I didn't breathe until the throne room doors slammed shut behind him.
And that's how he left with a single sentence. I was too shocked to move. But what else could I do? I had to meet the Emperor in his office.
I just want to go home but I forced myself to start walking toward his office
I tried to focus on walking, one foot in front of the other, even as my mind spun in a thousand directions.
I didn't know how long I'd been walking. The hallway stretched like it was carved from ice, every step echoing off marble walls that gleamed too brightly, too perfectly. Snow tumbled outside the tall windows, cold and sharp, just like this entire day felt.
'It must be winter everywhere then' I thought. While playing the game I always thought that the nord was the only place with snow or was it not?!
My boots clicked against the floor, a steady countdown in my head. 'One. Two. Three. Step closer to death… or at least a very awkward conversation.' and started smiling nervously.
I had replayed his words over a dozen times already. "You look different today."
Different. 'Different?' Was it a compliment? A warning? Or just his way of reminding me that he noticed — and I wished he hadn't.
I tried to decode him, maybe he was amused, maybe annoyed or maybe he was reading me like an open book, the way the game suggested he could see through lies and masks.
Which, by the way, made me want to curl into a ball and cry.
'Why does he have to be so… infuriatingly perfect?'
As I walked, memories bubbled up. Part from the game, part from what this Duke's life might have been like.
The Emperor wasn't always the "Sun that never sets." Once, he'd been a boy like any other, fierce, ambitious, and terrifying even then.
Kaeltherion and Lioren first met in the Imperial Palace — Kaeltherion was twelve, already sharp-tongued and manipulative, while Lioren was just seven, honest to a fault and far too sincere for court life.
Kaeltherion was used to bending people to his will, but Lioren was different. He didn't flatter him, didn't fear him — he simply treated him like a normal boy. That honesty intrigued Kaeltherion, fascinated him even.
But as years passed and Kael ascended to the throne at seventeen, power and distance changed everything. Lioren, dealing with his own family struggles, drifted away from the palace — and from Kaeltherion.
Now, whenever they meet, the air between them feels heavy with things unsaid — awkward silences, fleeting glances, the ghost of a friendship that used to be so easy. Their relationship is strictly professional now... at least on the surface.
Of course, in the game, I ended up dead by his hand. That was supposed to be the dramatic finale, the "Fallen Ice" ending. But now? Now I was walking the halls of the same palace, same snow outside, same golden throne waiting for him… and somehow, I had to survive.
My mind raced through strategy after strategy. Smile politely? Nod? Bow? Pretend to be the cold, untouchable Duke? Or maybe just scream internally while maintaining a perfectly neutral face?
A distant door clanged, breaking my thoughts. I was almost there. The office was close. I could feel it, looming ahead like a sun I wasn't allowed to touch.
I took a deep breath, trying to steady my pounding heart. Every instinct screamed at me to run, to hide, or at least trip on my cloak dramatically before they realized I was a fraud.
The knight at the door looked at me — silent, unreadable — before opening it. The sound of the hinges echoed like a heartbeat
'Here goes nothing… or everything.'