Imperator: Resurrection of an Empire

Months Before~

The mansion sat on the edge of the former noble district of Intin, framed by high marble walls and gilded balconies that overlooked its private gardens.

Within those walls, history did not march — it lingered.

Queen Hayna walked barefoot through the violet-washed colonnade, trailing her fingers along the vine-covered walls like a priestess on procession.

Her golden hair, once bound in the intricate coils of a sovereign queen, now flowed loose and wild.

She wore a silken robe dyed in Parthian reds, too fine for a woman no longer ruling, too sheer for a woman no longer concerned.

But Hayna no longer walked in this world.

She whispered as she walked — not to the guards who stood silent and impassive at every archway, but to her imaginary court.

Generals.

Ministers.

Courtiers who had died or bowed to Julius over a year ago already..

"The Legion's flank has weakened,"

She murmured to the air, pausing at a fig tree, its leaves trembling in the late spring breeze.

"We'll continue to hold the northern gate until reinforcements arrive from the Black Fortress. Tell Lord Varin—"

She stopped, brow furrowing.

Lord Varin had been executed.

She remembered that now.

Or thought she did.

The memory shifted like sand.

Hayna's lips twitched into a smile.

"No matter. He's late again. Always was."

The queen had long since gone insane as assumed by the visitors and guards of this palace.

Origionally the summer palace of the Lunan Kingdom, now the building served a new purpose.

The site of the Remnant Lunan Kingdoms last stand, but the Lunanese forces had long since surrendered and the guardians replaced with Romanus legionaires.

Now the Palace had become a gilded cage, a place where captured royals were sent by order of Julius.

~

From the balcony above, two women watched in silence.

Queen Darsa formerly of Parthia — once fierce and silver-tongued — now spoke rarely.

The Queen was still in mourning as her husband and sons had fallen in battle to repulse the Romanus legions only to fall before they could be captured and ransomed.

Not to mention mourning for her nation which had been annexed by Romanus.

Beside her sat Queen Rheya of Ramie, former 2nd queen of the Ramie kingdom, her youth giving her a clarity the older queens sometimes envied being only 17 years of age as the decrepit slain king prefered the touch of a young woman renewing his queens fairly regularly.

"She doesn't see the walls,"

Rheya said softly.

"She doesn't want to,"

Darsa replied.

They both watched as Hayna knelt beneath the fig tree, speaking to phantoms in the grass.

"It's like she's playing queen still,"

Rheya said.

"But her court is just… memory just like her nation."

Darsa's face hardened.

"Don't mock her."

"I'm not."

Rheya turned away from the balcony, arms folding.

"I just wonder if that's what will happen to us too."

Darsa said nothing for a long moment.

Below, a servant approached Hayna with a parasol.

The queen did not flinch or recoil.

She merely accepted the gesture, rising with unnatural grace as if the performance must continue.

"She was the first,"

Darsa said at last.

"The first queen Julius captured. The first throne he broke. They say she threw a wine glass at him when he offered her terms."

Rheya blinked.

"And now she picks flowers."

Darsa nodded slowly.

"We're not prisoners in a dungeon, Rheya. We're relics. Symbols."

"Bargaining chips?"

"Or future brides. Or useful wombs. Whatever he needs us to be."

They stood in silence as the breeze carried the scent of citrus and quiet despair.

Elsewhere in the mansion, behind heavier doors, the others were gathering — eight princesses now lived within the gilded estate alongside the three queens, each brought from some corner of Julius's expanding empire.

They had everything: food, books, music, private gardens.

Everything except freedom, they were restricted to the palatial estate and were under guard to not be allowed to leave.

They took meals together — not out of necessity, but from habit.

A parliament of fallen crowns, trying not to vanish in the stillness and maintaining the civility they had been accustomed to.

At that evening's meal, Queen Hayna entered late joining the assembly of royal ladies.

She wore a flowing gown with a sheer cut, something a noble woman would never be caught dead wearing but the queen strolled around free of thought as she walked the room.

"Have you come to preside, Your Majesty?"

Princess Seris of Ramie asked, her voice dry.

Hayna didn't respond.

She sat at the head of the long table and folded her hands.

"We've reached a truce with Romanus,"

she said, voice calm.

"They've agreed to retreat from the eastern provinces."

There was a pause.

Queen Rheya exchanged a glance with Darsa.

Then Rheya spoke.

"Hayna… the war ended months ago. The east is Romanus now. Your kingdom is gone."

Hayna turned her head, eyes glassy.

"But I still hold court, don't I?"

she asked, genuinely puzzled.

"The palace is intact. The guards still bow."

"Because they're paid to,"

Darsa said, not unkindly.

"And we're not in your palace. We're in his cage."

Hayna blinked slowly.

Then smiled, serene and distant.

"I see. You've chosen to live in surrender."

Rheya stood.

"We live in the world. You're living in a memory."

Hayna didn't reply.

She merely reached for the cup before her and toasted the air.

"To victory,"

she said.

No one drank.

~

Later that night, as moonlight fell across the colonnades, Princess Kotone slipped past the guards and made her way toward the old storage hall near the rear of the estate.

She had noticed something odd in the stores — in the days since she was brought here the storage room where towels, linens, and scented oils were stored would dropp drastically over time before being restocked by the staff.

Even with 11 high class women in this estate the sheets were not being changed daily, and the scented oils were almost being rationed when provided only allowing for the bare essentials.

After spying on the staff she learned that this large amount of missing things were going towards Queen Hayna's wing of the palace.

When she found the door, she paused.

It was ajar.

Inside, the candles were still burning.

There, in the soft light, she saw what she didn't want to believe:

Within the room, the young princess sighted her target.

Former Queen of the Southern Lunan kingdom, or better known as the Lunan Remnant had placed herself on her knees in a submissive position with a main squatting behind her, thrusting himself into her.

Defiling her graceful royal self, but rather than having been taken by the man.

The queen's voice radiated out of her mouth admist moans.

"Yes!"

"Keep fighting the bastard usurper!"

"I'll guarentee you're loyalty to me never wavers!"