Chantico sat back down in Malina's old chair and watched her lying on the floor. She looked up at him but was unable to meet his eyes for longer than a moment. Malina steadied herself on her hands for a moment and then pushed herself to her feet. The tears were not in her eyes they but she could feel them in her chest. Struggling she straightened her shoulders and her neck and looked at Chantico, but the steel in her had been weakened. She could feel the side of her face thicken from the slap, but it was her inability to deal with Chantico that hurt her most of all.
Malina had always thought of Chantico as a weak toady. A man that held the position he did because the way he knelt and scraped before Teiuc. A man not worth thinking about, hardly worth a mention. A man whom she had believed she would have to crush at some point when he got full of himself. And here he was shaming her and feeling pity for her as she huddled on the floor.
I am Empress no longer.
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