THE EMPRESS I FORGOT

Chapter 2: The Price of a Miracle

The armed imperial soldiers intercepted Julian before he could successfully guide his younger brother across the raging river.

“Stop right there, or the boy dies!”

Julian spun around so sharply on his heels that Tomas stumbled awkwardly against his shoulder. Three imperial soldiers blocked the narrow wooden bridge behind them, their dark black armor glistening beneath the heavy downpour. One of them held a loaded crossbow aimed directly at Tomas's chest, while another held up a polished silver badge bearing the thirteen-starred crown of the empire.

Julian felt his palm begin to burn with intense heat. He tightly closed his fingers around his hand, desperately hoping that the strange golden symbol would remain hidden beneath his skin. The searing sensation had followed him ever since he fled the execution platform, growing progressively hotter whenever raw fear threatened to overwhelm him. He had no clear idea how he had managed to stop time, and he understood even less about the terrible emptiness left behind in his mind afterward. All he knew was that his mother had once existed in his memories with a warmth so vivid that he could almost hear her singing, yet now he could no longer remember the true features of her face. He had saved Tomas from the blade, but something immensely precious had been forcibly taken from him in return.

“Keep your weapon lowered,” Julian said firmly, positioning his body directly between the soldiers and his frightened brother.

The soldier holding the crossbow laughed without a trace of humor. “You stopped an official imperial execution, attacked the king's peacekeepers, and fled with a condemned thief. Do you honestly believe you can negotiate your way out of this situation?”

“He only stole medicine for a sick child,” Julian countered, keeping his posture steady. “If your written laws demand his death for such an act, then perhaps your laws are the real criminals here.”

The crossbowman's cold expression hardened, and his gloved finger tightened dangerously around the trigger.

Tomas frantically grabbed Julian's wet sleeve. “Please, do not make them angry. I do not want you to get hurt because of me.”

Julian glanced back at his younger brother. Tomas was fourteen years old, but severe hunger and constant fear had made him look much younger. His wet hair clung heavily to his forehead, and the raw rope burns around his wrists were still bleeding into the rain. Only a few minutes earlier, Julian had watched a heavy blade descend toward that same boy's neck, and the terrifying memory should have been enough to make him grateful that they had escaped alive. Instead, he felt as though he had left a vital part of his own soul behind on the execution platform.

“Get behind me,” Julian whispered to his brother.

The lead soldier raised his crossbow higher, taking steady aim. “This is your last warning. Kneel immediately!”

Julian's heart hammered violently against his ribs. He knew that he could not fight three heavily armed men at once, and he possessed no money to bribe them for their freedom. The river roaring below them was heavily swollen from the torrential storm, its dark water smashing violently against the wooden bridge supports. Their escape route had narrowed down to a few slippery steps between immediate capture and sudden death.

Then Julian remembered the strange sensation that had filled his body when the executioner's sword was falling. For one impossible instant, the entire world had belonged entirely to him. Rain had hung completely motionless in the heavy air, hardened soldiers had become frozen statues, and even death itself had waited while he reached out to pull his brother to safety. He wondered if he could somehow trigger the same miracle again.

The golden symbol etched beneath his palm pulsed with light, as if something deep inside his body had heard the desperate question.

Julian drew a long, trembling breath, and in an instant, the world went completely still once again.

The fired crossbow bolt remained suspended mere inches from Julian's chest, its sharp iron tip catching a thin streak of frozen lightning in the sky. The falling rain stopped descending altogether, and the turbulent river beneath the bridge became a dark, motionless sheet of glass. Even the soldier's sneer had frozen rigidly in place upon his face.

Julian staggered backward on the slippery planks, clutching his burning palm against his chest. This time, he fully understood what he had done, realizing that he had stolen yet another second from the flow of the world.

“No,” he whispered into the void, though the spoken word seemed to vanish instantly into the unnatural silence. “Not again.”

A sharp, piercing pain plunged deep into his skull. Something invisible tugged forcefully at his innermost thoughts, searching through the quiet chambers of his mind as if they belonged to a total stranger. Julian tried his best to resist the mental intrusion, but the unbearable pressure grew stronger until vivid images began flashing rapidly before his eyes. He saw a small wooden table, a cracked blue cup, and warm sunlight falling across a woman's gentle hands.

He recognized the rustic room immediately. It was the humble kitchen where he and Tomas had spent their early childhood, back when their mother had still been alive and well. He remembered the comforting smell of warm baked bread and the sweet sound of Tomas laughing with white flour on his cheeks. He remembered sitting quietly beside the window while their mother worked, even though her actual face remained frustratingly beyond his mental reach.

Then, a completely new image suddenly materialized within the memory. His mother stood beside the wooden table, holding the tiny hand of a young boy. Julian could not tell whether the child in the memory was himself or Tomas. Behind them both, a large clock hung crookedly on the wall, its thirteen hands turning erratically in opposite directions.

Suddenly, his mother turned and looked directly at him. “Julian,” she said, her voice sounding crystal clear and deeply frightened, “if the grand clock ever begins to move, you must never let the empress remember you.”

The vivid memory shattered like delicate glass.

Julian cried out in agony and dropped heavily to one knee on the bridge. The golden mark flared brilliantly beneath his skin, causing the frozen world to tremble uncertainly around him. He had no idea why his long-deceased mother would warn him about a powerful empress he had never met in person, but the absolute terror in her remembered voice felt far more real than anything else he knew.

A strange, haunting thought followed closely behind the revelation, feeling cold and completely unmistakable. Perhaps the mysterious magic had not taken a memory away from him this time, but rather, it had shown him a hidden memory that someone had deliberately buried deep within his mind long ago.

The bright golden light faded away, and time resumed its natural flow with a deafening rush of noise.

The fired bolt struck Julian's shoulder instead of his chest, tearing violently through his wet coat before glancing off the tough leather strap beneath it. He stumbled hard against the bridge railing as a shockwave of pain flashed down his arm. Behind him, Tomas screamed in terror as the imperial soldiers rushed forward across the bridge.

“Run!” Julian shouted at the top of his lungs.

This time, Tomas did not argue with him for even a second. He darted swiftly toward the far end of the wooden bridge while Julian forcefully shoved the nearest soldier aside. The momentum sent the man colliding into his companion, causing both guards to crash heavily against the wooden railing. Julian quickly followed his brother into a labyrinth of narrow alleys, completely ignoring the dark blood spreading rapidly beneath his torn sleeve.

They did not stop running until they finally reached an abandoned tannery situated far beyond the old market square.

Inside the shelter, the damp air smelled heavily of wet leather and rotting wood. Julian shoved a heavy broken table against the entrance door, and then he sank exhaustedly against the wall, breathing heavily while Tomas searched for something to bind his bleeding wound.

“You saved my life twice today,” Tomas said softly, tearing a long strip of cloth from his own shirt. His young hands shook visibly as he carefully wrapped the clean fabric around Julian's injured shoulder. “I do not understand how you managed to do it, but I saw the bright light in your hand. You were standing right there, and then suddenly everything stopped moving.”

Julian stared down at his open palm. The glowing symbol had disappeared completely, leaving behind a faint golden outline that strongly resembled a permanent scar. He rubbed the mark with his thumb, but the faint outline refused to fade away.

“I honestly do not know what happened back there,” Julian confessed quietly.

“Then we should try to find someone who does understand it,” Tomas suggested.

“And what would we tell them?” Julian asked, looking up at his brother. “Should we tell them that I possess the ability to stop time, but every single time I do it, something precious inside my mind disappears? The very first person who hears that story will sell us both to the imperial court before sunset.”

Tomas lowered his eyes to the floor. “You do not have to keep risking your life to save me.”

The heavy words hurt Julian far more than the physical wound in his shoulder.

Julian reached out and gripped his brother's uninjured shoulder tightly. “Listen to me carefully. You are not a burden to me, and I will never regret saving your life. Do you understand what I am saying?”

Tomas nodded his head slowly, though fresh tears gathered in his tired eyes.

Julian desperately wanted to tell his brother about their mother's terrifying warning, but he hesitated to speak the words aloud. He could not explain why the supreme empress had appeared in a hidden memory from their childhood, nor could he explain why his mother's voice had sounded as though she had known this exact day would come. Until he uncovered the absolute truth, he decided that he would keep the warning entirely to himself.

Suddenly, a loud metallic scrape echoed from the dark space outside the tannery.

Both brothers froze in complete stillness. Someone on the other side had just dragged a heavy blade slowly across the wooden door.

“Julian Vale,” a cool woman's voice called out from the darkness beyond the threshold. “You currently have two choices available to you. You can step outside willingly, or the ruthless soldiers searching these streets will eventually discover your brother hiding in this room.”

Julian rose slowly to his feet, ignoring the throbbing pain in his damaged shoulder. “Who are you?”

“My name is Mira Thorne, and I serve the Empress directly.”

Tomas quickly seized Julian's wrist in a panic. “Do not open the door.”

“I would not recommend opening it either,” Mira replied through the thick door, as though she had overheard his whisper. “The men searching outside do not belong to me. They serve Lord Cassian, the empress's uncle, and they have received strict orders to bring you back alive.”

Julian exchanged a tense, worried glance with Tomas. “Why would a high nobleman want anything to do with me?”

“Because you stopped a public execution right in front of half the city, and because something extraordinary happened deep beneath the palace immediately afterward.” Mira paused briefly before continuing. “An ancient clock has begun to move for the very first time in three hundred years.”

Julian's stomach tightened in sheer dread. Thirteen golden hands, his mother's cryptic warning, and the impossible symbol etched onto his palm were all inextricably linked together, even if he could not yet see how the pieces fit.

“Tell your empress that I have absolutely nothing she wants,” he called out defensively.

Mira's quiet response came back through the wood. “That exact fact is precisely what frightens her the most.”

Before Julian could form a reply, a second harsh voice echoed loudly from the alleyway outside.

“Search every inch of this building!”

Mira swore softly under her breath. The wooden door shuddered violently as someone struck the exterior panels with a heavy blunt object.

“Listen to me very carefully,” Mira urged from the other side. “The empress has ordered me to bring you safely to the palace, but her uncle has already dispatched men to kill you if they fail to capture you alive. Whatever ancient force awakened inside you today is older than this entire empire, Julian. If you choose to remain hidden here, you will never learn why it chose you in the first place.”

Julian looked down at Tomas, and then he looked back at the faint golden scar marking his palm. He wanted nothing more than to refuse her offer, to disappear forever into the dark slums, and to spend the rest of his natural life protecting his brother from a world that had never shown them any mercy. Yet, his mother's desperate voice remained firmly lodged inside his mind.

Never let the empress remember you.

What exact truth had Empress Aurelia Veyr forgotten over the years, and why had his mother feared the exact moment she finally remembered it?

The heavy wooden door cracked down the center beneath another brutal blow from outside.

Julian took a cautious step toward the entrance.

Then Mira spoke once more, and for the very first time, her cool composure completely broke. “Julian, there is one last thing that you need to know. The soldiers outside are not the only ones searching for you. The empress has just uncovered your mother's real name inside a sealed imperial record.”

Julian completely stopped breathing. “What name did she find?”

“Elara Vale.”

The heavy tannery door suddenly burst inward with a loud crash.

Mira stood poised just beyond the broken threshold with a drawn sword in her hand, but she was not looking at the brothers. Instead, she was staring past Julian toward the rotting wall behind him, her face completely drained of all color.

A radiant golden clock symbol was glowing brightly across the rotting wooden boards of the wall. Thirteen slender hands were slowly turning around its luminous center, and from somewhere deep beneath the earth, a soft woman's voice whispered Julian's name into the air.

“Come home, my son.”