[Meanwhile, at the Palace]

The morning was coming to a close as Yvonne sat elegantly at the glass topped table in her room and drafted out the names of the guests who will be attending the arriving tea party. Stace hung nearby.

"Stace," Yvonne called out as she brusquely circled a name amongst others on the list, "shall I invite Lady Quileth? I\'ve heard she\'s quite an infamous personality amongst the vast community of nobles."

Stace made a face. "Indeed, she\'s a woman of many rumors. Marrying Lord Quileth was just not enough for her, so after his sudden death, she went off and instituted a harem of sorts."

Yvonne frowned. "Lord Quileth died? I thought he was overseas. Was it a shady death?"

"No, I don\'t think so." Stace looked off into the distance as she tried to remember. "I heard he died of natural causes. Nothing suspicious there."

Yvonne nodded. "Okay." She contemplated adding her to the guest list, and then gave in, knowing that the drama at the assemblage would be exciting. She\'d love to know more about Lady Quileth.

Underlining her title twice, Yvonne moved on to the next name. Upon reading it, she frowned again.

"Does the name \'Madame Beatrice\' strike a chord?"

"Madame Beatrice who?"

Yvonne read again. "Beatrice Wynneli."

Stace shook her head. "Never heard of her. By the sound of it, she may as well be a mistress or something."

"Stace!" Yvonne shot her a look. "It says here next to her name that she\'s the wife of an esteemed merchant. Shall I invite her?"

Stace shrugged. "I dunno. It\'s a little gathering for noble women only, so I\'m not sure a common madame would fare well there."

Yvonne bit her lip and put a question mark next to her name. Against all her expectations, preparing the guest list proved to be a problematic task. She needed to invite only a limited number of women from a list of hundreds, and she knew not about the best additions to the final draft. Of course she wouldn\'t, she was new to the empire so she was unaware of the well-known personalities.

"This is so tiring!" Yvonne exclaimed and put her ink-dipped quill down. "Why aren\'t there any problem-free women in the empire willing to spend a lovely afternoon at tea? Everyone\'s either a witch or a potential murderer."

Stace chuckled at the state of her lady. "Well, you can invite Duke Xilsys\' daughter, Lillith. She\'s a girl of pure innocence and she receives hundreds of marriage proposals daily from the men who are into that type."

Yvonne chuckled. "Lilith Xilsys, is it? How old is she?"

"Now this is the weird part," Stace scoffed, her eyes wide. "The girl\'s only sixteen. Sixteen! Men can be real wretches at times."

"True that," Yvonne murmured as she wrote Lilith\'s name down. "I think I\'m done with the list. We\'ve got 10 women of various characters, whom I\'m sure will get along just fine."

Stace smiled as she picked the piece of paper up and folded it. "Let\'s not ponder over it, shall we? I\'ll hand this to His Majesty as soon as the circumstances allow me. Do you want some water to cool off?"

Yvonne shook her head. "No. But tell me what I have on my schedule today."

Stace nodded and recited from memory. "After breakfast, which you\'ve already had today, you had to work on the guest list and then as per His Majesty\'s request, pay him a visit in chambers."

Yvonne groaned. "Nooo, not that! I just want to take a nap."

Stace chuckled. "It\'s unusual of His Majesty to request something like this from any of his mistresses. To think that he invented only you in his private chambers must mean he fancies you. Now isn\'t that a great feat. Right in Lady Obsilia\'s face, ahaha!"

"I guess," Yvonne mumbled, "but frankly, the old man\'s a real pain. I\'d rather gouge my eyes out with a fork than spend time with him."

"Now, now," Stace patted her on the shoulder, "let\'s not talk about morbid details here. You\'re a smart girl, I\'m sure you can slip out of his grasp."

Yvonne sighed and stared out at the approaching evening sky from the tall balcony doors. She wondered what the Emperor had in store for her, since he called her so abruptly at the breakfast table this morning. Elora\'s face had been one of pure envy and disbelief, while the other women were either indifferent or surprised, but not displeased.

"Alright," Yvonne mumbled as she slid out of her chair and stretched her sore arms. "Stace, will you please get the pretty night blue dress out of my wardrobe? I\'ll wear that to his room."

Stace frowned as she headed to the closet. "Why that one?"

"Since it\'s hard to get off." Yvonne smiled. "And there are about a gazillion layers under the skirt. I\'m sure I\'ll get away at once if the Emperor tries to undress me or something, since he\'ll fail for sure."

Stace laughed. "Well, good luck with that. But I\'m sure that won\'t happen as it\'s been a long, long while since the Emperor touched a lady like that."

Yvonne scowled as she flopped down on her soft, plush bed.

"Why so?" she asked. "Is he keeping up a streak?"

Stace shrugged as she pulled the desired blue dress out of the closet.

"I\'m afraid even I don\'t know that. Anyways, here\'s the dress."

"Now isn\'t that lovely," Yvonne whispered as she stroked the patterned blue skirt. It was indeed a head-turning dress, with the neck-high fabric and the embellished front. Yvonne was sure she\'d dazzle anyone if she donned such beauty, but in this case, the dress did not hold such purpose.

Behind the dress, where either the corset laces or the hooks were supposed to be, was nothing, it appeared. But only the dressmaker or the dress-bearer would know the secret to it. It was a strange dress that hooked from the inside, and it would take at least one other person aside from the user of the dress to wear it.

Slowly, Yvonne slipped out of her morning dress and with Stace\'s help, she stepped into the blue dress, a color she loved since it complemented the glimmer in her eyes.

"All done," Stace sighed after a while of struggling with the hidden hooks and stood back to adore her hard work. "Don\'t you look just splendid? Come, let me do your hair."

Yvonne sat down on the little stool near the mirror and stared at her reflection as her flaming red hair was pulled away from her shoulders and into Stace\'s care.

"Shall we do it up or down today?" Stace asked.

Yvonne thought about it. "Down."

It took a while for Stace to prepare her lady for the big moment, so long that Yvonne was almost asleep on her seat before Stace shook her back to consciousness.

"Hey, are you dozing off?" Stace chuckled. "Get up, we\'re done here. Your morning makeup is perfect as is, so I won\'t add anything to it. Go on then, go get your man."

Yvonne cringed. "I\'d rather be single, Stace. You know that."

Stace nudged her reassuringly. "You\'ll be okay."

Yvonne took a deep breath and was about to open the door to her room and head out when she heard a tiny clink.

"What was that?" she asked, turning around.

Stace frowned as she looked towards the balcony, where the clinking sound had apparently come from. Both of them went to check what had happened and right there, at the foot of the door was a little rock with a piece of paper tied to it.

"What in the world..." Yvonne opened the door and picked the small rock up. She untwisted the thread and opened the folded piece of paper to read what it said. It was a short message, one that gave her chills.

"What does it say?" Stace asked as she peeked over her shoulder.

Immediately, Yvonne hid the paper from view and pretended as if everything was alright.

"What?" Stace asked suspiciously, narrowing her eyes.

"Nothing!" Yvonne smiled and then pushed past her. "I\'m getting late; I better get going. See you later, Stace!"

Once outside, Yvonne hurried through the corridors, her heart beating faster and faster with each step. That note...she knew who had thrown it.

What it said had been revolving in her mind for days, and to think they thought likewise and had already found out was surprising.

\'Will you kill him?\'

That\'s what the small piece of paper clenched in her palm had relayed to her. Without even knowing the name of the person she had been requested to kill, she knew. It was the Emperor. And she also knew who had requested such a hard task from her.

It could be nobody but them. That black haired due paired with the princess in hiding.

How had they come to the same conclusion as herself? Had they already figured out that the Emperor was a fake? If so, kudos to them. They were much smarter than she had expected them to be.

But to kill the Emperor…. That was where the trouble arose. There was no way she could just go in and slash a dagger through the man\'s thick skin. If someone saw her, she\'d be executed at once. No, she needed a better plan.

And she was also aware that she needed to arrange a meeting along with herself present, Aspen Yelwynn, the princess and the black haired dude. Only then could all great minds come up with a smart way to push the fraud off his throne, which was built of lies.

"Your Majesty," Yvonne said sing-songily as she knocked on the door to the Emperor\'s private chambers and pushed the note in her gloves. She gave a deep breath as the doors were pulled open, and she stepped in with a radiant smile to mask her increasing worry.

God, this was going to be hard.