1. Overworked
He barely caught his head when it threatened to drop, a sigh escaping him as he reached up to ruffle his own spiky hair. "This work never ends," the man muttered to himself with a pout, tired eyes staring at the pack of papers waiting for him on his desk. He had been trying to get everything done for hours. His days are always long and boring, always the same thing day-after-day.
He gets up before the sun to participate in the morning prayers and then goes to train for half hour. As the sun rises, he goes to the dining hall to join his court for breakfast and get given a list of tasks for the day. This includes doing events in the city until about ten in the morning. Then he has to start his meetings at 10:30 am until they conclude, skipping lunch most days. Once meetings conclude, he has to then retire to his office to complete paperwork that is required for the smooth running of his palace and the entire kingdom. By the time that is done, it's late at night and he hasn't had a chance to eat lunch or dinner. He may have a snack while working on his paperwork, but it wasn't very filling.
"Sometimes I wish Atemu would help me with this," the man muttered, picking up his pen yet again so he could get back to going over the paperwork. By this point in the night, he barely even read the documents in front of him. He mainly scanned it and then signed it, knowing things naturally pop out at him if they didn't sound right. Even doing this, he had caught many errors that could have been quite devastating for the kingdom if it slipped through his fingers.
He stopped with a frown when he came upon a particular document that the council had snuck into his pile of documents. "What is this?" the man growled darkly, reading the marriage contract once again.
-Emperor Yami Seiko will marry Lady Anzu Masaki in three months- the man read again and again. "Those fuckers!" the man snapped, slamming the paper on the table. "How many times to I have to tell them that I'm not going to be marrying anyone?! Especially a Masaki!"
This man is 23-year-old Yami Seiko, the Emperor of the kingdom known as Tarlyn. Yami is a 5' man with very pale skin; high cheekbones; a button nose; sharp, violet eyes; thick lips; small muscles; and tricoloured hair shot around his head in five large spikes forming a star. The base is black, and the tips match his eyes, three blonde lightning bolt strikes shoot up into his hair while blonde lightning streaks frames his face. Three on the right and two to the left of his forehead.
He is often seen wearing loose black dress pants and a long-sleeved button-up silk black shirt with a crimson dragon curled into a circle on his back with an orange flame in the centre. Black combat boots protects his feet with a dagger hidden in the right boot. Two-inch thick gold bands are always wrapped around Yami's wrists, and a gold necklace hangs from his neck with a simple gold ring hanging from the chain. A gold crown rests on his forehead between his thin eyebrows and his hairline, gold wings extending over his ears and the symbol of the kingdom engraved in the centre. The symbol of their family is the Eye of Wadjet surrounded by the Ouroboros.
Yami blinked and picked his pen back up with a smirk, an evil idea forming in his mind as he quickly wrote a phrase in an ancient language. It would cause no harm, unless some idiot tried to read it. Either way, they'll get the message. He's not going to marry someone just because they tried to trick him by overloading him with work so that he was too tired to care about what he was signing. It doesn't work that way.
Putting the paper into the complete pile, he went back to work with more enthusiasm than before. He wanted to catch more of their tricks so that he could put them in their place. Yami really wished that he could simply fire the idiot councilmen, but his advisors will attempt to dethrone him before he has a chance. It almost happened once before, but he backed down first which caused the situation to be laid to rest.
It took him another couple hours to complete all the paperwork, making it almost midnight before he finished. He didn't mind though, for once, since he had found three more documents that the council had tried to trick him with. Like with the marriage contract, he didn't sign it. Instead, he wrote different phrases in the same ancient language as the first. He'd know pretty quickly when they try to read what he actually wrote. Then he would have more force against his advisors in his attempt to sack the incompetent council.
Standing up with a stretch, the Emperor smiled at the pile of completed work. For the first time in years, he didn't mind staying up to finish his work. His devotion will be rewarded tomorrow when the council collects the forms they had tried to trick him into signing.
"Bedtime," Yami yawned, finally walking out of his office for the day. "Maybe I should con Atemu into taking over for a few days. I need a break. When was my last break?" Yami muttered to himself as he walked through the dark halls. "And where the hell are all the guards?"
Yami froze in his step halfway to his room when he sensed something below the palace. Even lower than the lowest point of the dungeons. It was weak, but there. "What the?" Yami muttered, turning down a different hallway so that he could try and find what he was sensing. His senses led him into the dungeons and down a series of tunnels in the massive underground prison until he came to a dead-end.
Still, Yami had not seen a single guard and all the prisoners were passed out cold. Seeing everyone unconscious made the Emperor feel extremely uncomfortable, but he needed to know what he was sensing so that he could ensure his people were safe. He'd never forgive himself if he failed to investigate and someone was killed… again.
Narrowing his eyes, Yami could sense the presence of something behind this wall. He didn't know what though. Hesitantly reaching out a hand, Yami touched the wall and found his hand passing clean through the stone wall. "A fake wall?" Yami enquired with a frown, stepping through the fake wall to find himself in an extremely dark tunnel. Even the light from the dungeon was suppressed by fake wall.
Placing his hand on the wall, Yami starting to move down the stairs. Soft cooing started to echo along the stairwell as the Emperor continued to move into the depths of the Earth under his palace. "A baby?" Yami muttered with a frown, his voice echoing around himself. He couldn't help the feeling of his heart sinking as the baby's cooing continued to echo around him. It almost made him turn around again, but he couldn't. What if the baby needed help? Why was it down here in the first place?
Finally reaching the bottom of the stairs, Yami passed through another magic barrier that separated the stairs from the room. The room housed a rough bed made of well-worn blankets and a very thin and naked woman sitting on the bed; a shackle clasped tightly around her left wrist. The walls seemed to give off a faint glow that made it possible to see in the cold room. Water tricked down the wall beside the bed, being collected by an old tin. A hole on the other side of the room smelt strongly of sewage. The room was completely bare of all else.
"A-Are you alright?" Yami asked nervously, taking a few cautious steps towards the woman who looked to have died long ago. The Emperor kept his eyes locked on the woman as he walked forward, not seeing any sign of movement. Not even a breath from the naked skeleton in front of him. "I-Is there a baby here somewhere?"
Crouching down, Yami tilted his head as he looked at the woman. A gasp escaped him when a skin and bone hand suddenly reached out and grasped his throat, glowing crimson eyes locking into his. "You'd like that, wouldn't you?" the skin and bone woman growled as her snake eyes narrowed while looking into the eyes of the boy.
Yami tried to gasp for air, hands grasping the arm holding his throat painfully tight. What was happening? Who is this woman? Where is the baby he heard crying?
The woman tilted her head, the tight skin over her face splitting slightly as she looked at the boy. Her eyes seemed to bore into the Emperor's very soul, seeking for answers hidden within the frightening orbs of the child. "I see…" the woman muttered, dropping the boy.
Yami coughed as he fell to his hands and knees, a hand grasping his throat. He couldn't suppress a soft whimper when bony fingers grasped his chin, forcing him to look at the scary face of the skeleton woman once more. The scent of death started to surround the woman as her left hand started to glow.
"I entrust you… But know this, I will return and destroy everything you hold dear if you betray me," the woman hissed before she plunged her hand towards the Emperor. Yami couldn't help but cry out as the woman's hand struck his stomach. He didn't catch the slight smile that formed on her face as he slumped forward, her body turning to ash.
Gripping his stomach, Yami panted as he laid on the worn blankets. His eyes dully stared at the wall while he tried to gain control of the pain coursing through his body. 'W-What just happened?' Yami thought, the pain causing the corners of his vision to turn dark. 'Who is she? Where am I even?'
Before he passed out, Yami's eyes took notice of something ground deeply into the stone wall beside the bed. Kissa. "What does that mean?" Yami muttered, eyes drifting closed. His mind barely registered a cold sensation wrapping around his body before shutting down completely.
A young ghostly figure gave a bright smile that lit up her sapphire blue eyes as the shadows disappeared, leaving the boy in his own bed. She gently pulled the blanket up to his chin and gently tucked him in, a soft giggle escaping her when he snatched a pillow and hugged it tightly. 'Take this as a blessing, not a curse. I owe you a lot… So, I thank you… Yamiko,' the woman thought, her smile saddening slightly before she disappeared into nothingness.
The bedroom consisted of a large bed that could easily fit six people against the left wall with oak beside tables on either side and an oak chest at the end of the bed. The bed had light red sheets and a crimson blanket on top.
Closer to the wall with the entrance but still to the left is an oak eight-seater table. To the right of the door against the main wall is a large L shaped table with the other side running beside the door. In the middle of the space between the wall and the coach side is a small oak coffee table and a large bookcase on the right-hand wall.
Two doors were beside the bookcase that led into the two walk-in robes. A door between the bed and table led into the spare bedroom that was used for harem members from when there was still a harem in the palace. Not that the room was ever used since Yami hated the thought of the harem. Between the second door to a walk-in robe and the door to the bathing chambers on the right wall is an oak desk and an office chair for Yami to work at.
The back wall had two large windows with built-in day beds. Under each day bed is bar fridges with different types of alcohol and a few snacks such as chocolates. A large glass door led onto the balcony between the two other windows. Each window and the glass door have red blackout curtains pulled to the side.
The lanterns in the room blew out as the woman left, leaving the young man alone to sleep the nightmare away. Except, the boy wouldn't be able to sleep well for some time after seeing that creature's face and the cold eyes locked into his own with clear intent to kill.