“Helga, does Agnius seem strange to you? He hasn’t looked at me directly all morning” Wania said 

“I wouldn’t know. Twice now I have walked in on both of you in questionable situations” Helga said

 Recalling this morning the seventh day of the festivals. When Helga entered Wania’s bedroom this morning, the sight she met was Wania pinning Agnius to the bed. The poor man as big as he was struggled but couldn’t break free.

“I feared he would start crying if I didn’t let you didn’t let him go”

“I was trying to make him more comfortable around me, through some light skin ship”

“Light skin ship” she mumbles under her voice “As you call it” returning with a smile “is usually holding hands or such. Not holding a man against his will, pinned down under you. And I thought you wanted to distance yourself from him last night, you seemed so cold towards him like you were during the war” Helga said.

“I changed my mind, something snatched me out of it this morning, plus it's just some harmless fun,” Wania said

“Well, your harmless fun has your” with air quotes “husband,” Wania rowed her eyes. “Training with all the weights in your home,” she pointed out the window. Wania walked over to see Agnius do squats with weights hanging from his hands and back. All the knights were watching him in awe, and even his student Claris seemed worried.

“How many has he done?” Wania asked

“I’ve counted 42, he doesn’t seem to want to stop,” Helga said

“I once showed my strength to a man who proposed to me after the war, wanted to raise his social standing”

“A promiscuous baron, the one that declared his love for you saying he away loved women that can accomplish things on their only, showed their competence”

“He must have thought I would be a submissive wife or something. He tried to correct my dressing once” in a mocking voice mimicking a nasal male voice, Helga held her nose and pointed a finger in the air “How can a woman at your age, dress like that? You have to get with the times” she stopped.

“I don’t know why you didn’t let me break a bottle over his head” Wania chuckled as Helga’s words reminded her of that time.

“It took two knights to stop you that day. He was on the floor shouting about how I don’t discipline my staff” The little smile on her face faded.

“I scared him off like that day. I used to be the greatest beauty in the West, men and women would spend days talking about how beautiful I was, and my feminine form was perfect to start any fashion trend. Then everything that was to happen happened and I haven't been called beautiful since then. Even the coward spread rumours about me scarifying my womanhood for power, since I don’t have monthly bleeds anymore” Wania said

“My lady” Helga tried to comfort her, rubbing her shoulders.

“Oh well, do you think he would try something once he feels he is strong enough?” Wania asked with a mischievous smile.

Helga's eyes were saddened, her lady always puts up the strong and unserious front, and no matter how much she wanted to help it wasn’t her place. So, she lets out a breath and says “Not even all the knights in the empire would stop me if he did”  

The two watch from the window until Agnius goes pass a 100 and showed no signs of stopping, the sent a maid to call him to Wania, before he left, he told Claris not to attempt what he did them braced himself.

“Agnius, there was something from yesterday that we needed to talk about” Wania said she was smiling, and Helga directed him to sit opposite Wania.

There were two sofas, with a coffee table in between, approaching the one opposite Wania it fell into the wall, destroying it. Agnius slower turned his eyes to Wania, who was caressing the empty space next to her, looking at his soul.

Hesitantly he went and sat next to her, straight posture, closed legs hands crossed over his lap, he was nervous, being overpowered by a woman two days in a row can do that to you, but the best course of action is not to show it but Agnius was experience this sensation of shyness around somebody for the first time. He did not know what to do.

Wania was not helping matters, she was like a cat playing with a mouse trapped inside a box it can not escape. 

“Agnius speak up, I can’t really hear you” Wania whispered in his ear, she pressed him against herself, using one hand to hold him in place.

“I said, yesterday during the hunting” he was triping over his words so he focused on his breathing “I met a man, that said the emperor wanted to in peach you and give me the position, they planned to get rid of your hold on the empire.” Agnius tilted his head down.

“They, who’s this they?” Wania said “You smell nice by the way, like charred oak or grilled meat. A bit of both” She was still teasing, and for the first time, he was reacting to it. And it is adorable.

“The man’s father and the emperor, and I assume others but the man knocked off before I could ask,” Agnius said, his eyes shaky.

“Do you have anything to describe him? Like his features or a name preparable” Wania said.

Without missing his chance, he tried to stand up but Wania’s grip on him held strong, it shook a bit but it wouldn’t break, and she decided to let him go. Standing he brought a small coin pouch from his larger pouch on his back and handed it over. It had a family crest on it. 

“A lowly count, and the emperor. What would Rosa think?” She spoke

“You did well Agnius, I may not need to send you to spy on the emperor himself if you keep giving me information like this. Helga, look into this for me, find out about the nobles that have visited Count Collins' home in the past four months, I going to go give the back to the owner, Agnius come along, it’s not good to steal.”

Wania left her estate and went to a popular gambling den in the city centre, she stood outside leaning against her carriage, and Agnius was sent inside to get the son of Count Collins. He was welcomed inside, because he came as Archduke Agnius Sapphire, he was guided straight to his target and was allowed to drag the boy out the building. As he came down the stairs holding the boy by his collar, he panicked when he saw Wania waving at them. 

“This is the man whose coin pouch you took,” Wania said

“General Wania Sapphire greetings, how do you do? What brings to here?” the boy asked hanging from Agnius's hand lift for them to see eye to eye.

“Tom Collins, your father wouldn’t like to know that you're here. But I’ve come to save you, as a means to repay your gift to my husband. He was rather eager to tell me of your encounter” 

The boy started shaking violently “General Wania, I apologise, I meant to disrespect, please forgive me” he begged with tears building in his eyes.

“Forgiveness? What should I be forgiving you for?” Wania asked eyes closed and a wicked smile. She turned to face Agnius “Agnius is there something he did that I should be forgiving him for?”

“He called you a whore” Agnius said in his usual monotone voice. As if the universe was listening, their surroundings became quiet Wania turned back to Tom with squinted eyes and that smile. “Well, I see why your arm is broken”

“It’s only dislocated” Agnius corrected her

“Then break it,” Wania said

“No, please no I’m sorry, I won’t do it again, I won’t” Tome pleaded, but Agnius did as he was told breaking his arm in three places just for good measure “Break the second one too, so he can get a matching set,” Wania said

The crowd around watched as Agnius broke Tom Collins's arms then one by one turned the face and pretended it didn’t happen. Count Collins was furious when his son came back home with two broken arms, he called for healers and doctors but for some reason, they were all busy treating the knights in the Sapphire house, there had been a training incident that day, and they needed all the healers and doctors available.

Later that day, soldiers of Count Collins came asking questions and looking for witnesses to testify against Wania Sapphire but no one came forward. The count had a lot of things to deal with and couldn’t pay attention to the unusual timing of his butler James asking for new staff intake and just approving it. 

After several frustrating hours of searching for someone to treat his son, Wania released a healer to go do it, but she followed along, just to pick up Helga who spent those hours, gossiping with the old maid as a new hire in disguise. The two went home and Helga gave her a report.

“The number of noble houses that visited the count in that four months is many, but what was strange is other than when the emperor came, the count and his guests would always leave and go elsewhere. They would go on horseback by themselves so none of the servants or knights knew where it was” Helga said.

“I see, I guess we would need more evidence before questioning him,” Wania said

“You could just charge in a force him to tell you” Helga said

“No, the others would get away if I did that and it won’t stop their plans against me”

“One more thing to note my lady, one of the servant girls said she once saw the count leave his home in a carriage appointed by a priest” 

Wania froze up “A priest? Is she sure?” she said

Helga nodded. On the Cominius continent, before the war to form the empire there were several holy kingdoms, they had their kings each but those kings all answered to a single person, the high pope. Under orders from the pope, they remained neutral not picking a side by which food and resources became too scarce, they had to defend everyone who was after the resources they had. In the end, they joined the war actively for a time, before returning to their defensive stance once several big contenders in the war fell. As such they have no real influence in the governing of our empire but they do try.

“Getting involved with the priest and by extension, the church is going too far” Wania said.

“Maybe that’s how much they fear your power, they’re willing to ask everyone for a chance to defeat you” Agnius said

Wania and Helga quickly face him with stunned expressions, his never in the room when they have such discussions and even if he was the most he ever contributed was a chuckle.

“They have nothing to fear from me” Wania.

“No, they do. I have been with you this entire time, I have seen the way people act when you enter rooms, how they talk both in front of you and behind your back, how they all accept they can never truly do anything to you but their pride won’t let them truly submit” Agnius said.

“Yes, but the emperor should be the same, Lady Wania fought to protect her family and create the empire as we know it, doing all this, risking the empire so many died to create just because his insecure is madness” Helga challenged Agnius words, her voice got heated when she slammed her hand against the table.

“Maybe he doesn’t believe his risking the empire, he probably sees it as getting rid of an obstruction to his plans” Agnius said.

“The emperor isn’t like that, there are hardly any major plans for the emperor that I don’t know about,” Wania said.

“And yet you didn’t know about the elves” Agnius's words send the room quiet, what is truly going on in the Cominius empire.