Empress — Atrocious

The Atrocious Empress ruled not with an iron fist, but with a silk glove lined with needles. Her name was Seraphine the Vexed, and she ascended the Chrysanthemum Throne at seventeen, having poisoned her three elder siblings with a dessert wine so sweet that each had smiled as they died.

For fifteen years, she made cruelty into an art form. atrocious empress

For the first time in her life, the Atrocious Empress felt something she could not tax, outlaw, or punish. The Atrocious Empress ruled not with an iron

Her punishments were small, personal, and therefore devastating. The baker who gave an extra roll to a hungry child lost his thumbs. The mother who sang a lullaby after the laughter tax had her tongue notched like a ledger. The boy who threw a stone at her carriage was forced to eat a bowl of identical stones, one each day, until his belly became a grave. For the first time in her life, the

Loneliness.

She walked past the baker’s stall. The baker, bandaged hands tucked into his apron, looked at the ground.