Chapter Twenty-Nine

I'm skipping a bit here. Petra was quite distraught for the remainder of the school year. They closed the academy while they investegated the situation; death might be normal, but demons were, and still are, no laughing matter. In the end she'd covered her tracks well and they held the deceased Naron responsible for the whole debacle. Chesi disappeared; Knarf and the twins returned to Anatolia, he was actually the first Ga-Vok there since the sixth phase of the Great Ga-Vok war. Our next scene occurs in the Palace, where Petra had returned after some time spent abroad.

"Hello princess. Your mother is waiting for you."
"Thank you Aelfred." Petra was in a black robe. She'd gotten paler and more sickly looking than before. She was probably the most un-charismatic future ruler the empire had ever seen. If it weren't for the sort of feats she'd proven herself capable of she'd have been discarded in a second by the public.

Empress Tania sat on the throne. It was the throne the Junlaerd had forged. When it was called the throne of twenty kings, they weren't talking about the men who had sat on it, they were talking about the men who's bones comprised it. One of those men was the prince consort's, among several important figures, ancestor; the king of Stone.

"Well then mother; what did you want to talk to me about?"
"Petra, have you become..Immortal?"
"Yes, there was a fountain on Krove. Chesi and I both drank from it."

She sighed. The worst had come to pass then.
"I suppose it's just as well she passed up the throne then. Petra, are you aware of clause three of the terms of succession?"
"No." What did this have to do with her?
"Immortals can't hold Noble or Public offices. The council put it in place after the Junlaerd, to make sure there wouldn't be another undying tyrant. Succession should be a matter of buisness, not heroics."
"Are you saying I can't be Empress because of some stupid defunct old clause?"
Her anger began growing. Since the battle with Califrax something had shifted in her. She no longer suffered others to control her, and her patience was thin as rice paper.
"Well then, mother, if the laws forbid my coming to the throne I'll just have to change them."
"Petra I wish I could, but these are the laws of sucession. The ful court most be unanimous to change it, and even then a 90% majority of the people most vote to accept it. Petra, I'm so sorry."
"Then I'll make them vote. The people will elect me Laerd du Imstat and they shall do it happily."
"Petra, that can't possibly happen. King Pinn has already moved to have your citizenship barred for 'unfavorable life status' And Lord Nedierk of Mrococo went so far as to say you should be banished. There's no way you could achieve a unanimous vote now."
"Then you think I'm not powerful enough to make them?"
"It's not a matter of power Petra; you simply haven't got the sort of charisma it would take to convince them. And I don't like that tone of voice young lady."
"Who said anything about convincing? Mother dear, bear witness to the power of the next true ruler of the empire."

Tania may have still believed her daughter simply distraught, but the guards made no such mistake. Both charged to stop her from begining the spell. She spun and with a single gesture flung them into each other, impaling them on their partner's staves.
"Petra what are you doing?"
"The people should know who their new empress is; and who better to tell them than her own mother."