AnnouIf the images do not load, please read the chapter here - Read Ented Paths: Luxana's Rise to Empress :: Chapter 35 | Tapas unity

  Chapter 35 - Luxana, the Empress of ders, the Sn of Shadows

  I am Luxana, heir to a legacy of deceit arayal. Born of Princess Roxana Von Or Mera Eana Kior, a woman who sacrificed everything for a twisted sembnce of love, I stand as living proof that affe is nothing but a venomous lie.

  My existence is no mere mortal's tale. It is a saga written in blood ached in the bones of those who dared to e. Once, my heart beat solely for the woman I called mother. Now, it lies dormant, a cold, unyielding stone in my chest. Love, passion, mercy – these are weaknesses I have purged from my being.

  I will fe my owiny, unbowed by the s of expectation or the shackles of morality. Let the world tremble before my resolve, for it is the will of one who has gazed into the abyss and found it wanting. If this is tyranny, then I shall wear the mah pride and bathe ierror it instills.

  From this moment, I do not simply vow to destroy Domino – I will obliterate it, leaving naught but ashes and whispered nightmares in my wake. Those who dare stand against me will find themselves crushed beh my heel, their very souls bent to my indomitable will. I will asd to the throne of Kior, not as a mere ruler, but as an Empress whn will be carved into the fabric of history with a bde of uing ambition.

  My path forward is clear: I will manipute, quer, and subjugate. The weak will serve as stepping stohe strong as quests to be savored. I will bee the embodiment of power, a force of nature that reshapes the very world to my design. The name Luxana will bee synonymous with absolute dominion, a dark legend that mothers whisper to quiet their children.

  Let it be known that my current aims are but a fra of my true ambitions. I set my sights low not out of hesitation, but as a testament to my ing. For when my pns e to fruition – and they will – the world will realize too te the true scope of my maations. My efforts will know no bounds, my determination will eclipse the sun itself.

  I am the ing storm, the shadow that will engulf all light. I am the tyrant who will rewrite history, whn will be spoken of in hushed, terrified tones for millennia to e. The screams of the vanquished will be my lulby, the tears of the quered my wine.

  Behold, for I am Luxana, the Empress of ders, the Sn of Shadows. My assion will be paved with the bones of the foolish, my throne built upon the ruins of empires. And when I stand atop the world, my dominion absolute, they will know that true power bows to no one – it simply takes what it desires.

  Let the weak cower and the strong despair, for the aeon of Luxana has begun. And it will be glorious in its terror, magnifit in its cruelty, aernal in its reign.

  -Ihe Carriage, Outside the Sun Pace of Elmir; on The Regal Thhfare-

  The carriage door swung open with a soft creak, revealing a strikierior painted in deep, midnight blue that shimmered like the night sky. The trast was stark against the opulent white interior, where plush cushions and draped silk beed with an air of elegance. I was ushered inside, my steps muffled by the thick carpet underfoot and the rich st of polished wood and fiher enveloped me. As the door closed behih a soft thud, the carriage lurched into motion, its finely crafted wheels rolling smoothly over the cobblestones of the Regal Thhfare.

  Through the window, I glimpsed the Majesti Pace of Elmir receded into the distas gleaming spires and abaster walls shrinking with each passing moment. I left behind a maelstrom of unanswered questions and unspoken truths, a tempest of secrets that threateo e everything in its path. The weight of those mysteries swirling like dark clouds ready to unleash their fury pressed down upon me, a crushing burden that I had grown all too aced to bearing.

  Across from me sat the three brothers, their presence as oppressive as the silehat hung heavy in the air. Fenris occupied the middle seat, his muscur arms crossed over his broad chest, his eyes burning with barely tained fury. Eamon and Idris fnked him, their expressions a mix of curiosity and disdain.

  I sat alone, my gaze fixed uporicate patterns woven into the carriage floor. My face was a mask of impassivity, a skill hohrough years of y. It was a facade I must maintai I betray the tumultuous thoughts ih the surface.

  "Luxana," Fenris began, his voice a low growl that reverberated through the fined space. The anger in his tone alpable, a living thing that seemed to coil around us all. "Why did you permit such proximity with that man?"

  "..." I remained silent, my eyes trag the swirling desigh my feet. The stillness of my features were absolute, as if I had been carved from marble by some master sculptor. It was a demeanor I had perfected, a shield against the prying eyes and probing questions that stantly sought to unravel my carefully guarded secrets.

  "LUXANA." Fenris's voice exploded in the carriage, causing the very air to vibrate with his fury. His posture remained unged, but the tension in his body was evident, like a coiled spring ready to unleash its pent-up energy.

  Eamon's cultured tones cut through the air, dripping with dession. "Would you kindly stop feigning deafness? It's being rather exasperating." He punctuated his words with a dismissive tut, turning his gaze to the passing ndscape beyond the carriage window.

  The moment stretched, taut as a b. Then, with deliberate slowness, I raised my head. My eyes, cold and unyielding as winter frost, locked onto Eamon's. When I spoke, my voice was a bde, hoo a razor's edge and wielded with surgical precision.

  "Oh, five me, Eamon. I wasn't feigning deafness—I was simply deg whether your drivel deserved even a shred of my attention. Perspicuously, it didn't, and it never will." The words fell from my lips like drops of venom, each sylble carefully crafted to inflict maximum damage.

  The effect was instantaneous. Eamon and Fenris's faces torted with a mixture of shod e, their carefully cultivated masks of superiority crag uhe weight of my disdain. They opeheir mouths to retaliate, but before they could utter a sound, Idris erupted into peals of ughter.

  He doubled over, clutg his stomach as if my words had physically struck him. Tears of mirth streamed down his face, his entire body shaking with the force of his amusement. "Luxana," he gasped between bouts of ughter, "you've reduced them to stunned sileh just a flick of your toruly, you're an artist in the craft of humiliation."

  Idris's ughter echoed in the fined space, boung off the walls and amplifying the brothers' disfort. "Eamon, Fenris, was that your pride I just heard shattering? Oh no, wait—it's just the sound of irrelevag up with you both." His words were daggers, eae finding its mark with unerring accuracy. "Go on, Eamon, Fenris, say something clever…oh wait, you 't, you?"

  His ughter redoubled, filling the carriage with a cacophony of mirth that stood in stark trast to the seething silence of his brothers. Fenris and Eamon's faces darkened further, their jaws ched so tightly that the muscles in their necks stood out like cords. They gred at Idris, their eyes burning with a mixture of humiliation and barely tained rage.

  Yet, for all their fury, they remained silent. The weight of their impotent anger hung in the air, thid suffog. They had been outmaneuvered, their usual tactics of intimidation and dession rendered useless against the razor-sharp wit that had been unleashed upon them.

  As for me, I retreated once more behind my mask of indifference. My face resumed its cold, impassive expressioraying nothing of the thoughts that roiled beh the surface. The carriage rolled on, carrying us away from the Sun Pad towards an uain future, fraught with danger and intrigue.

  *Rattle*

  *Rattle*

  The carriage suddenly lurched violently, its smooth journey interrupted by an unseen force. The world tilted on its axis, and I felt my body pitch forward, my carefully maintained posure shattered in an instant. It wasn't just me—Fenris, Eamon, and Idris were also thrown off baheir bodies lurg in a chaotice of limbs and startled excmations.

  As we tumbled, Fenris's reflexes kicked in. His strong hands shot out, grasping my arms with an iron grip. We ended up in an undignified heap on the carriage floor, the pristine white interior now marred by our sprawled forms. My palms pressed against the cool surface, while Fenris's fingers dug into my flesh, his touch both protective and possessive.

  The air in the carriage, ohick with tension, now crackled with a new energy—fear, fusion, and the first stirrings of adrenaline. Eamon's voice cut through the momentary silence, his words dripping with barely tained rage. "An ambush," he spat, his eyes darting around as if seeking an invisible enemy.

  Fenris's face was suddenly inches from mine, his breath hot against my skin. His eyes, usually filled with anger or disdain when directed at me, now burned with an iy that spoke of determination and... was that ? "Stay here," he anded in a low, urgent whisper, "and don't look out of the window." The vulnerability that fshed ay features was gehis time, my mask of indifference crag uhe weight of this ued turn of events.

  As the three brothers rose to their feet, moving with the fluid grace of trained warriors, my mind raced. This doesn't make sense, I thought, watg them prepare to face whatever threat awaited outside. Idris was the st to exit, pausing to give me a curt nod before log the carriage door behind him. The sound of the lock clig into pce echoed ominously in the fined space.

  *Sg*

  The unmistakable sound of swords being uhed pierced the air, followed by a moment of eerie silehen, without warning, a spray of crimson spttered against the window. My eyes widened in shock, my heart hammering against my ribs with such force I feared it might burst from my chest.

  Despite Fenris's warning—or perhaps because of it—I found myself drawn to the gruesome se outside. Slowly, carefully, I crawled towards the carriage door. My firembled as I grasped the edge of the curtain, peeling it back just enough to peer out.

  The sight that greeted me would be forever etched into my memory, a tableau of horror that defied prehension. There, on the cold, unfiving ground of the Regal Thhfare, y Fenris, Eamon, and Idris. Their bodies, once so full of life and arrogance, were now broken and still. Blood pooled beh them, staining the cobblestones a deep, angry red.

  But it was the final act of this macabre py that truly chilled me to my core. As I watched, frozen in disbelief, a sword was slowly, almost lovingly, withdrawn from Idris's chest. The bde gleamed wetly in the light, dripping with the lifeblood of a man who, mere moments ago, had been ughing at his brothers' expense.

  The world seemed to slow, each sed stretg into ay as I struggled to process what I was witnessing. The three brothers, who had been my tormentors and protectors, y sin just feet away from me.

  *Click*

  *Cck*

  The carriage door swung open with a foreboding creak, revealing a figure that seemed to emerge from the very shadows themselves. A man tight bck attire stood before me, his lean frame exuding an air of both agility and strength. His body was sculpted, muscles defined beh the fabrid his raven-bck hair framed a face partially obscured by a mask that covered everything up to the upper teral cartige of his nose. But it was his eyes—fiery red orbs—that captivated me, glowing with a predatory iy that sent a shiver down my spine.

  As azes locked, arision filled the air. In a swift motion, he reached out and seized my right arm with his left hand, yanking me upward with surprising force. The a sent a wave of déjà vu crashing over me, as if I had been caught in this very moment before. His right arm encircled my waist, pulling me close, our bodies mere inches apart. I could feel the heat radiating from him, mingling with my own rising unease.

  Leaning in, he whispered into my ear, his breath warm and tantalizing. "I must admit, I had rather fahe thought of you grag me with a fond farewell, as is ary in polite society. As, it seems I was left wanting." His voice was smooth like silk, yet ced with an uone of mischief.

  My eyes widened in reition as the familiarity of his voice washed over me like a wave. "Cillian?" I blurted out, my gaze darting to meet his.

  A soft chuckle escaped him, the sound both disarming and uling. "Sorry to startle you," he replied, his tone lightening as he fshed a smile that was barely visible beh the tight fabric c his face. "But I anticipated you were feeling unfortable with those brats. So I decided to help."

  His rapid shifts in personality left me bewildered; one moment he was intimidatingly close, and the he was teasingly pyful. "I like how fast your personality ges," I said, frustration creeping into my voice. "At times I want to punch you, and at times I want to thank you. But really, you leave no room for ao think well of you."

  "AH HA? I seeeee...," he excimed dramatically, releasing my shoulders and pushing me gently out of his embrace as if I were nothing more than a fleeting thought. "Very well then," he tinued with feigned seriousness. "Anyway, you should be—"

  *Whoosh*

  A surge of reddish-e magical energy erupted from the carriage, swirling around me like a fiery tempest, leaving Cillian behind, unaowledged in the chaos. The vibrant hues flickered and danced in the air, remi on fmes unleashed, casting ahereal glow that illumihe darkened surroundings.

  *Cck*

  As the magical whirlwind subsided, my heels tapped softly against the arble floor, the sound eg in the sudden stillness. I had teleported away from the tumultuous se, arriving in my mother’s chamber at Helia Pace, where opulent decor and thick air with memories and expectations; felt both f and suffog at once.

  To be tinued...