Domine
My body was already trembling as my eyes opened.
Someone else knew. It wasn't just me and Clay anymore. Worse yet, they had my body in the secondary world.
I wasn't about to give up my empire, and I was doubtful they'd release me even if I did-- giving in to people's demands seldom ended up with them releasing hostages. They'd just have more demands and more demands, reducing me to nothing but their servant-- if I was lucky.
There was a soft knock at the door. "My liege?" Her voice was soft, and I could sense the slight hint of uncertainty, nervousness. One of my maids.
My body tensed, and I had the sudden thought that I should get rid of her -- what was her name again? I recognized her voice, and... no... she hadn't seen me looking weak, she didn't know what was going on, and I had told the servants to wake me up if I hadn't gotten out of my room by the end of the first sun-quadrant.
She hadn't seen me, so I didn't have to decide if I needed to get rid of her. My shoulders and hands slowly relaxed, mostly.
"Yes, thank you. You may leave." My voice sounded a little colder and more imperious than usual-- I was overcorrecting. "...wait. Tell my spymaster to come here."
"Yes, my liege." A bit of relief had snuck into her voice. That wasn't ideal. I'd eventually have to make sure to do things to make my maids love as well as fear me... but that wasn't my first priority at the moment.
I did at least have one servant who was also in the secondary world. I'd have to rely on her once again, which was frustrating-- I had thought I had gotten past that. Now she came at my beck and call, in both worlds, and I hated the idea of her seeing me weak again, no doubt she'd start trying to protect me... but that protective instinct could at least be leveraged.
I'd figure out how to get her back into line properly once we had rescued my other body. She was a good girl at heart, shapable and obedient-- she just occasionally needed reminders of who was in charge.
I dressed myself, which was more work than just having the maids do it, but I needed solitude, so I could build that ineffable mask that was my true self back up. A leader can make no mistakes. A leader is perfect. A leader would not be frightened by her body being locked up in a basement somewhere.
While I was rebuilding myself and putting on my makeup, there was a knock at the door, and then Clay came in, a trace of concern and protectiveness already on her face-- was my state of disarray that obvious? What was the last time I had seen her without being properly prepared? "Want me to help with anything, Nat?"
"Fix my hair." She was good at that, at least. She relaxed just a little, and picked up the brush off my table-- like everyone, she was more comfortable when she knew her role and her place. The brush slowly sunk into my hair, the soft bristles gently rubbing against my scalp, and I relaxed back in my chair a little.
Clay didn't ask what was the matter, knowing that I'd tell her if I wanted to-- she really was the ultimate servant.
But I did need to tell her.
I took a deep breath. "Clay."
"...yeah?" Clay looked up, and met my gaze in the mirror, trying to hide that she was a little concerned about me, because she knew she wasn't supposed to. I appreciated the effort, and right now, even the protectiveness was a little comforting. If there was one servant I could count on in this world or the other, it was Clay.
"Someone's captured my body in the other world. I need you to look into it."
She tensed a little, predictably, a faint hint of guilt, as if it was somehow her fault that I was captured-- scratch that, her protectiveness was annoying me a little right now. "...what!?"
I stared into her eyes in the mirror, and she looked down and away pretty quick, blushing slightly.
After a moment, she resumed her brushing. "What do we know?"
I let her put herself on my level for the moment, since it was in private and she was slipping back into her old role of protector. As annoying as it was, I could fix that attitude problem later, just getting back in control of my other body was the priority here. "Not much. I was captured in my sleep, as best as I can figure-- I don't remember waking up."
"...I texted you when you weren't back at classes, and I figured you were just busy when I didn't text back... I should have...." There was even more guilt on her face now, the idiot once again feeling fully culpable for things she had no control over.
I held back a sigh.
She shook her head slowly. "...I should probably contact the police, huh? You'll have been missing for twenty-four hours...." She didn't sound like she really wanted to-- neither of us had much trust for the police, having known my father all too well.
Could the kidnapper somehow be related to my father? They were using a voice-changer, but while I suspected some sort of vague familiarity, I didn't get the vibe of my father at all... maybe someone else at college? After all, my father had ended up leaving town and abandoning me and my mother rather than trying to have anything like a constructive relationship-- well, I had been little more than a doll to him in the first place.
"No police, for now. If it becomes a public thing, there's going to be all sorts of problems. We need to efficiently eliminate the threat."
"It'd be so easy if I could use my magic in the other world," Clay said softly. It was true-- lots of people believed in her role as the Spymaster, so she had a lot of magic at her beck and call at finding and investigating things and seeing the weight of people's hearts.
As god-empress, my perception in the public eye was stronger, but less subtle, and my magic reflected it... if I had my magic, I could easily dispatch the coward who kidnapped my weaker body in the secondary world, too, no matter how bound I was, I could easily break them.
But things weren't that simple.
"They don't know about our relationship in this world," Clay mused, "so we have that advantage over them, at least."
"They know about this world, actually-- they're demanding I step down." A slight curl of my lip as I voiced their ridiculous request.
"...maybe you should." Clay's voice was soft, and I glared at her, and her powerful frame wilted a little. "Not like that!" She clarified quickly. "Just... your life is more important than the empire. You can't rule if you're...." She trailed off, unwilling to say the word dead, and slowly put the brush down.
"If you give people like that an inch, they'll take a mile. My reign is the first truly peaceful one in a thousand years, I'm never going to hand over my kingdom to that utter coward. They don't want the chaos that my death would cause, we have some time, as long as I make some moves towards constructing a structure that could allow for the empire to continue after I was gone. After that... they'll probably kill me." I looked at Clay, whose fists were clenched-- feeling her physical and magical power in this world were utterly useless to fix this situation, no doubt.
I could relate.
I turned and took her larger hand in mine, and looked up into her eyes evenly. "We'll get through this, figure something out. We always do."
She didn't meet my eyes, but a hint of that old smile she had when we were taking over this kingdom played around her lips. "Yeah. Yeah, we'll get through this."