After having left Xochipilli in the care of their assigned maid, Aloe nearly felt whole again. Perhaps whole was a misnomer, too much of a superlative, but she felt solid enough to function. That was more than could be said about most of her life.

  But she had the feeling that no matter how whole she was, what was expecting her at the hands of the calipha would make her crumble.

  It was the most horrible of feelings, that of instability. As much as she had lived, as much as she had gone through, what she hated most was being unable to stand tall and straight. Remarkable, ageless, indomitable. Simple wishes easily obtainable with her capabilities and might, and somehow, she still failed to attain them.

  She left everyone alone and spent two straight hours atop the golden dome of the palace. Even though that dome was the literal heart of Asina, she doubted anyone could see her for the shine of the polished surface was enough to leave most blind.

  It was a calming feeling sitting there. Not one of hellish nothingness, but connection.

  The imperial palace of Asina was separated from the city by a wide perimeter and gardens, but that mattered not for Aloe as she could still feel on her very skin the voices of the passersby on the streets, no need for acuity either.

  It was a constant struggle to keep herself being herself, to continue existing. A part of her just wanted to destroy, whether it was everything else or herself, it mattered not. Much like the Radiating Undergrowth she had willed into existence yesterday, vitality flew out of her like an ocean. A ceaseless, relentless force seeking the release of the unfair pressure it was constantly subjected to.

  Even though the dome wasn't that tall, no matter if the palace was on a hill and thousands of buildings on the horizon caressed the very heavens, Aloe felt atop the very world.

  Aaliyah's last act, which fools would dare to consider a redemption, seemed so pathetic. Not because of its intentions, but because of its scale. Covering the whole Qiraji Desert with green was… pathetic. She was capable of more, so much more…

  Aloe wasn't hungry. She hadn't been for a long time. Yet now that her thoughts had wandered for hours atop a golden mountain as the merciless caresses of the sun blew upon her, she felt full.

  Light made her full.

  It was a small detail, but she now realized why she carried the parasol with her, and it wasn't just out of vanity.

  With a silent sigh, she made her way down from the dome. It took but a blink to be back at the gardens of the palace. The maid continued teaching Xochipilli as she gave him treats from time to time as a reward for his successful answers. But her mind didn't linger on them. She looked at the throne room where Naila had had her morning audience. It was already over. She was in that room. Oh, that room. The only saving grace for her psyche was that Naila looked 'old'. If she had been an eternal youthful ruler, Aloe would have lost it already.

  She needed not of subterfuge to get to the office undetected. One moment Naila was alone, the next she wasn't. The Sultanzade did her best to keep her reaction hidden, but the moment she noticed she wasn't alone in her office as a woman sat on the sofa, she made the slightest of hops.

  Naila could have been scared, but Aloe was constantly scared. For she knew that if she lost herself, it would have been so easy to become Oblivion itself. It was a constant fight against that dream, that desire of lethargy.

  "Now," the druid softly spoke. "Continue your story."

  "Did we not agree that you would inform an engineer first?" Oh, mighty be the calipha that managed to keep her fa?ade. That smile could almost seduce her if she didn't know that it was empty. Actually, she couldn't. Aloe was unable to tell if there was an emptiness in that smile, a kernel of actual benevolence, or if it was completely genuine.

  She struggled to comprehend if she even cared which of the three was.

  "One, I already informed her. You will have to wait for the results. Two," Aloe's tone instantly deepened with that single word, "when were you going to tell me about your vizier?"

  Naila's eyes slightly opened at the mention of that last word, her ambers shone powerfully. There were a maelstrom of emotions and Aloe was incapable of pinpointing a single one of them.

  "I did mention that I would say explain everything in its due time," the Sultanzade added with a soft and wry smile.

  "Do you think I care about that?" The vegetable woman stated plainly.

  "No," Naila closed her eyes and slowly nodded. "But I do believe we share the same imperious need for theatrics, and you would prefer a more chronologically ordered narration than just the bullet points."

  Aloe softly groaned at that explanation. It infuriated her how Naila was right. There was virtue in a coherent narrative, even if the meaning of the word virtue was slowly escaping her hands like flowing sand with each passing day.

  "One thing beforehand. Can you read my mind?"

  "I would not dare," the calipha responded with a short and muted giggle. That told Aloe enough.

  "But you know what I am thinking about right now."

  "That, I may do," Naila nodded.

  "And what is your answer?"

  "No." A firm and resolute answer.

  "Excellent," Aloe nodded. "Then continue your narration."

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  The title of Heavenly Descendant is seized, as you may know, so there might not be a coronation on that bloody battlefield, but by all means and accounts, I was the Sultanah of Ydaz at that moment.

  The people who managed to stay conscious – which were not many – looked at the fallen Aaliyah-al-Ydaz in confusion before their faces lit up with elation. Cheers broke over all the parties of the confrontation as the old Sultanah was dead.

  It took them only a handful of seconds to realize there was a new Sultanah now.

  I could see the confusion on the faces of the assassins. They had expected Hassan to be the new Sultan, but he was nothing more than a pile of gore now. Well, pile is a misnomer considering that his remains were scattered over a cone of many meters in angle and radius.

  The first thing I did as the newly appointed Sultanah was personally execute my potential enemies with my very hands.

  The Grandmaster Assassins were still drugged out of their minds, and I doubted they had a trace of hashish left on their body, so I rushed toward them with my hasty might.

  It took but a blink to kill two of the most powerful beings in all of Khaffat with my dual blades as they found themselves one next to the other.

  I have told you how Aaliyah-al-Ydaz bestowed me with my second stance, the 'Longevous Perennity' as you call it. But there was something else in my body now. I felt powerful. Not for an instant did I think that inheriting the title of Heavenly Descendant had blessed me in any manner, for I realized that power was fleeting.

  What clued me in were the growing blades of grass and flowers as the bodies of the first assassins I killed dropped dead to the ground. It was the Blood of the Sultanah. I do not know if it was because of the sheer amount of vitality Aaliyah-al-Ydaz had liberated, if it was because I was coated in so much of her blood, or if she had done something completely different, but I was powerful like I had never been before in that instance.

  I had been gifted many Haya.

  But as I have explained, that power was fleeting as fast as the flora was growing around me. So I made a split-second decision.

  Kill all my enemies before I lost this power.

  I moved faster than I had ever moved before with my increased vitality, but I was used to being speed itself. I did fall to the ground as I rushed for a fleeting Master Assassin, but I was also hasty in my ability to switch stances, so I wielded the defense stance afore I could get hurt. Before my momentum was truly lost but after most of the brunt of the impact was gone, I switched to the strength stance, stood up with the strongest of legs, and turned on again my speed stance to decapitate that assassin.

  The adrenaline was making me faster than ever.

  Uhm… it is a secretion of the body, Aloe. It makes people react faster and feel less pain, it is what people used to call warrior's rage or lust in our time. And let me tell you, I was high on it. Not in the Enlightenment sense, but close.

  The Grandmasters were the first ones to go, and it was pretty easy to identify them as they were the only assassins that were still standing still. Next were the Masters, who posed an even lesser threat as most were incapable of movement and even complex thoughts by now. They genuinely had needed all of these assassins and brought themselves to this miserable state to barely hold down Aaliyah-al-Ydaz. I did not worry about the Shadows and common assassins as they would not be much trouble even after I lost my temporary vitality.

  I was a maelstrom of blood and violence, and I did not hesitate once or ponder how many people I was killing. This was still war; our temporary coalition was over. But… I now had new enemies.

  Most of my siblings were dead by now. And I could only help but think: "Good."

  Those would be the higher potential threats in the future. The Law of Recent Succession and Stability did criminalize any sultanzade trying to kill the Heavenly Descendant before a year of their ascension had gone by, but I was not limited by the same rules. This law not only protected the country from being thrown into chaos and turmoil but also gave the newly appointed Heavenly Descendant the freedom to level the path before them.

  Do not give me that look, Ayad. I have not been the only Heavenly Descendant to do so. Actually, beyond the Caliph, Sultan of Sultans, I do not think there has been one ruler of Ydaz who has not decided to do a little pruning. There were two ways of making a sultanzade comply: by the quill, as they renounced their claim of ascension; or by the sword, as I hacked their necks.

  "Do you surrender your claim?" I asked the oldest of my siblings that was still alive. He was thirty-eight and had way more vitality than my normal self, but I was still burning with Aaliyah-al-Ydaz's blood, and unlike his emaciated self, I was still fresh.

  No, I felt better than ever.

  "No," he answered taciturnly but with a vicious smile worthy of the title of sultanzade, but before he could raise his weapons in defiance, I slashed his carotid.

  I could not decapitate him like I had done with the assassins as even though he was exhausted, his backlogged vitality was enough to make him tough as bark without wielding the defense stance.

  "Shame," I answered with the same levity and rushed for my next sibling. My power was slipping, and I intended to use it to the utmost of its capabilities.

  That is an interesting question. Normally when there is a succession, the Law of Recent Succession and Stability will be called, upheld, and respected. It has never been broken. You might see Sultans and sultanzade as barbarians, but we act well within our laws and respect them. Though I will admit they are pretty lax.

  What this normally means for succession is that the sultanzade will instantly break into parties and try to seize power on their own, or force the new Heavenly Descendant to grant them concessions for their support. Now, if all of this had not gone as bloody as it had, I would have taken this second route. After all, I was young and I did not have enough vitality to fight all the sultanzade, second stance or not. Aaliyah-al-Ydaz had needed to kill half of her siblings to secure her power and so had her mother before that.

  But my situation was different. Half of my siblings were already dead. If I killed the ones that posed any real threat, then I could just cow the rest into submission. And talking about submission…

  "Do you surrender your claim?" I asked the same question again as I had done for each of my siblings beforehand. Some had weighed their options and had taken their time to think before they gave up their claim, though most still chose violence. But this one…

  "I yield, I yield," Rani instantly surrendered the moment I put a tulwar on her throat and another in her thigh that was already impossibly close to drawing blood. "I surrender my claim for inheritance!"

  I know you have a different image of Rani-al-Sadina than me, but through and through, that woman had always been a coward. Losing the Sultanate was preferable to losing her life, and this way the Emirate of Sadina could still remain in her control, as it had been with Yusuf-al-Sadina, the previous ruler of Sadina and Aaliyah-al-Ydaz's older brother.

  It is amusing really; Sadina has a long streak of rulers you could consider intelligent. At least I value a person able to bend the knee more instead of one throwing away their life needlessly.

  I nearly laughed when Rani gave up her claims at that moment. Not because she had been my liege until now, but because all the previous sultanzade that had surrendered their birthrights had needed a bit of… coaction to speak those words. Not Rani. She was the only one to instantly fold once she saw how painful our battle could be, even if she was even more fresh than me.

  Night nearly fell when I was done with my butchering. Is it not curious how you have not reacted in the slightest to the act of matricide and siblicide yet if I were to tell you I have committed crimes of sexual kind like incest or pedophilia you would look at me wrongly?

  See, that look.

  Oh, you are completely right. I had a good justification for those murders, but there is never one for those disgusting acts of debauchery.

  I may have set the wrong precedent here as it is not exactly the subject at hand, but you know why I have mentioned this. It is time to talk about the Vizier.