Page 59 of Poisoned Empire

“If you would all take your seats, I believe we have some serious negotiations to attend to.” Even tired and thrown off her game, Domina Emerald cut an imposing figure. She motioned to the four sumptuously decorated chairs seated around a circular table.

“Yes. Best get on with this.” Domina Topaz’s smile was bright.

Selene and Domina Opal seated themselves without further comment. As if in on the scheme, each woman’s servants had selected a gown whose colours and patterns clashed with the other three. Inside, Selene was screaming. Aside from threats of painful death, how was she going to win over women she’d spent her time dismissing and insulting? Emerald cleared her throat politely and spoke with utter confidence.

“I will get straight to the point. Iwillbe empress. While I have no notion how Domina Amethyst made her way into our number, I can say with confidence that you, Charis, and you, Mina, are here due to my careful efforts. I expect the two of you to cast your votes for my candidacy, and I should hope I do not need to say aloud why.”

Opal and Topaz paled, their expressions horrified. Opal swallowed hard and schooled her features, a hardness making the whites of her eyes glitter with her namesake’s fire.

“So you expect to win with veiled threats, Zoe? You’re not the only one who has gathered information on the others. Do I need to mention the name of a certain stable boy who made your acquaintance in your seventeenth year?” Opal relaxed in her seat, chin raised.

“How dare you make such baseless accusations, Charis!” Emerald stood, her hands fisting at her sides.

“When your family turned him out without reference, he came to work in our stables,” Topaz replied with quiet fury, her smile sinister as she steepled her fingers.

Selene vaguely remembered some gossip to that effect from one of the books she’d read. Most mages had a contraceptive spell inked on their bodies to prevent pregnancies, so there was rarely any evidence of youthful affairs. It allowed for a great deal of fun to be had by the lower classes, and discreet dalliances among their noble counterparts. It was only ever a problem if you forgot to get the spell re-applied. However, it was the secrets both Opal and Topaz seemed to harbour that Selene wasn’t privy to.

“Okay, I understand the dirt on Emerald, not that it amounts to much. But what in the hells are you threatening Opal and Topaz with?” Selene asked Emerald.

“Don’t you dare!” Topaz slammed her fist on the table.

“Your reign will be turbulent if you speak a word,” Opal threatened.

Emerald smiled cruelly.

“If you wish to keep your secrets buried, you will cast your votes in my favour.”

Selene watched her gold disappear as Opal and Topaz looked at each other in angry resignation.

“Did you two commit treason or something?” Selene asked. She had to do something, anything, to keep Emerald from getting their votes.

“No!” Topaz replied, horrified.

“Never!” Opal growled.

“Did you kill someone together?” Selene continued.

“Of course not!” Opal rolled her eyes, exasperated, as Topaz shook her head.

“Then I really don’t understand why you’re worried about her threats.”

“Of course, the walking scandal doesn’t understand! How could you ever understand what it’s like when no one expects anything from you?!” Topaz snapped, her eyes shining with unshed tears. “You know what, Zoe? Fuck you and your gods-damned superiority complex! I’ll tell her myself!”

“Mina, you don’t have to. She has no right to know.” Opal tried to soothe her, but Topaz slapped her outstretched hand.

“Fuck you too, Charis! You sent me away! You threw me aside because I loved you, and all you wanted was a plaything! I only came here to keep you from finding the man you obviously wanted instead!”

“That’s not fair! I sent you away because I had to, because my father wouldn’t let me love someone I couldn’t keep! And I can’t keep you!”

The revelation felt almost anticlimactic. Selene was well aware that same-sex relationships were frowned upon amongst the nobility. But to the lower classes, who couldn’t inherit property and who weren’t expected to produce heirs, it was hardly a punishable act. It wasn’t even illegal. If the griffin guest from a foreign kingdom could openly have wild orgies in the palace with anyone he pleased, it was hardly worth mentioning if one domina desired another. Selene was about to say as much, but Domina Emerald cut in before she could speak.

“And neither of you will live it down if the nobility of Lethe know the two of you were lovers. You especially, Mina, would be lucky to be married off to some beast mage son of a tenant farmer. So cast your votes. No one else need know your secrets,” Emerald promised as she leaned back in her chair, triumphant.

“No one in my province gives a fuck who I bed. It’s only you continentals who can’t accept people as they are. I won’t vote for you,” Opal retorted, crossing her arms.

“You’re correct, no one expects an islander to act as a good and moral daughter. But Domina Topaz is not an islander, and her father is a strict traditionalist. You may be able to hide your shame across the narrow sea, but Mina cannot. Perhaps you no longer love her, but surely you care enough not to sentence her to a life rotting away of neglect at best, or suffering abuse at worst.”

Opal and Topaz exchanged a troubled look. Topaz turned away first, producing her orb.

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