The Crimson Crystal

Despite it being the middle of the day, Arisa lay sprawled sideways on the sofa in a wispy nightgown, popping olives into her mouth as she lost herself in thought.

A maid brushed her lustrous golden hair, while the head maid sat beside her peeling fruit. Originally, the head maid's duty was to manage the other maids, but ever since Arisa had arrived, she had handed all such tasks off to her subordinates and devoted herself solely to attending the former empress.

"You've heard the news, I trust, Your Majesty? Some commoner went and handed Daisy a Red Crystal."

The head maid's tone dripped with incredulity. She had known Daisy since the girl was young. And though her own family had since fallen on hard times, she was nobility born and bred, which meant that back when Daisy was nobody, she had never bothered with formalities in addressing her.

"I did. Though the knight gave it back to His Majesty, of course."

"Receiving a Red Crystal, and now she thinks she's something special. You saw how insolently she tore up the garden earlier, didn't you?"

For some reason, the head maid had resented Daisy since long ago. All the more so whenever she saw the special treatment Franz bestowed upon her.

"Have you ever seen a Red Crystal yourself, Head Maid?"

Arisa asked in a lazier voice than usual.

"How would someone like me ever lay eyes on something so precious? I've only heard rumors. They say it's as clear and red as human blood."

The head maid sliced a perfectly ripened peach and set it on Arisa's plate. Arisa speared it with her fork and took a bite. Sweet juice ran down her chin.

"I've seen one."

"During the procession, I suppose?"

"Once before that, too."

"Where in the world would you see something so rare?"

When the head maid asked in astonishment, even the maid brushing Arisa's hair turned to look at her with interest.

"My father could never resist anything valuable. He told the merchant he kept in his employ that money was no object, and ordered him to procure a Red Crystal. He treasured it so much he wouldn't even show it to his own children. But while my father was away from the estate, I stole a look at it."

Arisa's eyes glittered, as if reflecting that crystal from years past.

The head maid swallowed hard.

"It was truly red and clear. So clear you could see the reflection of my own hand holding it. It was so wondrous that I finally understood why people say good fortune comes to whoever possesses a Red Crystal."

"Was it exactly like the one you saw at the procession? They say Red Crystals are all nearly identical in shape."

The head maid pressed the question urgently, as if the crystal were right before her eyes.

"It was the same. But…"

"But what?"

"…It's nothing."

Arisa gave a faint smile and rose from her seat.

The maid, deflated, put away the brush.

"I should go pay my respects to His Majesty."

Arisa asked them to prepare her clothes.

"But His Majesty hasn't summoned you…"

The head maid faltered, letting the words trail off. Arisa had gone to see the Emperor of her own accord on many occasions — sometimes with a reason, sometimes without. Whatever the reason, the Emperor never seemed pleased by the Empress's visits. It was obvious to anyone with eyes, no matter how unobservant. All the more so since their return from the Forest of Illusions.

The head maid believed it was because the Empress had fallen into the Red Spring and lost her child — and that she herself bore some blame for failing to guard her well — so facing the Emperor was an uncomfortable affair.

"If His Majesty won't come to me, then I must go to him."

Arisa said this with a radiant smile.

The head maid's face brightened in an instant, mirroring her. With Arisa saying the words, it seemed any obstacle could be overcome. Yes — His Majesty was only keeping his distance out of concern for Her Majesty's health, so it was only right that Her Majesty take the first step.

So thinking, the head maid bustled off in a flutter to fetch something pretty to wear.

Once even the maids had withdrawn, Arisa gazed out the window and sank into thought.

She had seen it, unmistakably — the moment that man handed Daisy the Red Crystal, it had blazed with light. It lasted only an instant, but Arisa had witnessed it with her own eyes. The crystal she had found in her father's chamber had never once glowed like that. Not when it passed into the Emperor's hand, either.

And she knew, without a doubt, that when she had fallen in, the Red Spring had run red as blood. It was when Daisy entered the Forest of Illusions. Despite the sorrow from that memory that threatened to swallow her whole, she had visited the Red Spring several times since — and the spring, as always, had been blue.

Could it be that Daisy had some connection to magic?

But that was nothing more than wild speculation. She had no proof of anything. Above all, Daisy was a Rainer — of the most unimpeachable lineage in the entire Lowes Empire. She could not afford to ruin everything on a suspicion she could never substantiate.

For now, the urgent matter was separating Daisy from the Emperor. With Daisy at his side, he enjoyed the overflowing support of the people.

Her course of action became clear. Tear Daisy away from the Emperor. And in the same stroke, claim his heart. The first would weaken the imperial authority; the second would sweep aside contracts and obligations entirely, letting her remain Empress forever.

"Just watch. I'll show you how I survive."

Arisa clenched her fist. She would never again live a life swayed by her father. She would climb proudly to the highest seat of all and sweep away every soul who had made her and Logan into what they were.

Arisa vowed it, and vowed it again.

*

Franz stared at the nobles assembled in the council chamber with the dead, glazed eyes of a man watching spoiled fish rot, his thoughts a world away.

He had never had a power base to begin with. Back in his days as the Cursed Crown Prince, when the nobles scorned him to his face, it hadn't troubled him much. The Emperor existed for his people, and if he ultimately earned their respect, he'd reasoned, then petty factionalism among useless aristocrats meant nothing at all.

Even when Michael Amesis had dangled his own daughter before him and pressed for the marriage, Franz had known full well the man intended to challenge the throne through her. He had accepted that price and married her anyway as a calculated move — to keep the nobles quiet. The base Michael Amesis commanded was useful, certainly, but more than that, Franz had believed that once the marriage tied their houses together, the nobles would stop nitpicking his every action, and he could win a measure more of the people's trust.

It had been a grave miscalculation.

Reading the room, Franz could tell that Michael Amesis had no interest in merely meddling in politics through his daughter's position. Did the man intend to become Emperor himself?

The nobles had always sided with Michael Amesis — lord of ever-prosperous Dafke, sole Archduke of the Lowes Empire — over an imperial palace starved of manpower, supplies, and capital from endlessly funneling everything north. After all, more scraps fell from his table.

Even so, that they would behave this boldly — with a knight having survived the Forest of Illusions, and the people's adoration for that knight soaring to the heavens — was entirely beyond his expectations.

"Absolutely not! The treasury is stretched thin as it is — if we cut taxes, how are we expected to run the country?"

With the demonic beasts gone, abolishing the Monster Tax was the only correct course. Yet the nobles, as if they had been lying in wait, clamored over one another that the Emperor was hopelessly naive about the ways of the world — that raising taxes now would still barely patch the holes in the palace's finances.

That vomit-inducing chorus of greed nearly turned Franz's stomach. For a moment he propped his head on one hand, expression blank, gazing at the nobles' oil-slicked napes. Not an ounce of muscle on those bodies — they were so well-fed that a mere touch might wring grease from them like a rag.

Small wonder, then, that Franz's eyes had gone dull as a dead fish.

"I'm curious why you're all so worried about the kingdom's finances, given that you pay the kingdom no taxes at all."

At Franz's words, the nobles exchanged embarrassed coughs and each grew suddenly stingy with their voices. The nobles had amassed their wealth from the taxes levied in their own territories, while the palace ran on the taxes of the capital, Sayron. True, the crown occasionally requested soldiers or supplies from the nobles for special circumstances, but such occasions were rare.

The reason they bristled so violently at abolishing the Monster Tax was that their own revenues would shrink. The Monster Tax, set aside specifically for repairing damage caused by demonic beasts, flowed to the palace rather than to them — so on paper, abolishing it should have changed nothing about their households. Judging by their outrage, it was obvious without looking that they had been skimming from it all along.

"But, Your Majesty—"

"The Monster Tax bears the name of the very beasts it was created to fight. A tax collected on the premise that the empire sends soldiers north to slay the demonic beasts and shield its citizens from harm. Now that the beasts are gone, on what grounds do you propose to keep it? Shall we rename it a Preparedness Tax, perhaps?"

Franz's voice dropped a shade lower. It was quiet, yet it carried a force that seized everyone's attention. And the angrier he grew, the quieter his voice became.

"The commoners are creatures who cannot survive without our protection as nobles, regardless. If not for us, who would shield them? Who would grant them land to live off, raise walls to guard them from their enemies?"

"Quite right. Paying taxes is the barest minimum of conscience — it is hardly exploitation."

Seeing Michael Amesis wear a serene little smile, the nobles took heart and raised their cries again.

"Your Majesty."

Verdi approached and whispered something at Franz's ear. His expression twisted at once.

"We are in the middle of conducting state affairs. Why would you relay that to me now?"

"My apologies. She's been planted out there without moving an inch, so the attendants could hardly bear it."

Verdi answered as calmly as ever, as though entirely unaware that Franz was seething.

"Things must be truly dire if it reached me through the attendants themselves."

While the nobles glanced at one another in confusion, unable to grasp what was happening, Franz fixed Michael Amesis with a long, piercing stare.

"Your daughter is waiting for me outside, I'm told. Perhaps you'd care to go out in my stead."

"I beg your pardon?"

"I take it you consider your own person more precious than the affairs of state."

At the frost in Franz's voice, Michael Amesis went outside. And through the closed doors came the unmistakable crack of a slap.

To strike the Empress's cheek knowing full well the Emperor could hear it was an act of open contempt for the throne. A short while later, Michael Amesis re-entered, his face composed as if nothing had happened.

"My apologies. The fault is mine — I raised her poorly."

"Can a man who cannot even raise his own child properly hope to govern his people?"

It was a barb laced with unmistakably personal venom — yet at the same time, it was a remark perfectly calculated to strip the dignity of the man who had pressured the nobles into opposing the Monster Tax's abolition. Michael Amesis's face contorted ugly.

"Your Majesty — the people's support must be earned with your own hands. It is not something granted by the mere luck of a single knight."

Stung in his pride, Michael Amesis struck back at something entirely unrelated. At his flagrantly overreaching remark, Matheus, standing behind them, let his hand drift toward his sword hilt.

"Can luck alone carry a person out of the Forest of Illusions alive? You underestimate my knight, my lord."

As Franz replied with a dry smile, Verdi gave a small shake of his head, and Matheus lowered his hand once more.

"Besides, what my knight has accomplished is my accomplishment. The cheers raised for my knight belong to me as well."

Franz glanced to the side and nodded. Andre Maxstein came forward carrying documents so lengthy they nearly dragged along the floor, and began laying out the plan for securing the palace's finances in the wake of the Monster Tax's abolition.

As they listened to his flawless, airtight proposal, the complexions of Michael Amesis and the assembled nobles grew darker and darker.