Shyra's hands trembled as she handed the fourth scroll from the golden plate to the final soldier. She repeated the instructions, and he gave a short bow and stood beside his fellow soldier.

Seeing them stand shoulder to shoulder, bearing royal orders to look for her husband, made her wonder how things could have changed so easily.

Just yesterday she was laughing at Mahi's silly joke. Just yesterday he'd given her a bouquet of flowers during lunch. Just yesterday she'd gone to bed with the bright expectation of seeing him again.

Now, she didn't know where he was. She didn't know whether he was alive or dead. She didn't even know if he had run away from his responsibilities. All she knew was that she would look for him, and keep looking until the strength left her limbs and her brain was addled beyond recognition.

"Soldiers," she began, addressing the courtroom. "All of you have been tasked with giving these scrolls to the royalty of Mehri, Ronin, Ilya, and Ziya. You'll also have to stay behind and help the courtiers conduct their private investigation. I have given each soldier personal instructions, so make sure you follow them."

The four soldiers before her bowed and went to stand beside their appointed courtiers. Everything was done with a sense of foreboding, and Shyra knew that the soldiers and courtiers she had chosen would take their task with the required seriousness.

So she nodded and jerked her chin towards the doors, dismissing all of them. With a final bow, the soldiers strode alongside their courtiers and left to mount their spaceships.

Once she made sure that they left, Shyra snapped her fingers and the rest of the search teams made their way to the center of the court.

"All of you are my backup teams," she addressed them, her voice remaining collected and calm. "You'll research shady and dangerous individuals; living beings that the courtiers would be too scared to approach. Leave no criminal unturned; praani, human, man, woman, even child. Do not spare anyone from the investigation. Find Mahi," her voice cracked slightly, and she took a moment to compose herself. "Find your emperor and bring him back to his rightful place."

Shyra fixed the man before her with a death glare, making him cower. No words were needed from her; the pain she carried due to the absence of her husband for the past few haftas had sharpened her gaze, and anyone who met her eyes flinched at the raw anguish in them.

"So what you're telling me," she began with measured breaths, "is that even a team of Alza's most skilled soldiers haven't succeeded in finding my husband. Your emperor. Is that right, General?"

He trembled and shook his head. "No empress, that is not what I meant. Our men are still searching for His Majesty. We have yet to question a few more praanis from the far corners of Ronin and Mehri, and..."

Shyra raised her hand, silencing his string of excuses. "I see. You may leave now. Keep searching for him."

She could see the man's jaw tighten as he nodded and bowed, but she couldn't care less. She didn't care about how hard she was pushing them, and how they thought of her as obnoxious and crazy.

Rumors had already begun spreading through the Pranali. Some said that Mahi had been killed and that it was pointless to look for him. Others said that Shyra had planned this from the start; seducing the prince, becoming the empress, and then disposing of him to become the sole ruler.

In the beginning, Shyra had worried and cried about the cruel things people said, but with time, all those feelings faded away and soon the one thing that mattered was finding Mahi.

She dismissed the General and set out for a walk through the palace grounds. On the way, she picked Mahi's favorite flowers and held them close to her heart. Nowadays, it was the only scent that reminded her of him and kept her spirits up.

Shyra was starting to gather the blossoms in a bunch when she felt a soft hand on her arm. She frowned at the unexpected touch and was about to order the holder to get her hand off, but the hand violently pulled her arm, making her stumble.

Shyra's dagger was out in an instant, and she spun and pushed her assailant to the wall, holding her arms in a rugged grip and pressing the blade to her throat.

However, instead of trembling in fear, the woman caught in her grip guffawed, startling Shyra. Her mind whizzed with questions, but she just tightened her grip in response until the woman's laughter morphed into a wince.

"Okay, okay. I get it. You're capable of helping us. You can let me go now," she said, wiggling in Shyra's grip to ease the pressure. Shyra was still suspicious of the woman, but she eased her grip and held her wrists instead.

"Helping? Helping who?" Shyra asked warily. The woman jerked her head towards the palace in response.

"Follow me and I'll show you."

Shyra nodded and gripped her dagger in a tight hold. The woman, who introduced herself as Eyad, led her to a secluded corner in the gardens. Another young woman waited for them in the shade of a tree, leaning against the tree trunk and whistling.

When she spotted them, her face broke in a relieved grin, and her lips moved in a silent prayer of thanks. Shyra often said it herself when she needed assurance and strength.

Today, however, she contended to cross her arms and glare at both of them. "Before we begin... Whatever this is, let me warn you that I have guards posted everywhere. I just need to raise my voice, and they'll come rushing. So, for your own sake, don't try anything funny."

The girl frowned at Shyra's statement and glanced at Eyad, who simply shrugged.

"Eyad, what did you tell her? Why is she hostile?" the girl asked, and Shyra bristled at her words. I'm giving you my precious time, and this is how you thank me? She wanted to snap, but the girl slapped her forehead and sighed.

"I shouldn't have sent you to look for the empress," she patronized herself. Eyad opened her mouth to respond, probably to laugh raucously, but the girl hurriedly continued speaking.

"I apologize for our shaky introduction, empress," she said with a bow. "Let us begin afresh. My name is Zehra, and I'm the handmaiden of Empress Hira. And this is Eyad, handmaiden of Princess Arina."

Shyra frowned at the unfamiliar names. Being a royal, she was well-versed in all the royalty of pranali and their relations with each other. But these women... she'd never even heard of them. And besides, the title of empress could only be held by one person- her. Which meant...

"Oh right, you don't know that other galaxies exist as well," Zehra muttered, causing Shyra to chuckle wildly.

Other galaxies. My life keeps getting complicated when I think it can't get any worse than it is.

"I apologize for the way in which you're finding out, but your pranali isn't the only galaxy that's inhabited by living beings. Apart from yours, there are four other systems in close proximity to each other. Of course, this is excluding the billions of life forms that could exist in the universe."

"Wait," Shyra said. Her head was beginning to spin now. "Let's just stick to these five galaxies for now."

"Right. So, all these galaxies were being ruled by an emperor and empress, just like yours. Until recently, only Empress Hira and her husband had the tools that could be used to communicate through space, which is why there hadn't been any interaction between systems till now."

"So what changed now?" Shyra asked, although she already dreaded the answer. There could be only one reason that caused such a drastic change in their dynamics.

"It wasn't just your husband who got captured, empress," Eyad said, gentle with her words for once. "All the emperors of our galaxies have been stolen from us. This happened a few haftas ago, and since then we've been searching for the apprehender."

Shyra exhaled shakily. "Have you discovered the apprehender, then? Who had the guts to pull off such a stunt from right under our noses?"

Eyad and Zehra glanced at each other with apprehension. "I think you already know the answer," Eyad began, "But the man who had captured the rulers, who plans to use them for his conquering plans, is Arawn Adair."

Shyra stumbled on the spot and felt the world around her shake.

"No way." she whispered, hugging herself tightly. "There's no way Arawn can pull such a stunt. Even he isn't competent enough to kidnap so many powerful kings and emperors."

She could feel Eyad and Zehra's sympathetic glances, but her mind was miles ahead; processing and analyzing the information she had received, and the best way to use it.

"There's one last thing," Zehra said, fumbling with her bangles. "All the queens wanted to talk to you face-to-face."

Shyra raised her eyebrows in response. She wasn't sure how she felt about that but decided to humor them and hear what they wanted to say. "Alright. Let's see if we can arrange a meeting at a place convenient to all of us. I'll have to talk to my ministers and..."

"Er, empress," Zehra interrupted softly. "The rules want to have a meeting with you now. In fact, they should be calling me in a kshana."

Before Shyra could even process that, Zehra reached into the folds of her clothes and pulled out a metallic object, and tapped on it a few times. To Shyra's surprise, a woman began speaking through the device in a strange language, until Zehra reminded her that they were in pranali, and Empress Shyra was with them.

Eyad tsked and snatched the device from Zehra, shoving it in Shyra's hand instead. Shyra had never seen anything as weird as this sight; two women staring up at her through the transparent casing of the metal.

"Greetings, Empress Shyra. I understand that this must be a lot to take in, so let me begin with simpler introductions," a woman began. "My name is Hira, and I'm the empress of surmandal, and this is Arina, princess of prakashyukt."