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I walked to the canal and stared at the slow-moving slush in disgust. How did people live like this? Didn’t they have any ambition or any drive to better their situations? And if they did, did we have anything in place to lend them a hand to move up?
I was glad for these thoughts because they distracted me from Heather, even though she stayed close to my mind. I will, however, see to having something done about this, I promised myself. Come to think of it, I had stayed in my palace for way too long. It would be time for me to visit the far reaches of my empire to see my subjects’ living conditions with my own eyes. Something I should have done a long time ago, had politics not kept me glued to the palace.
The prospect of traveling my empire with my new empress by my side cheered me enough to keep my flaring temper under control. Vra, I decided, I would make Heather my empress, and we would travel her new home while I was getting reacquainted with it myself.
When I looked up from the slush, I noticed more gliders had landed, unloading Imperial Forces to hold back the slowly growing mob of unhappy citizens, most of them pointing at me.
“Your Imperial Highness, your presence is more distracting than helping,” Noctus beseeched me once more.
Seeing the gathering crowd, I agreed with him and was just about to heed his advice when I noticed a little girl darting through an alley and the crowd. Her eyes were fixed on me and her expression imploring and urgent.
She is probably only going to ask you for a handout, my mind told me, but my feet carried me forward.
“Emperor!” Noctus called exasperated after me.
Guards hurried to surround me.
I could tell the moment the little girl lost her nerve. Her eyes widened and shot from left to right before she turned.
“Stop her!” I yelled.
Several guards rushed forward, while some of the mob parted to get out of the way to let her pass. A Groblin stopped her. He was at least eight feet tall with the telltale green, puckered skin of his race, but his was dotted with black boils, indicators of his addiction to hram.
The girl screamed as he held her up high in the air by her wrist.
“Pay him,” I ordered, and watched as the girl was exchanged between the Groblin and several guards. Two kept a tight hold on her arms, while another paid the Groblin for his services as some in the crowd muttered angrily.
“You’re looking for the yellow-haired human, vra?” she railed on me the tick I reached her.
“You saw Heather?” I nearly ripped her from the guards’ hold.
“I know where she is… for a price,” she said cunningly.
“How much?” By Staphor, I didn’t have the patience to bargain with a crindat—street urchin.
“How about your life?” Noctus offered with a grimace that would have made the most hardcore criminal flinch, but not the little girl.
“Listen, Emperor or whatever you are, if I tell you where the human is, I cannot stay here, they’ll kill me.”
“You can come with us and I promise I’ll find adequate housing and a good life for you,” I offered, not immune to the irony that not too long ago I had wondered why the citizens of this district didn’t have the ambition or drive to better their situation. Well, here was one.
Her eyes narrowed and searched mine for falsehoods. With a sigh, I pulled the gem-studded pin that held my cape together down and handed it to her. “You have my word. In the meantime, take this as a token of my promise.”
She gripped it and bit on it, nodding happily when it didn’t break. “Alright, follow me. And for Staphor’s love, keep the mob from me.”
I hid a grin and waved at the guards to follow her through a narrow alleyway of a part of the district that had already been searched.
Cleaning out the bathroom had been harder than cleaning the kitchen and living room combined. It stank of foulness and rotting things I didn’t dare try to analyze. Green slime hung from the walls and ceiling, and encrusted the shower. I shuddered at the thought of it being some kind of fungus or mold.
I avoided touching it as much as possible, but to my surprise, it came loose rather easily.
Once I was finished, I gave the shower a tentative once-over, but a quick whiff off my armpits convinced me that getting clean was worth the risk.
The door didn’t lock, but I found a stick I could wedge between the floor and door that would hold it closed unless someone shouldered their way in. And if that happened, the door wouldn’t stand a chance anyway.
Quickly, I peeled out of my now-filthy nightgown and wished I could wash it too, before I stepped underneath the grayish, weak flow of the shower. Despite all that, it felt good to rinse all the crud off me.
I felt better, even after I put my dirty nightgown back on.
