Ning went into the carriage where Shara and Mari were staying. Mari was doing her best to conserve her energy for the upcoming situations. With so much battle incoming, she needed to heal as many people as she could.
She had channeled a few spirits throughout their journey here, and at this point, she was ready to heal a hundred different people at once. However, she feared that the incoming war would take away all of her powers.
If she lost everything, the next ti she got her powers again, she would end up with a new one. And the current healing energy she had was sothing she very much wanted to keep.
Shara looked toward Ning as he walked in and followed him with her gaze as he sat down.
"We should arrive by noon tomorrow," he said. "You guys should rest as much as possible. Especially you, Shara. It will be a big day for you."
Shara slowly nodded. She still couldn’t believe that she was going to attempt gaining a place on the throne. It was just such a nonsensical thing that she had accepted so easily. As the days grew closer, however, the reality of the situation made her more scared than she ever thought she would be.
"Do you think I would make a good ruler?" she asked.
"You have learned much of what you needed to, and you will continue to learn even more. Even if you are bad at the start, you will grow to be a great Empress. I’m sure of it."
Shara didn’t know what she could say at that mont. She simply remained quiet.
Mari watched her with a weird look on her face. "Are you that worried about it?" she asked. "If you don’t want to beco an Empress, then I don’t think you have to go through it. It’s okay that you tried as much as you did. You’re still young, after all."
Ning frowned for a mont. Had he pushed the young girl so much that she was breaking now that they were so close to the end? He worried that might have been the case.
After a short thought, he nodded. "Mari is correct. You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to. No one should have to force you to do sothing that you don’t want to."
"No, it’s not that," Shara said quickly, turning to look at him and Mari. "It’s not that I don’t want to beco an Empress. I just worry that I might be doing it for the wrong reason entirely."
Ning gave a curious look. "The wrong reason?" he asked.
"I’m trying to beco an Empress in part for my revenge, aren’t I?" she asked. "Because my parents were killed by the Emperor, part of the reason I was doing this was because I wanted to ruin his chances at becoming the next Emperor. It was a flawed reason to begin with."
"But now... now that the Emperor is dead. I’m not sure if it is right for to do what I am doing. Surely the other people would make for a better ruler than , and they likely won’t even be that bad a person compared to the previous Emperor."
Ning understood finally, at that mont, what was going on.
Shara had been holding in a wish for revenge for the longest ti. After learning that her parents were killed because her father had been a Reaper, she wanted to get back at the Emperor that had ordered the kills.
However, now that the news had co that the Emperor was dead, everything that had been keeping Shara going seed to crumble around her. Without revenge as her source of motivation, she felt there was no reason to do what she was doing.
"That’s still a good reason," Mari said. "You should—"
"You need a new reason," Ning cut her off. "There is one."
Both the won turned to look at him. "What do you an?" Mari asked.
Ning turned back to Shara. "Do you think the Emperor’s son, the new Emperor, is any less of an asshole than his father?" he asked. "He grew up mostly during the war, so the war is all he has known for the past 35 years of his life. Should a person like that take the throne?"
Shara quickly shook her head. "But he’s not the only one. There are two others that..."
"There are," Ning said. "But think about this for a mont. Say Tayla becos the Empress instead. What do you think will happen to this empire and its people?"
Shara looked confused. "What do you an?"
"After fighting them for so many years, do you think they will just give up? That they will quietly accept a new Emperor?"
"But they don’t have any soldiers. There’s no one to fight the new Emperor, who will have armies of his own," Shara said. "You taught that many will join forces with the Emperor too."
"Yes," Ning said. "What else did we teach you? Especially in regards to people who don’t like the change?"
"They will fight back, in any way they can," Shara said. "When pushed, many fall, but so push right back. Not everyone will take the change lightly."
"And what do you think will happen to those people who fight back?"
"They’ll die," Shara answered. It was obvious that no new Emperor would want so peasant undermining their authority. They would kill all who voice their opinions.
"Would you do that?" Ning asked her.
Shara shook her head.
"Don’t these people deserve soone who won’t exploit them and their interests now that the war is over? Do you really need the idea of revenge to make you an Empress? Can’t you do it for the sake of these people who are going to have an Emperor regardless?"
Shara thought for a long mont and slowly nodded. She took a deep breath, understanding what it was that she needed to do.
"I’ll do it," she said. "I’ll beco the Empress."
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