Chapter 1
The prison walls were moldy and reeked of feces and urine. Inside was a thin, haggard figure crouched on the floor, a woman who was a shadow of who she once was: the former Empress Amelia.
The woman's hands scratched grime-coated symbols repeatedly against the ground, her bones protruding and fingers trembling with each scrape. She kept mumbling things incomprehensible to human ears, things even she couldn't understand.
The woman paused and tilted her head, as if admiring her scribbling, then cackled. She continued scratching, each mark drawing blood from her already bloodied fingers.
She had spent how many days in this god forsaken prison? . She couldn't remember, she couldn't remember at all. Had it been days, months...or years. She had lost count. But how could she remember, how could she count? Her father's and brothers' heads had been severed before her eyes by the one she loved the most. The one for whom she had sacrificed everything had thrown her here, with no care at all. When he cast her into this place, she had seen the utter disdain in his eyes, the irritation, the disgust.
She knew theirs was a loveless marriage, but she had hoped he would come to love her after seeing her sacrifices. Besides, he would never have been Emperor if she hadn't persuaded her father to support him, a powerless prince. Even after becoming Empress, she poured all her efforts into ensuring her duties were fulfilled. When she caught him having an affair with his first love, Countess Cecilia, though hurt and heartbroken, she turned a blind eye to it, not wanting to anger him. She even encouraged him to take Cecilia in as a concubine.
What hadn't she done because she loved him? What hadn't she sacrificed for him? And yet...
"She has really gone mad," a soft voice mocked.
That voice...
Amelia snapped her head up, and before her eyes stood a woman with long black hair and violet eyes, it was Countess Cecilia.