Chapter 21
Royal palace of Sparta
341 BCE
139th year of the Immortal Queens reign
Despite being 157 years old Kassandra had not aged since she was at least 25 under her rule the Empire had become an economic and military superpower forging trading relation with the Carthaginian Empire.
her magical academies continued to thrive each region of her empire had one the magical children born in Greece the Balkans or Crimea they had the royal magical academy in Sparta those in Anatolia or Syria had the academy of Gorgo in Byzantium those in Gaza or Egypt had the Academy of Ikaros in Kassandria and for Persia they had the royal academy of Leonidas in Babylon.
The mages were revered as the chosen of Kassandra with them as healers or solders they were well respected and could freely practice their craft, it helped to spread a new movement across the Empire known as the Cult of Kassandra under her rule they were no longer treated as demons.
The Cult worshipped Kassandra as the divine link between there world and the Gods her will was the will of the gods in Egypt the Cult had managed to have Kassandra become a member of the Pantheon and were currently working on the same in Greece.
However, there had been some problems around 18 years ago when one of her students in the academy attempted to seize power for herself it had failed of course as she could not convince any of her fellow students to turn on the Kassandra so she was forced to flee and ended up in the Region of Judea.
Form here she used her magic to control the minds of the zealots and kill the Spartan Governor while he was on his way to a meeting with the Priests at first, she believed it would cause the Queen to negotiate she could not have been more wrong.
Within a month the Spartan Army had crushed her rebels led by the Queen herself with a squad of Mages raining death from above on them it ended with the sacking of Jerusalem however she had fled long before the gates had fell the people thought had been exiled from the Empire as punishment for aiding the Rebels and sent to the lands west of Egypt (modern day Libya).
But that was then now Kassandra was expecting the King of Macedon Phillip 2nd and his 16-year-old son Alexander to discuss his son becoming his heir.
Just outside the city Phillip was riding with his son and a handful of guards towards the city when he heard this son sighing. "what is your problem lad you should be honoured that you are to enter the holy City and meet the Queen".
Alexander was not interested in the slightest his mother Olympias had told him that the Queen was a butcher and used Dark Magic to crush Persia that he was a true son of Zeus and that he would liberate the Empire and rule as a true son of the Gods.
For you see Olympias was the Student who tried to rebel against Kassandra, who caused the rebellion in Judea and now she had fled to Macedon caught the eyes of King Phillip and gave him a son all in her long and complicated plan to Kill Kassandra.
However, there was one problem with her plan Kassandra knew who she was she knew of her plans for Years but allowed it to happen because it amused her Greatly, she prayed the boy did something Stupid.
As she sat on her Throne, she heard the familiar screech of her trusted companion Ikaros as it turned out he was specially created for Kassandra by the Gods to be her Companion as the years went by he flew in takin his place on her shoulder just as the doors opened granting access for Phillip and his Son.
As the two men walked towards her Kassandra could feel the sons anger directed at her and the lust he had for the Throne before Phillip could address her Alexanders anger won out drawing his dagger, he charged right at her shocking the whole room.
Alexander knew his mother would not want this yet but he didn't care he was a son of the gods he would bring honour back to the Empire as he got within feet of her his nerves were suddenly on fire.
Kassandra still sitting in her Throne mere lifted her hand and blasted him with a bolt of Lightning sending the stupid boy flying to the ground next to his shocked father as he shook in pain both he and his father found themselves surrounded by the Royal Guard ready to kill on the Queens command.
Both Alexander and Phillip were arrested and imprisoned and a Spartan Army was sent to arrest Olympias led by a group of Loyal Battlemages trained personally by Kassandra within a month Olympias was arrested and dragged to Sparta to face The Immortal Queens justice.
At the trial Alexander was shocked to see it was his friend Ptolemy who had reported to the Queen and told her of his Mothers plans his reasons as to why, "he may have been my friend but my loyalty is to the Immortal Queen.
Ptolemy would be rewarded by being named Grand Vizier of Egypt and leading a successful campaign in Libya conquering the land known as Cyrenaica bringing it into the Empire alexander was found guilty of Treason and sentence to death he was executed in Sparta a year later Phillip was released without charge however he was no longer a King Macedon lost its right to have a king he was named lord instead.
And Olympias Kassandra decided it would be the council of mages that would decided her fate they would keep her imprisoned in Kassandria for a few years before deciding to use her in the last Blood Magic ritual ever used in the Empire this ritual would seal the newly conquered region of Cyrenaica from the rest of Libya including the Kingdom of New Judea.
The Council of Mages was made up of the leaders of the magical academy's military and religious officials headed by Kassandra it governed the way the magic was taught to the population and passed judgment on mages who broke the law this group would later come to blows with the ICW which did not like a large population of magical people practicing there arts in the open they would try on many occasions to take over the academy's only to be crushed by the Immortal Queen and her Battlemages these would be known as the mages wars.
