Chapter 5: Ena Revealed
Akihiro was looking for Ena.
Ena was the only girl he would want to dance with, princess or not. Akihiro had been friends with Ena for as long as he could remember, but nothing could have prepared him for the feelings running through him now. As they were talking in his courtyards, Ena seemed to be the only one in the entire kingdom who understood what he was going through. She was one of the few people who didn’t doubt him simply because of his age. He didn’t know whether it was right or wrong to think things like this, but had the moonlight always lit her eyes up like it had that night…?
He didn’t want to admit it, but his heart forced his mind to make out the words. He had never loved Kimi, even if he did marry her. His heart belonged to Ena. He loved her.
His train of thought was interrupted when a teacup was shoved in his face. “Tea?” Kimi’s voice asked. Akihiro almost told her to go away when Kimi herself showed up. “You seemed a bit thirsty, dear.”
Akihiro surveyed the tea, fragranced with jasmine and…something minty, something he couldn’t put his finger on. “I’m fine, Kimi. Really.”
“Are you sure?” She pressed.
He could use a little relaxation now, with all of these thoughts of Ena cycling through his head. He took the teacup and started to tip the tea down his throat.
Then, “No!”
Akihiro turned at the sound of Ena’s voice as she knocked the tea out of his hands, sending it to shatter into thousands of shards of porcelain skidding across the floor.
~
Ena had acted on an impulse. The plan was supposed to have been to expose Yuri before Akihiro was poisoned, but when she saw Kimi trying to give him the tea, she didn’t even think. She just stopped him from drinking the poison.
Now that she thought about it, maybe she should’ve thought this through. Everyone in the room was looking at her. Kimi’s face was red and Akihiro…
She didn’t want to look at Akihiro.
“What on earth is going on here?!” Empress Hekima shouted.
“Your Majesty, I can explain—” Ena started.
A strangled scream came from the crowds. The people parted to show Empress Yuri herself, a crazed look in her eye.
“My daughter will be queen! He will die!” She pointed a shaking finger at Akihiro.
“Die?” Akihiro looked genuinely shocked.
“No, he won’t!” Ena shouted, pulling the sword out of her skirts. Then, words she never thought she would speak tumbled out of her mouth. “As the princess of Matsu, I order you to leave this kingdom and never come back!”
“Ena.” Her voice was like silk. “My long-lost stepdaughter. You renounced your title long ago. You have no power over me.”
“But I do,” Ena replied. “I’m fairly certain the townspeople of both kingdoms know you’re unfit to rule now.”
Empress Yuri looked towards the crowd. Everyone in the room was now staring at her, shock apparent on their faces.
The former empress shrieked in rage; Ena covered her ears. The crazed woman lunged towards Akihiro. The boy danced out of her reach. He kept dodging her blows.
“Oh, for Heaven’s sake, stop moving!” Yuri shouted, sweeping an arm under his legs. Akihiro toppled over. Yuri took a vial – the same vial she bought from the herbalist’s - from under the folds of her ostentatious kimono and forced the emperor’s mouth open.
Ena wasted no time pushing the vial out of her hands. It shattered against the wall, the poison burning holes where it touched the wood. Yuri snarled and started advancing on Ena, who kept her sword poised in front of her.
“Darling, there’s no use.” Yuri said. “I can always get more pennyroyal, and when I do, I’ll poison his food again. He’ll die, one way or another.”
Ena skimmed the room for anything she could use against her stepmother. Low tables and cushions lay almost everywhere in the room. The carvings leering at her from the shelves. The chandelier above them. The rope holding it up tied next to her. An idea started to form in her mind.
One must stay optimistic, even in times like this. Think carefully. Find a way to solve the problem, Masao had said.
“No,” Ena said. “He won’t die. But I will.”
And just like that, she cut the rope tied next to her.
The chandelier fell.
Yuri tried to run, but Ena fell on top of her leg before her stepmother could escape.
Akihiro started to rush toward Ena, Empress Hekima being the only thing hindering him from going any closer.
“Ena, don’t do this!” Akihiro shouted.
“I want to do this,” Ena replied before stating the four words he would’ve given anything to hear – just not in this scenario. “I love you, Akihiro.”
And then the chandelier crashed on top of both stepmother and stepdaughter, extinguishing most of the light in the room.
