direction."

"Good." Hermes stared down at his own hand, still able to see the red crust lining the corners of his nails. He clenched his fingers into a fist. "Something has been brought to my attention concerning a decree I once promulgated. The one for the Selection, do you remember it?"

"Of course, Your Majesty."

"Tell me, Dai." He leaned against the wooden support of the bed's canopy. "When did I say that I would be exterminating people if I was not given the most beautiful women in a fief?"

Faeradaigh fell to his knees immediately. "Your Majesty, that you set goddess-like beauty as the criteria for your future Empress and threatened to behead anyone who offered less."

"I know what I said, Dai," Hermes snapped his fingers and the sound echoed into the cavernous room, "those ministers were just a step from forcing their women into my bed. I was rightfully upset and lost my temper but I expected you to have the discretion to know what should and shouldn't be written into a decree!"

"Your M-Majesty, I never—"

"Besides that, I also wrote a decree with my own hand later on. What did you do with that?"

"I did as was required and passed it to be announced to the people but at that time you also instructed me to do all I could to get into the Empress Dowager's good graces... That was around the time you publicly dismissed me from your service, I couldn't inform—"

"Nonsense," Magnus snapped, "you could have informed him anytime you wished."

Hermes shook his head. "I asked him to keep his plan secret. I couldn't have Mother suspecting that I was in the process of planting someone by her side. The slightest suspicion would have ruined things."

Faeradaigh bowed until his forehead rested on the hands he laid out on the floor in front of him. "I admit to forging a decree to defame the royal name."

Hermes sighed. The decree had been made public for months, years in some places, yet none of the ministers who had been present when he had spoken about the criteria for the Selection had spoken up about it. They had been aware of how such a misunderstanding would affect his reputation and had chosen to stay silent.

"Nothing to be done about it. If anyone had felt the need to inform me, the damage could have been reversed." He kneaded the skin beneath his brow. "Go and receive your punishment... and make sure my mother is made aware of how displeased I am with you."

"Thanking Your Majesty." The eunuch rose to his feet, his face rightfully sullen.

"Oh, don't look so disheartened," Magnus eyed the man and began to gloat, "you should be happy to be sacrificed for such a noble cause. Not many can say that they got punished to restore an Emperor's honor."

"Magnus, let him lick his wounds in peace. His plan was effective and I was the one who commanded it. My punishing him is unfair enough as it is." Hermes offered Faeradaigh a reassuring smile. "You are my mother's spy, she will not let anything untoward happen to you. This is the perfect time for us to act estranged, it will give you an excuse to constantly stay by her side. Find out how she managed to hire an assassin without me knowing."

The eunuch nodded grimly and turned to exit the room.

"I don't trust him," Magnus said just as the doors were shut. "Do you not feel as though he is truly your mother's spy?"

Hermes let his fingers drift to the bridge of his nose. "Your trust is hard to earn and I am not fool enough to be so easily deceived. You needn't be so harsh on him."

"If he did not fear me, would I not have fallen victim to this exquisite web you have woven? Which noble in the capital does not think that Faeradaigh is a faithful servant who spies on others for them?"

"He is a talented man with a penchant for making friends, and while it is your job to distrust him, understand that I have known him far longer than I have known you."

"A man without enemies is a dangerous one."

"Many say the same about the great Magnus Kane," Hermes patted the spot beside him, "yet I trust you also."

Magnus took his sit beside the emperor but still looked displeased. "I might have tried to kill you a handful of times in the past and some of my more unsavory masters may call me a viper but I tell you this, Faeradaigh is more snake that I."

"He is my spymaster, his job requires him to be slippery," Hermes pointed out. "If you two could become friends, how powerful that union would be."

Magnus frowned deeply and almost shuddered in disgust. "That will never happen. Not in this life or any other."

"So... Which was she," the question left his lips the moment Hermes' laughter died out, "a shadow seeker after your god-blessed blood as offering to the god of darkness or a vengeful killer after your head for obvious reasons?"

"Neither."

"No reaction to the contents of the medicine case?"

"None."

"She is not someone who needs you dead as soon as possible then." Magnus nodded at his own words. "How was your conversation?"

Hermes ran his fingers over his robe where it crossed over his knees while he looked for the right way to phrase the experience. "I wanted to kill her and she knew it. She wanted to kill me and I knew it."

"And?"

"And nothing," he answered. "You wouldn't understand, Magnus. I have not felt such fear before, not even when I first met you in the Battle Of Badesh."

Magnus made a sound of disapproval. "If she terrifies you to this extent, there is no need to know her purpose. Killing her will end matters."

"Kill her?" Hermes gave his advisor a slight shove. "Can you bear to do that?"

The man stayed silent.

"Do not bait me, Magnus. I have experienced all manners of mind games today and I tire of it. Let us speak to each other directly without all this pointless finery."

"Did she ask of me?"

"She did not. That rules out her purpose being to acquire political power. She did not seem concerned about who was aware of my plans to ally with her, and in exchange for her help she wished for freedom."

"Did you grant it?"

"Do I have a choice?" Hermes tugged on the ribbon holding his hair and it came loose. "She is the only woman in this Selection who seems capable of facing my mother while remaining aware of that delicate middle ground."

"You truly plan to place her by the Empress Dowager's side?"

"My mother can only trust Faeradaigh so much, irregardless of how cunning he is."

"I doubt she would place more trust in a woman she has tried to kill several times."

"That depends on what happens at the hunting ground," Hermes said, already thinking about how to handle the situation. "My mother would not be able to resist placing another spy beside me, especially when she realizes that I only have eyes for said spy."

"You get ahead of yourself," Magnus said, grounding him to the present, "this test is the most important one. It not only weeds out the weak, it also reveals the threats I am yet to eliminate. It is a most challenging trial, yet you expect her to pass."

"Not pass," a smile touched Hermes' lips, "excel. This one test can propel her ahead of the others and give me a valid reason to favor her openly."

"There is something else." He pulled a ring off his finger and tossed it to Magnus. "She cut her finger on this but there was no afterglow."

"The fact that you would share your rings' healing properties with another person is already—" Magnus' mouth snapped shut when he realized just which ring he was holding. "This... is she a Deádim?"

Hermes was quick to object. "Her presence is nothing like that of Meéarine. They share little similarities."

"This ring recognizes Hekknï as well," Magnus said. He didn't believe the nun could be a Chosen One and it reflected in his voice.

"She admitted to worshiping Fate, not the gods. Fate doesn't have his chosen among members of mortality."

"Regardless, this ring is hers now since it was never bonded to you."

"I want to deliver it to Meéarine to see what she can glimpse from it. And I also want to go through the treasury records to trace its origin."

"That is why you wanted to kill her then. You thought she was Hekknï. It is instinct for Hekknï to slaughter one another," Magnus stated, in a tone that showed his aversion for the gods' 'Chosen Ones'. "What made her want to kill you?"

"She asked me how I ruled the empire and I answered."

"Your exact words?"

"Dukes and fiefs. A child's explanation." Hermes rubbed his arm, feeling the sheath hidden beneath his sleeve. "But I don't think I was the object of her bloodlust then. It was only when she knew that I had sensed it that she wished to kill me."

"She is as sensitive as you are to possible danger. And you cannot read her intentions." Magnus frowned. "You are in trouble, Your Majesty."

Hermes offered his advisor a grim smile. "If not for that ring, we might have conversed for hours. The topics she chooses are quite peculiar..."

"You are eager to go back," Magnus observed.

"She and I are caught on the bridge between friendship and enmity, playing game steeped in danger to entertain ourselves. I cannot sense evil intent or hate from her but she has thought about killing me. I consider her a like-minded person yet I thought of killing her. Such excitement."

"Mikeal is right. You like her."

"Isn't that what you both intend?" Hermes stared down at his rings, watching them glimmer in the dying sunlight filtering into the room. "You deliberately handed me her tablet knowing that I would rank it as the first. You spoke up for her in front of the entire court even though I never truly intended to harm her. Just what are you up to, Magnus? What do you all see in her?"

"Inqa is the weapons factory of our empire."

"That is an excuse, not a reason. She is the least connected woman in the palace, a tiny island in a raging storm. Are you looking for an Empress you can easily control? You talked about killing her. Can you even do it?"

"Your Majesty, my duty is to provide military strategies and give you advice, not feed your suspicions or allow you sink into paranoia."

When discomfort started to creep into his advisor's usually serene mask, Hermes chuckled. "I wasn't forcing you to answer, Magnus. Be at ease."

"I help her because she is a very useful tool in this plan of ours. She uses her cunning openly as opposed to the others who hide their abilities to seem innocent while killing one another with schemes. At the palace gates, she made the people empathize with her. At court, she forced the ministers to side with her. In the dungeons, she used your mother to achieve freedom and secure her life."

Magnus looked his emperor in the eye. "It would be such a wrong move to have such a versatile person as an enemy. We are only safe if she is a friend, or she is dead."

"Because of the matter of Nian Fey, we cannot touch her."

"That gives you enough time to get to the bottom of things and find out her motives," Magnus said. "Or you could let me intervene."

"No." The word was sharp leaving his mouth. "What of the others? Have you completed your investigations?"

"As we speak, I have our spies watching the movements of twenty women who came to the palace with the intention of harming you in some way."

"Any royals among them?"

"No royal would be so foolish."

Hermes clasped his hands and held them under his chin. He was sure that more assassins would reveal themselves, given more time. The hunt that was about to take place would be the perfect opportunity many were hoping for. What better time was there for them to kill him than when he was leaving his well-defended fortress?

"What of her letter?" he asked. "Were you able to find a secret message?"

"None." Magnus shook his head. "None of my decoding techniques revealed anything and further investigation would have left noticeable marks on the parchment."

"So, her name is Oris." Hermes tapped his fingers along his thigh, a finger for each letter. "I have never heard of it before."

"That is besides the point, Your Majesty. I do not think that letter is as simple as it seems."

"Your instincts again?" Hermes got to his feet.

"Her destiny is murky, that is warning enough," Magnus argued. "You must take this seriously."

"All this worry yet you approved of she and I being alone in a room together, unsupervised." He clasped his hand on his advisor's shoulder. "Careful now, your old spots are showing."

"Where are you going? Your ministers will be waiting for you the moment they hear that you spent two hours in a woman's room."

"I cannot evade the court forever but for today I am content to play the ghost."

"You have barely recovered from the attack," Magnus reminded him, "you must not exert yourself."

Hermes held up a hand to show that he understood. "Get the ring to Meéarine and send a physician to the nun."

Magnus held his right fist over his heart and bowed as his emperor left the room. "Yes, Your Majesty."

~

3277 words. These 3 chapters are a total of 6950 words, written in 2 days. A nice round and even number.

Shout out to IAmActuallyADragon and Nacht_Owl and ToryQuinn, I love you guys♥️ Well, I love all of you but I'm going to have to spend at least an hour answering some pretty awesome comments. Such a great gift😊

So, here it is, Hermes' POV. I love the similarities between Oris and Hermes, haha. And similarities between Oris and Magnus, and Oris and Mikeal.

I miss Mikeal, damn it. And look at that, Hermes knows her name! They read her letter and found nothing wrong with it. What will Oris see that they didn't? I'm looking forward to showing it, though it'll be long (probably).

And, Faeradaigh is Hermes' spymaster (leader of a group of spies) and Magnus doesn't trust him (does Magnus trust anybody?). And Faeradaigh and Hermes have known each other longer.

Ha, Hermes is making plans. Oris is making plans. The Hunt is going to be something big.

Hermes said that he was going to check treasury records... *Le Gasp* Those wouldn't happen to be at a library, would they? *eyes go wide*