#three chapters

"Y/N! Do something!" Alice shouted, turning to the frozen you.

"I can't! My magic will kill her!" You confessed amongst the ongoing panic.

The nature of your magic was special, pure one might say it. You could blast Agatha, but she would subconsciously draw your power, too. The only issue is the fact that if she dared to absorb a lot of your power; she would die.

"Do something!" Jen insisted, and yet you remained where you were.

You knew she could not be stopped, for you had never seen her do that. Once she got even tackled and body slammed and yet she kept absorbing; ending only when knocked unconscious or all the magic had been absorbed.

And you could not harm Agatha, not to that degree to make her stop. All you could do was watch helpless as Alice's skins started to wrinkle and dry; literally being suck alive.

During the chaos, Teen took notice that the Ouija board thrown to the side was alive, or at least the pendulum was moving. He wasted no time rushing towards it, hoping it would offer some help...any kind of help before it was too late.

"Who are you?" He asked, and immediately, the pendulum started to spell letters. "N, I, C, H, O, L, A, S, S, C, R, A, T, C, H. Nicholas Scratch." The time on the watches beeped, as if accepting the answer. "Nicholas Scratch!" Teen shouted.

Suddenly, the familiar voice of a young boy echoed across the room. "Mama! Stop."

Your eyes grew wide, and the shock was big enough to make you lose concentration on your magic and let it die. "Little Nicky?" You questioned, desperately looking around for any signs of his ghost self.

You were not the only one affected by it, though.

The boy's voice and his nickname that you dared to say out loud bypass all the defences of Agatha and shock her to the core; resulting in her stop absorbing Alice magic and life force.

Wounded and emotionally hurt, Agatha looked around with hope of seeing her son; who had left her one night, and she never gotten to truly say her goodbye.

Yet she saw nothing for the timers on the wrist watches reached its end, the beeping sound unlocking the exit and also signalling the end of the trial.

"...no..." Agatha whispered faintly.

"Alice. Alice. Wake up." Teen shouted as he rushed to the fallen witch. "Alice, please wake up. Alice!"

His voice was filled with fear, and everyone focused on him, seeing Alice dead on the floor. She had been sucked dry, her skin parched and white; eyes wide open.

Agatha had not been interrupted fast enough, and now one more coven member was dead.

The magicless witch tried to approach, to check in case Alice was weakened but not dead.

Teen did not let her. His grief slowly turned into anger. "Don't touch her!" He shouted at Agatha. "She was protecting you. But you don't deserve it."

Agatha looked hurt, and she cast her eyes on the ground faintly. "I didn't,"

Yet her words fell on deaf ears as the boy was too focused on the dead coven member to even spare her a glance.

Seeing the looks from the other coven members and considering all the emotions running through her heart and mind... Agatha chose to leave first, needing a moment alone to control herself.

She had shown too many emotions with her mother's ghost, and she needed to mask it, to mask her weakness and not let the sudden change of Teen's attitude towards her affect her at all.

While she was out, Teen looked with desperation at the other witches until his eyes fell on you.

"Please, Y/N!" He begged, eyes glowing misty. Alice had been from the few good witches to him, and she did not deserve to die, not like this. "You saved me. Save her, too!"

Your heart ached at his desperation, but even you knew there was a limit to the miracles you could pull.

"I am sorry... this is beyond my magic, " you explained softly, glancing at Rio, who nodded her head in approval; a silent signal that Alice was beyond saving.

You looked back at Teen, who eventually let defeat and grief settle in; along with anger. Furious, he marched towards the exit, and it did not take long for Jen and Lilia to follow.

They left you behind with Rio, and you knew you had to leave as well. But first, you had to pay your respects to the witch; who should not have died.

You knelt by her body and gently closed her eyes, whispering a faint prayer as a sign of respect. There was no need to pray for her soul, for she would be collected any moment now.

Yet even then, after you finished everything, you did not move. Somehow, you did not wish to let Alice soul be taken; leave her all alone to realize she had died... just after she had broken that damn generational curse.

Rio remained standing close by, patiently waiting for you to get up. "It is done. She is beyond saving, " she reminded you, sensing your hesitation.

"I know," you replied dryly, no need for any reminders.

You knew damn well she was beyond saving. That did not make it any easier for you to just leave her behind.

Rio let a small silent sigh, her face softening. "Timor Mortis Morte Pejor," she spoke in Latin.

Those four words were familiar to you, not only cause you had mastered the language centuries ago and spoke it fluently... but because they had been told to you before.

"Fear of death is worse than death," you translated, and as you leaned back on the balls of your feet, you could not help but remember.

Remember the first time you heard those words... the first time you felt the blood of someone on your hands... the first time you met Rio...

The beginning of your complicated relationship.

A/N: So I modeled the chapter names after the vibes of Tarot cards, even though I didn't pick an actual major Arcana for each. I liked the sound of it and I felt like it described it well. I also wanted to break apart the chapters instead of just having this be a huge oneshot like my last Remarried Empress fic. I hope you all enjoy! Stay sissy and bitchy everyone <3

The sun shone through the windows down onto the intricately woven carpet underneath their feet. A gentle breeze flowed through the windows and caused the beautiful curtains to billow out towards them. The wind carried the smell of honeysuckle and peaches, as the trees in the palace orchard had just finished blooming. The room had a light and airy feel to it, the only sounds being carried on the reverse of the breeze and out to the people below were murmurs of conversation and the tinkling of china. 

Navier felt as though the air coming through the window was stifling. Her cheeks were flushed red to imagined heat, as the other attendants in the room didn’t seem to be having any issues at all. It wasn’t as if there was a lot that they would have been able to do even if they had all been suffering from it anyway. “I think that we should be able to do that,” she nodded. She set the cup of tea that she had been sipping back down on the table, clearing her throat. She blinked a few times.

“Your Majesty? Are you alright?” the other noble occupant, Grand Duke Kaufman, asked as he saw her strange actions. 

“My apologies,” she said. “I’m fine, I assure you.”

The longer that Navier tried to continue on with the meeting, however, the worse she was beginning to feel. Every so often her vision would fade in and out of focus and she began to notice strange static and black spots creeping up on the edge of her vision. Her hands felt clammy and her stomach had begun to roil with displeasure at the sight of the tea and snacks that had delighted her at the beginning of their meeting. 

Eventually, she conceded that she was not fit to be talking about such heavy matters. “I apologize, Grand Duke Kaufman, but I believe that I need to cut our meeting short today,” she placed her hand out and one of her ladies-in-waiting, who had been patiently waiting to attend her a ways away in the room, rushed over to help her stand. Navier took their hand and stood up, though she swayed as soon as she did.

“Your Majesty!” Laura cried out nervously as she put her arm out to catch the Empress before she had a chance to completely collapse.

“I’m alright, I’m alright,” she whispered as she placed a hand to her forehead.

“I hope that you do not take offense to this, Your Majesty, but you are most certainly not alright,” Kaufman shook his head. “I apologize for not seeing this sooner and ending our meeting.”

“It’s just the heat of this room. I’m sure that I’ll be fine. I’m sorry for not being able to get more done today,” she said politely as she stood again. It was clear that everyone in the room was clearly worried for her, which only made her guilt about not being able to fulfill her duties even worse. 

Laura stayed by her side as she carefully, elegantly, walked around the chairs in the sitting area of the room and out the door. Kaufman did not say anything to her, just gave her a polite bow as she left. When they got back to her rooms, Navier nearly collapsed down into her chair in front of her desk. 

“Should I call for the royal doctor?” Countess Eliza asked politely as she walked over to her Empress.

“No, I do not believe that is necessary. I should be able to get some work done here as long as it does not involve food,” she shook her head. She pressed two fingers to her temple as the shooting pain increased there.

“Your Majesty,” Laura whispered. “I think it would be better if you at least let him come and check on you.”

“Alright, if it will stop you two from worrying then you may ask the doctor to come and examine me,” she smiled softly at them both. Laura gave her a quick, worried smile before darting out of the door to go and collect the aforementioned medic. 

Navier turned back to the papers on her desk. She still had several petitions for child and marriage blessings, nothing that would be too difficult. A few of them required her to be able to come in person, so she got working on those first. She laid out the marriages in one pile and the pregnancies in another. She took down her calendar from where it had been hanging on the wall above her desk so that she would be able to make sure that she had traveling dates. If she didn’t, the people who were requesting the blessings would have to come to her if they wanted them. She clicked her tongue as she made a note to herself that she needed to schedule a court date where she could give blessings to the common people. 

As she picked up the pen to be able to write it down in her calendar, the item wobbled in her fingers. A swelling nausea built inside of her as she tried to focus on creating her normal elegant scroll over the paper. She placed it down next to the calendar just as Laura and the physician returned. 

“Your Majesty, I heard that you were not feeling well and that I needed to come at once,” he said as he briskly crossed the distance between them. 

“I fear that my lady-in-waiting may have exaggerated a small bit. I am not feeling well, but you did not need to stop what you were doing to attend to me so quickly,” she said, giving him a tired smile.

His brows furrowed together as he carefully placed a hand on her forehead. He was one of the only people in the entire palace that was allowed to touch her without permission, the others being her husband and her ladies-in-waiting. “I think that they were right to be concerned. You have a very high fever. Would you mind describing the rest of your symptoms to me? Don’t be afraid to tell me everything. I won’t judge or doubt you.”

“Well, I have been feeling very hot lately. I thought that it was just the air and the fabric that I chose to wear today, but it is possible that it is being caused by the fever. My vision has been blurring in the sides and it has been hard to focus on anything,” she explained.

“I see,” he tutted. “I would advise that your ladies-in-waiting change you into something much less constricting and I will continue to attend to you then. I want to get this fever down as quickly as possible.”

She nodded and then turned to see that they were already waiting. The doctor stood and left the room to give her some privacy. Navier stood and swayed again, so Laura came to support her as Countess Eliza un

did the bindings on her back to remove the dress. The two women worked quickly to help their Empress undress and change into one of her looser summer nightgowns.

“I don’t know how you managed to have a meeting through a fever this high, Your Majesty,” Laura worried. “If I get even the smallest bit too hot I begin to feel faint and leave. You’re a very strong woman.”

“Either that or stupid,” she laughed a small bit. 

“Nonsense,” Countess Eliza shook her head. "You're just dedicated to your role as the Empress and getting your work done. But now it is time for the rest of us to be able to do our role in taking care of your, Your Majesty."

She nodded and allowed them to lead her over to the bed. Laura dashed across the room to let the doctor in again while Eliza focused on getting the woman they were caring for down onto the bed. "I must admit, I do feel a bit better," Navier murmured as she laid down on the blissfully cool cotton of her bed. 

"That is a good sign, Your Majesty. There's not much that we can do for a fever if we do not know what is causing it, but there are some things that are standard for helping to cool a fever," he explained as he walked over to her bedside. 

"I would imagine so," Navier nodded.

"I also believe that is a good sign that you are able to respond to me so cohesively. If you were slurring your words I would have to worry that he fever had gotten too high. Now tell me, what are your other symptoms?" he asked as he sat down on the edge of her bed.

"I've been having chest tightness for a few days," she replied. "Feeling rather run down, and a slight cough. I assumed that it was Hay Fever."

He nodded solemnly and then grabbed a stethoscope out of the bag by his feet. He placed the device on her chest just underneath her collarbone and listened to a few of her deep breaths. "It sounds like you have somehow caught a late-season flu. I can return with the necessary medications in a moment. I suggest that someone stay with you at all times to help tend to your fever and assist you in your everyday tasks," he explained. "You shouldn't be working, and you should just focus on resting."

The Empress let out a small sigh and nodded her head softly. She wasn't very keen on the idea of not being able to work for a few days, but she knew that she had to rest like the doctor had told her lest her illness get any worse. "Alright, thank you for your time."