The void was silent.
It always was.
''Look at the stars, Layla.'' Yasmina had once told her.
''Do you know what Ibn wrote? He said that the universe is written in light, and that those who read its language can decipher fate itself.''
Layla had scoffed at the time. She had ruled through steel and cunning, not superstition.
But now, as she drifted between death and whatever lay beyond, she wished she had listened more carefully.
A negotiation room, dimly lit by lanterns, the scent of ink and spice thick in the air. Layla sat with the same poise she had always wielded, a blade hidden behind silk. She had not been born into power—she had seized it, carved it out with wit sharper than any steel. A queen, not by divine right, but by sheer force of will.
She had been nothing at first. The forgotten daughter of a noble too unimportant to remember. A child born into a world that did not love her, cast aside by parents who had only wished for sons. She had been tolerated, ignored, treated as little more than an obligation—a girl who should never have mattered.
Her father had ruled a minor province, a bureaucrat clinging to power through false alliances and carefully played deceptions. Her mother, a woman obsessed with status, saw Layla only as a bargaining piece, a future bride to be traded away for political advantage. Her older brothers? They had seen her as nothing but a burden, an unnecessary competitor in their hunger for inheritance.
She learned early that love was conditional. That kindness was currency. That the world would never hand her anything freely.
So she took. Yet she had learned early that power was not given to the meek—it was taken. When the throne had been left vacant, torn apart by warring factions, it was she who had maneuvered, whispered, and outplayed every rival. She had turned enemies against each other, made the strongest warlords dance in her palm, and when the dust settled, it was her name that was whispered in reverence and fear.
The nobles who had scorned her? Gone. The siblings who had mocked her weakness? Eliminated. The father who had once declared she was 'unsuitable' to lead? He had bowed before her in his final days, too broken to resist the storm she had become.
''You always had sharp eyes, Layla'' he had wheezed from his sickbed
''But I never thought you would turn them on your own blood.''
She had looked down at him, expression unreadable. ''Neither did I.''
Regret? No. She had done what needed to be done. The world had given her nothing, so she had taken everything.
She had ruled the greatest empire in the known world, not by birthright, but by making herself indispensable.
Her reign had not merely been one of survival, but of revolution. The laws that once silenced women had been rewritten under her decree. Child marriages, once a common practice, were abolished. Women were given the right to own businesses, to be educated, to hold power—true power, not borrowed from fathers and husbands. She had fought for these changes, and she had won.
But it had come at a cost. The noble houses had resisted her, calling her unnatural, a deviation from tradition. They had whispered of her arrogance, of her refusal to submit. They had called her dangerous.
Jinhai had once told her, during a late-night negotiation
''You forced history to turn its gaze upon you, Layla. Most rulers let the tide of tradition guide them. You rewrote the course of the river itself.''
She had smiled, sipping her tea. ''And you disapprove?''
''I admire it'' he had admitted, though his voice was laced with the weight of his own constraints.
''But my empire is not ready for such things.''
And yet, despite his reluctance, he had always listened to her. Always watched, fascinated, as she tore down the walls that bound her people.
She had done more than rule. She had built. She had introduced public sanitation, the first large-scale bathhouses, and the earliest forms of city planning. It had been her idea to refine scented oils into what would later be known as perfume, turning the art of fragrance into a booming industry. And in secret, she had begun drafting blueprints for a new invention—an engine. The first of its kind, incomplete, but the beginning of something greater.
She sat across from Emperor Shen Jinhai of the Eastern Celestial Dynasty, a man as cold as the mountain winds. Between them, a parchment bearing terms of peace—a treaty that could unite two powerful empires. Yet, in the flickering candlelight, their gazes lingered just a little too long, the silence between words heavier than mere diplomacy. It was not the first time they had shared such moments. Over the years, their paths had crossed time and again—formal visits, feasts veiled as political maneuvers, quiet moments stolen in grand halls where they discussed not war, but poetry, philosophy, and the burdens of sovereignty.
''You always hesitate before signing, Layla'' Jinhai murmured, fingers tapping against the parchment.
''Why is that?''
She exhaled, a soft, nearly imperceptible smile touching her lips.
''Because treaties are easy to sign. Harder to uphold.''
Jinhai chuckled, low and knowing. ''You don't trust me?''
She studied him in the dim light, recalling the long years of their interactions. The stolen conversations between court feasts. The nights spent in quiet negotiations, where they spoke less like rulers and more like weary souls who understood one another.
''I trust you more than I trust most' she admitted finally.
'But trust is not the same as certainty.''
''I trust you'' she admitted.
''But I do not trust history.''
For a moment, there was only the sound of the crackling lanterns. The unspoken truth hung between them—they were both rulers bound by duty, both aware that what existed in these fleeting interactions could never be. Not truly. It was unspoken, a forbidden understanding—admiration, respect… perhaps something more.
There had been moments—small, fleeting, but impossible to ignore. The way he had once reached to adjust the heavy golden clasp of her ceremonial robe before thinking better of it. The night they had walked the palace gardens, discussing the weight of leadership, when she had allowed herself the rare indulgence of imagining a world where things had been different.
''Perhaps in another life'' he had once murmured.
''Perhaps'' she had replied. But there had never been another life. Only duty. Only war. Only fate pulling them apart before they had ever truly come together.
''You speak of prosperity'' Jinhai had said, his sharp eyes searching her own
''But can your people accept foreign rulers?''
Layla had smiled then, weary but resolute.
''We do not need conquerors, nor do we need division. We need unity. Trade, knowledge, strength—our worlds are more alike than you admit, 'Your Majesty'.''
But neither of them would ever see the future they envisioned.
The first sign of betrayal had been the bitter taste in her tea. The second had been the way Jinhai clutched his throat, his eyes widening in shock.
A single, deadly poison—administered to them both. A cruel, poetic fate for two rulers who had, against the tide of history, dared to find kinship in one another.
Layla, even as her vision blurred, calculated. The dosage, the delivery, the precise moment—none of this was random. Yasmina had always spoken of poisons as tools, their timing as vital as the blade that followed. But something was wrong—Jinhai was collapsing too fast.
Her mind raced, assessing, calculating. If the poison took full effect before Jinhai hit the floor, his head could strike the stone with enough force to rob him of what little dignity he had left in death. She had seconds—seconds.
Summoning her last reserves of strength, she reached across the table, knocking over a small silk pillow just in time to break his fall. A meaningless act? Perhaps. But dignity in death mattered. Even if she could not save him, she could offer him that final mercy.
Yet, even through her pain, her mind latched onto one final puzzle: who?
The tea had been inspected. Every precaution taken. And yet… it had still reached them.
Her mind sifted through the last moments, recalling three figures who could have orchestrated this.
First, Minister Halim—her most trusted adviser, a man with a reputation beyond reproach. But had his loyalty waned? Had he grown tired of serving a ruler who refused to be a puppet?
Second, Lady Zaira—a concubine turned diplomat, once loyal but increasingly frustrated with Layla's rejection of certain 'traditions.' She had reason, she had access.
And lastly… the unassuming servant, Jinhai's own cupbearer, a boy who had been with him since childhood. The least likely suspect. But was that not the mark of a true assassin?
Her breath slowed as she accepted the bitter truth—trust had been her greatest weakness.
As the world blurred, Layla had reached out—not to the treaty, not to her crown, but to Jinhai himself.
''They will rewrite history'' she had whispered, even as her vision darkened.
''They will make it seem as if we never tried.''
The last thing she heard was the sound of a goblet shattering against the floor.
Jinhai's face twisted with a mixture of emotions—gratitude, regret, and something deeper, something heavier. His lips parted as if to speak, but no words came. His eyes, dark and unwavering, locked onto hers, silently conveying the apology he could not voice.
Layla understood. He had been a ruler first, a man second. Bound by duty, by expectations, by the weight of a thousand unspoken rules. And yet, in this moment, he was neither.
His fingers trembled, lifting slightly from the table, as though reaching for her—too late. Always too late.
She exhaled a bitter breath, her strength fading.
''Don't apologize, Jinhai'' she whispered.
''We both knew this was how it would end.''
A tear traced down his cheek. Whether for himself or for her, she would never know.
And then—a whisper, barely a breath against the darkness.
I'm sorry, Layla… This is all I could do for you…
Faint, distant, yet unmistakable. A voice she had not heard in years. But there was something else—another presence.
A second voice, layered beneath Yasmina's, barely above a whisper. Foreign, unknowable, yet strangely familiar.
It is not yet your time, you are more than this
Her heart clenched.
Who was that?
The words held a weight she could not place, a significance that chilled her bones. A voice she had never heard, yet it coiled in her mind like a long-forgotten memory.
Then, like an ember igniting within the abyss, consciousness returned.