The city of light, Arkadia, was a technological marvel. Buildings scraped the sky and cars drove themselves. There were some that dared challenge the sky as well. I watched them soar, aligned in an orderly fashion, as I stood by the large window in my study. I didn’t need such a big space to sign papers and give imperial orders.

But this was all the space I was allowed. I was prisoner in my own building. I was prisoner in my own empire. Guards stood day and night by my door. Cameras, little magic eyes that worked using something called electricity, watched my every move.

That night, I was watching the illuminated skyscrapers that adorned the capital. My people thrived because I allowed technology vulgarization. Arkadia, the city of light as many people called it, was my treasure, the culmination of my hard work. And today, I knew, I would rule no longer.

What happened you ask?

The Church happened. Dhobor and his followers polluted my people’s minds. And to think I allowed them in while the entire council voted against them. You reap what you sow. But what have I sown? I only allowed my people to communicate with other cultures. We only grow stronger by learning from others. I never wanted this.

The council ruled me unfit to govern our great nation today.

I was to be led to an asylum for the mentally unstable. How ironic! The visionary ruler, the woman who stood above men, was manipulated. They played me like a fool and there was nothing I could do about it.

I observed the flying cars, our best achievement to date. They were clean and environmentally friendly. If I had one regret that would be not seeing our new project come to life. One little orb to provide the whole capital with renewable energy. One little Orb to unite all the remaining independent states and end the war.

The Church and their Pontiff provided us with the Orb. For all the good that made! It took us years to figure how it worked. And when we finally did, they obliterated my science division and manipulated the council to expel me.

I was still watching the flying cars, smiling. I felt a tear trickle down my cheeks. Injustice, that’s the beginning of corruption and the end of our dream. What would become of my people? What would –

The flying cars started dropping like flies. Explosions broke the silence of the night. Some skyscrapers took on fire. I stood there, frozen; as I watched the flames rise higher and higher. There were other explosions at the edge of town.

That was our energy reactor!

In case of catastrophic shutdown, the whole city would be reduced to rubble and ash.

I willed my legs to move and ran to the door. I pounded at it, kicked and screamed. There was fire in the city. Something malfunctioned. I had to warn them, I had to get my people out. We still had time. We had an emergency evacuation protocol. We could get all citizens out of the city before –

Another explosion on the other side of the city.

The Orb! That’s the Orb research facility!

The door to my study opened and I saw the Pontiff. My heart sank. His young apprentice was trailing behind. How I hated that smug smile he always wore to our meetings.

“What’s the meaning of this?” I asked. I knew they were behind it all. What were they after?

“We came to ask you the very same thing,” the Pontiff said. I heard the clanking of armor and guards, armed to the brim, stood behind him.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said. “Stop playing games with me Sullivan!”

“You’re the one playing games Evangelica,” he said. I swear I could see a hint of a smile, a slight movement of his pursed lips to the side. “You gave the green light for the Orb launch. I warned you. The energy was unstable. And now you’ve led us all to a terrible situation.”

What’s he talking about?

“I didn’t order anything,” I told him. I took on my superior air. I’ve trained long and hard to perfect this stance and, what I like to call, my imperial voice. “I’m no longer empress, remember?”

“You gave the order to launch the Orb before the council voted you out Evangelica.” The Pontiff this time smiled.

There was something about his sharp incisors that made me fear that man. I was the empress; leader of the greatest nation there ever was or ever will be. Fear was part of the job, but it was methodic fear, the kind that helps you move forward, invent and overcome obstacles. But Sullivan’s smile brought in a different kind of fear, the primal kind. The one you feel when you know something’s watching you in the dark, and there’s nothing you can do to counter it.

“Utar!” Sullivan called to his apprentice. How I loathed that slimy bastard! He had no talent to speak of, except maybe, the ability to stick up to his elders and gain their favor. “Bring them here!”

“Your wish is my command, your Eminence,” Utar said with a low bow then disappeared.

I stood my ground. My eyes fixing the Pontiff as we waited for whatever they’d prepared for me this time around. I counted two dozen guards behind Sullivan. They were all my personal guard once. My eye met Vera’s. She was the tallest and the strongest of them all. The look she gave me was that of despair. Her misty brown eyes quivered as she answered my stare and shook her head apologetically.

I had a bad feeling about this. I heard footsteps echoing in the marble hall outside. Then the members of my council arrived, led by Utar and followed by Rimbaldi, the lead scientist of project Orb.

“What’s the meaning of this Eva?” Vlad, the elder, asked.

“As I told the Pontiff here, I do not know what you’re referring to Vlad.”

“What about this?” The elder showed me a document that bore my sigil and signature.

My eyes darted through the lines. I read the imperial order as fast as I could, absorbing its content. I never signed for this. Who would order the release of all the unstable energy in the Orb? I’m not as crazy as they think I –

It dawned on me. I looked up to see a shadow of a smile on Sullivan’s face. Utar, who stood behind Rimbaldi, didn’t try to conceal his smirk. My feet moved on their own. I had grabbed hold of Utar and bit hard on his neck. A coppery taste filled my mouth as the apprentice’s screams filled the room. My hands curled into fists and I was beating, throwing them at the man who helped doom my own people.

I felt strong hands pulling me away.

“Gerroff me, you crazy bitch!” Utar cried out. I’d broken his nose. His neck was bleeding profusely. My heart leapt at the sight of his bloody face. I wished I could destroy more than the nose but the guards’ grip on my arms was firm.

“Your Eminence,” Vlad said. “What do we do? The city’s about to be blown to smithereens.”

Your Eminence? You’re following them now Vlad? Not too long ago, you rejected them fiercely, threatened to overthrow me if I allowed them in.

“Take her to the dungeons,” Sullivan said. “I’ll take care of this.”

The Pontiff turned on his heels and disappeared. It was the first time I’d seen someone teleport. I didn’t think it was possible. What have I allowed in my country?

“Take her,” Vlad ordered. “I didn’t think we’d lose such a brilliant mind to madness.”

The guards led me to the dungeons. Vera took the lead. I implored her to believe me. I didn’t do it. I’d never hurt my people. But the evidence was against me. I’d signed the order. Everybody saw the document. When did that happen? I wondered as they dragged me downstairs. I was thrown in a small cell, the ones we kept for traitors.

It was three feet high and three feet wide, just enough for a person to curl up in. It was the worst kind of cells, reserved to the worst kind of criminals. I curled up in a ball and cried. I don’t remember crying as much as I did that day. But then again, I didn’t know what Sullivan and his pet Utar had in store for me.

I spent more time in that little cube than I thought I would. They threw food my way through a small gap, which closed immediately after. I didn’t have a bucket in which I could relieve myself. I got used to the stink and the dampness of the windowless hole by now. All I was left with were my thoughts.

Nobody came to visit me except Utar, and sometimes Pontiff Sullivan. They informed me that they’d saved the capital, no thanks to me. I didn’t know how much time had passed since that incident. They’d fed me once a day. But I lost count after sixty. Utar had just visited me not too long ago, telling me the city was slowly recovering. My trial would soon take place.

Trial… Hah!

I wished he’d just leave me alone with my thoughts. I’ve served this great nation for thirty years. I was the youngest empress to ever take the throne, and the first woman in a hundred years. For thirty years we’ve worked tirelessly for one purpose, the betterment of humankind. We developed technologies only madmen would conceive of. Life expectancy had reached an all-time high. I was fifty years old, yet looked, and felt, like a twenty year young woman.

I was revered and respected. Now look at me, a traitor! I was accused of genocide… Genocide! I couldn’t figure out how the Church managed to falsify my signature. But then I remembered that day after the incident. I punched a senator, I was a nerve wrack. I hadn’t slept for days. I signed a document I thought was intended to delay the launch of the Ord.

Stupid! Stupid Eva!

Stupid…Stupid…Stupid! I let my guard down in a pit full of vipers. I guess I deserved that.

The door to my cube sprung open. I shielded my eyes from the blinding light. The guards shielded their noses from the nastiness I lived in now.

“Get up!” Vera ordered. “It’s bath time!”

“What? Why?”

“Your trial’s in an hour. You need to get ready.”

Guards dragged me off. I smeared the floor with excrement as they pulled me along the prison corridors. I heard the other prisoners yell all sorts of insults at me.

“You reek!”

“Madwoman!”

“Take her head!”

They all wanted me dead. I was the one who locked them up anyway. I understood their anger.

They led me to the showers, sprayed and scrubbed the filth off of me. They gave me a blue jumpsuit, standard prison attire, then led me to an armored van. I was to be escorted to court. My legs, I realized, didn’t obey me anymore. I stood before the van and its steely armored doors opened. I couldn’t step in. It felt as though my legs were made of lead.

I wanted to look proud, to march off to my death sentence without looking defeated. But my will faltered. I wasn’t proud to die a traitor. I didn’t want to die. My head bobbed forward and a sharp pain brought me back to reality. My knees hit the floor and I realized that I’d been hit.

“Get on the damn van,” Vera ordered.

I got up and obeyed. My trusted bodyguard had turned against me. I dragged my feet forward, and climbed the steps, into another cage. Vera sat on the opposite side. Two guards sat on either side of me. One of them hit the van and the vehicle started moving. I heard the sirens of the motorcycles escorting us.

Vera looked at me, anger flashed in her brown eyes.

“Simo’s dead,” she told me. “You killed my child.”

That felt like an old wound had just reopened. The child I welcomed into my office, took care of, and sometimes lectured. That innocent soul had been murdered in cold blood, and for what?

“I didn’t do it Vera,” I pleaded. I felt a warm liquid fall down my cheeks. My eyes stung and my vision became blurry.

“Save your lies for the court!” Vera snapped. “People died Eva, too goddamn many!”

“I didn’t sign that order,” I said, my voice stuck to my throat. I did sign the order, I just didn’t know what I was signing. How could I be this naïve?

I wanted to tell her, warn her about Utar and the Pontiff. But before I could open my mouth again, I saw Vera’s closed fist approach my face. The vehicle spun and sparks ignited in front of my eyes.

I’d thought Vera had punched me. But the vehicle kept spinning. Vera fell on top of me as the guard to my right hit the ceiling. Or was it the ceiling? I couldn’t tell anymore. I was bound to the spot, so I wasn’t affected by the accident. When the commotion ended, I head the door open. I saw some hooded men. They moved quickly and decisively. They shot the guards and dragged me outside.

I felt the warmth of blood on my forehead. I tasted it in my mouth.

“Let’s go,” one of the hooded men shouted to his friends. I didn’t know who they were and why they were attempting to break me out. I didn’t know if I should be grateful or worried. They dragged me a few feet away from the van then helped me to my feet.

“Your grace, can you move?” one of them asked.

“Who are you?” I asked. “Why did you help me?”

“Your grace, we don’t have much –“

The hooded man fell to the ground, motionless. Chaos ensued after that. Bullets flew in the air. I dropped to the ground, to avoid any strays that might end me, right after I’d escaped. Wait, why did I want to escape? Where could I go anyway? The whole nation probably wanted me dead! And I probably deserved this fate…

The shooting stopped. I opened my eyes and looked around. My saviors, all of them save for one, were dead.

“I got her!” the remaining one yelled. He pointed his gun at me. “Don’t move!” he warned. “Twitch, and I shoot. Speak, and I shoot. If you as much as look at me the wrong way, I shoot! Understood?”

I nodded.

He shot me in the leg.

“I warned you!” he said then hit himself with the back of his gun. “They won’t object if I say you put up a fight. Now, don’t fucking move!”

That was it, injustice. The moment it starts is the moment our nation falls. I lay on the ground in agony until I heard footsteps approaching. More guards arrived, led by none other than Utar. He looked at me, bloody and in pain, then at the hooded man.

“She tried to escape,” he said.

Utar nodded. He was smiling. The hooded man nodded.

The guards aimed their weapons at the man but Utar ordered them to stand down. “We knew they’d try to help her escape,” he said.

Who were they?

“He was our inside man.”

Pontiff Sullivan arrived shortly after. He towered above me as I held my leg, trying to stop the bleeding. The Pontiff was accompanied by Vlad. They both looked at me gravely.

“Take her to Caesar Plaza,” Vlad ordered.

“No! Not there!” I begged. “I’m not a traitor Vlad. I didn’t sign that order! It was him. It was Sullivan.”

“Tut tut tut… mad until the very end, aren’t you?” Vlad said. “Take her! We’ll call in for an extraordinary assembly!”

Caesar Plaza, that’s where all citizens gather to witness a traitor’s execution, I didn’t do it. Why wouldn't anyone believe me? I clawed and bit them. I had to get away. I’m not dying as a traitor. I had to clear my name. Pontiff Sullivan, Utar, I’ll take your lives myself, I swear it.

I swear it to all the gods, old and new. I’ll slit your throats and feast on your beating hearts. I’ll destroy this world you so dream of controlling. Why wouldn’t anybody see their treachery? I devoted my life, sacrificed everything for this nation. I never married, never let mundane worries keep me from my duty.

And for what?!

To be executed as a traitor?!

Oh hell no!

I snapped. I wrenched myself from the guard’s clenches and ran at Sullivan. The pain in my leg was excruciating, but I didn’t care. I picked up a gun and fired. I emptied the magazine as I aimed at the Pontiff. I was a good shot. I trained as a sniper you see. But all my bullets missed. They hit Vlad, the man who’d shot me before, and several other guards. Sullivan and Utar, on the other hand, were unharmed.

I shot him again.

‘Click!’

‘Click!’

‘Click, click, click, click, click!’

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” I screamed as the world around me melted away.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” I screamed again. That bastard! Sullivan was smiling! I saw him smile right before a rifle butted me in the head.

I opened my eyes again. Raiya was standing over me.

“Say the words now Myles,” she urged.

Feebly, slowly, my lips moved. I muttered the words and the ghost materialized in front of me. She was angry, desperate. She was crying. I knew it through the connection we shared. The link that was now breaking apart.

‘Don’t tell them my name!’ she begged before her spirit was absorbed by her bones.