His vast experience commanding troops and forming military strategy came in handy when giving orders to enforcers and organizing the emperor’s assets across the empire. Still, Razine bristled at interacting with nobles, Malicus, or the Oracle. His least favorite to deal with by far, however, was the Oracle. Razine didn’t understand why Malicus had insisted on keeping him around and elevating him to his personal advisor. Razine, unlike the emperor, never liked or trusted the man. At least for today, he would be dealing with Malicus.
The attendant watched as the general approached him. He could always tell Razine from his crisp dark blue uniform with the gold cords that indicated his rank. Razine’s broad build, harsh face and piercing brown eyes were easily recognizable and intimidating.
The valet scrambled over himself to reach the door before Razine did. Without a moment to spare, the nervous man swung open the door to the emperor’s private chambers. “General Razine to see you, your eminence,” said the out-of-breath attendant. He was left feeling threatened and unappreciated by the general as he watched the man move past him and through the doorway. Once Razine had pushed through the entrance, the attendant quickly closed it behind him, the sturdy and ornate wooden double door reverberating as it closed with a heavy thud.
Razine made his way through the elegant but dim chamber. The ravens of the Colfax insignia could still be found woven throughout the architecture of the palace, carved in relief in facades and columns since its construction. However, the Colfax colors, formerly observable in luxurious purple fabrics adorned on uniforms and banners throughout the palace, had been replaced with a dark blue theme accented by garish gold. Razine found himself missing the aesthetic tastes of Malicus’ predecessor.
The Colfax dynasty had ruled Obsidia for twelve generations before Empress Astrella had been overthrown during the Great Uprising. They had been the ones to create the Obsidian Throne and bring the various territories under the banner of a single empire. Their influence could be seen all over the country. It was said that the one who sat on the Obsidian Throne could bend the wills of nations and people to their wishes. Razine did not necessarily believe that, but Empress Astrella and her family had wielded an enormous amount of influence.
The Colfax dynasty had not only unified the coastal mainland region of Obsidia and formed the empire, but they had earned the loyalty of the Isle of Shalemore. The vassal state’s allegiance being won was a result of the Colfax’s victory in the Emerald War. It’d been a long and bloody conflict, but necessary at the time. The isle’s naval and military might was a serious threat to the newly-established Obsidian Empire. Luckily, the Colfax’s were able to pushback and subdue the isle.
When Malicus usurped power, he was irate that the isle refused to acknowledge him as emperor. They claimed to only have allegiance to the raven, not Malicus. As a result, they withdrew to their lands and made it clear their relationship with Obsidia was over.
Malicus had wanted to invade Shalemore as a result, but Razine was luckily able to convince his friend that doing so would be a terrible mistake. Razine had no interest in starting a war that he knew Obsidia was unlikely to win.
The well-renowned power of the Colfax line did seem to falter briefly during the last few months before the rebellion. Empress Astrella, who seemingly had lost her way, failed to ever regain her strength and control again. Except perhaps in death.
Razine wondered why she had chosen the path she did. To think, despite how history may remember her, this was all caused by the hatred of a spurned fiancé. If she’d simply married Malicus, this might well have all been avoided. Razine always thought, that as the last of her line, she should’ve been more practical. Instead, she resisted marrying Malicus. To make things worse, she’d reportedly fallen in love with someone else. The affair was insulting enough to Malicus, but that was not what drove him to betray her.
Astrella had become reclusive in the months preceding the coup. Speculations about the reason behind her withdrawal were numerous, but one stung Malicus more than any other. Whispers of the empress being pregnant and birthing a daughter rapidly swept through the palace and then the empire during her final days. The hints of a child’s birth had proven to be the last straw for Malicus’ patience and Astrella’s reign. Rejection and public humiliation were not things Malicus, as the eldest son of the very powerful House Burque, handled well. Even if the rumors could’ve eventually been proven to be untrue or the people could’ve accepted the child as Malicus’, he did not. Nor did he take the slight lightly.
In the end, all that mattered was that the empress—and her legacy—fell. Malicus conspired, with the help of Razine, to usurp power and control of Obsidia. Without a clear heir, the Colfax dynasty’s hold on the empire was ended when Astrella was imprisoned and then publicly executed. Any and all those loyal to her met the same fate. All guards, extended family, and servants who had not died in the coup were summarily executed in a bloodbath spanning weeks.
The all-important lost heiress was never proven to exist, despite the dying empress claiming emphatically that she did. Many presumed that the baby, if it ever existed, had died in the attack on the palace. Rubble and damage from intense fires made determining the truth all but impossible. Still, the rumors of a lost heiress persisted and irritated Malicus incessantly. With the empress dead, his fury focused on finding and killing any threat to his reign. That meant the lost heiress. His obsession with locating her drove every decision he made, including the creation of the Shadow’s Hand and the increased brutality of the enforcers.
Razine threw open the door to the emperor’s personal study, expecting to
