ASSASSINATION UPDATE: Empress Ira in Critical Condition, Phadon Attempts Coup

While the imperial surgeons in Lycaron labor in total silence to pull Empress Ira back from the brink of death after the assassination attempt, the Senate moves to seize her crown. Archon Phadon, long the Empress's most venomous political rival in the capital, believed the throne was ripe for the taking. As the grandson of Emperor Neretzes, he viewed the imperial seat as his birthright, desperate to erase the humiliating disaster at the Battle of Pendraic that had stripped House Neretzes of the crown. He moved into the grand hall with purse-strings open, attempting to buy the palatine guards on the spot. Phadon assumed there was no one left to stop him. Ira's husband, Emperor Jon, and their son and heir, Prince Arenicos, are both trapped fighting a brutal proxy war in the frozen North, their fates completely unknown. He failed to account for Princess Rhamira, Ira’s daughter. Standing third in line to the throne, Princess Rhamira had been dismissed by the patricians as a harmless child. But as Phadon handed out bribes, Princess Rhamira entered the hall flanked by loyalists. Seeing the treason unfolding before her, she climbed the dais and sat the throne. By Princess Rhamira's direct decree, Phadon was stripped of his authority and confined to his quarters under house arrest. Down in the city streets, blood still darkens the paving stones where Empress Ira and her companion Alena were ambushed. Adinea the Black, the premier operative of the crown's shadow network, returned to the scene to hunt for answers. A hooded cleaner attempted to lunge at her from the dark, but Adinea put a dagger through his throat first. In his pockets, she discovered heavy gold coins stamped with the mark of House Neretzes, confirming Phadon’s hand in the attack on the Empress. Adinea brought the coins straight to Princess Rhamira. Armed with concrete proof of the Neretzes plot, Rhamira wasted no time, stripping Phadon of his comforts and ordering him dragged from house arrest directly into the deep dungeons beneath the keep. Next, Adinea sought out her superior, Lord Yaqus, the ex-Aserai now-Imperial Master of Whisperers trusted by both Empress Ira and Emperor Jon for his vast connections. Presented with the gold, Yaqus offered only a cold dismissal. Adinea knew her mentor too well- a master spy never ignores a bloody trail. The sickening realization set in that the man who trained her was part of the conspiracy. His only response was a low, chilling warning for her to stand down and let the tide take its course. The Master of Whisperers has turned traitor. Phadon sits caged in the black cells. And in the quiet palace chambers above, Empress Ira is about to awaken to a court built on lies. submitted by /u/SerDontos97 [link] [comments]