Chapter 14 - The Punishment

Aristia takes a long bath, watching intensely as her garments hide the precious peace treaty on a chair in the bathroom.

With a heavy heart in her chest, she slips under the covers next to Chris, who doesn't hesitate to embrace her.

"Haven't you fallen asleep?" She asks, watching as night slowly turns to day.

The dawn is beautiful, but she knows that once the sun is up and she will wake up – that is, if she will even manage to sleep at all – she will have to tell Chris everything.

"No. Even if you came back safely, I still feel on edge for some reason. I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight." He answers, his voice soft, as he pulls her closer.

"Mhm. Me neither." She replies, turning around and facing him.

With every minute that passes when she doesn't confess what she's done, she feels even worse. Maybe it would be better to cut to the chase and simply tell him now, because no matter how much time she waits, the outcome will be the same.

She's dug her own grave, and now she will have to lie in it.

"You seem troubled about something..." Chris hesitates, noticing how Aristia spaces out. He's not used to seeing her this way, and she looks incredibly fragile in the soft morning light.

"Chris, I have to... uhm... I have to tell you something."

She takes in a deep breath and watches how the Emperor is looking at her with tired eyes. She decides to hug him one last time, to give him a last kiss before confessing everything, and so, she does, and Chris welcomes her warmly.

His embrace feels safe, and she feels on the verge of crying again, but this time, she doesn't let any tears spill. She keeps her composure and stands up, grabbing the two documents – the treaty and the document proving the ownership of the emerald mine – then returns to bed.

Chris follows her and sits up, watching intensely as she brings the two papers.

"Before you read these... Please let me speak and listen to me without asking any questions." She says in a quiet voice, barely audible, and Chris nods, confused.

"I didn't... I didn't want our Empire to go to war with the Kingdom of the South. This would've been an unnecessary, avoidable war, and I didn't want any of our people to die any longer. As Mr. Silverstone stated, the Empire hasn't known any peace in way too long..."

"Aristia..." Chris starts, immediately shaking his head. "What exactly did you do...?"

"I'm sorry." She shakes her head, her hands trembling. "I... I didn't trust that you would hear me out, so I ended up acting on my own. Chris, I... I betrayed you."

"What are you saying...?" His eyes suddenly widen, all the tiredness he felt so far simply melting away in an instant.

"I employed a plan with my half-sister to bring our nations to peace. This plan entails a... a formal, signed agreement... a treaty between the Empire and the Kingdom to make sure that for the next one hundred years, no blood will be shed on either side."

Saying this, she hands Chris the papers, which he is quick to snatch away from her in a swift motion. His eyes first scan the paper regarding the emerald mine, and then, the treaty, which he reads carefully.

With every sentence he reads, he seethes with anger, but when his eyes reach his signature and his stamp, he puts the paper down, and without any words, he gets off the bed and begins walking towards the door.

"Chris, wait-"

"Don't." He immediately cuts her off, not even turning around to look at her. "Don't say anything anymore."

"But I-"

"As of today, you are to stay confined to this room until I decide what to do with this... with you."

Aristia's shoulders slouch as she watches helplessly how Chris exits her room, and her heart begins to hurt even worse.

If only she would've trusted him... maybe none of this would've happened.

She decides to get under her covers and tries her hardest to fall asleep, with no success whatsoever.

~

"Good morning, Your Highness." A maid she doesn't recognise enters her room with a tray of food, but Aristia's appetite is non-existent to say the least.

"Who are you?" She inquires. "What happened to my maids?"

"My name is Nora. As for your other maids, I don't have any information."

"I see..."

"The Emperor is expecting you in his office after breakfast."

"Alright."

The maid bows politely then gets out of the room, but Aristia doesn't have the energy to get out of bed, let alone sit at the table and eat anything. She plops right back and hugs her bed covers tight. They still smell like Chris.

After a little while, she decides she can't stay in bed forever, so she gets up and heads towards the food, but just the sight of it makes her sick.

She's unbelievably nauseous, most likely from the lack of sleep, and she has no energy whatsoever.

Instead of eating, she begins getting ready to face Chris and opens the door to get out of her room, which Changbin is guarding.

"Good morning." He bows. His expression seems grave.

"Hello, Changbin." She smiles shortly, before starting to walk the familiar path towards Chan's office.

When her presence is announced and she is permitted to enter, she is shocked to see her three faithful maids and a couple of officials she barely recognises, as well as Jisung and Seungmin, who both avert their gazes when her eyes gloss over them.

Tensions are high, and Aristia can sense the air growing dense around her as she steps inside the room.

Alice looks rough. She must've found the last night difficult to cope with, and she must still be in shock.

Chris' back is turned at first, and for a few moments, she doesn't know whether she should say something or not. She decides to keep silent.

"Empress," Chris begins, finally turning around to meet her eyes. "You have committed one of the greatest sins, forging official documents and complotting against the Crown with the help of your maids."

"If I may speak-" Aristia starts but gets cut off immediately.

"You may not." Chris immediately counters.

"- my maids had nothing to do with this. I did it all on my own." She says either way, ignoring his interruption. "Please let them go."

"They had nothing to do with this?!" Chris chuckles lowly, the officials throwing questioning looks at each other.

"Yes. None of them were aware of my plans. They were just forced to act the way they did after I threatened them." Aristia speaks softly, looking at her maids and their pained expressions.

Of course, she's never threatened them. They did everything out of loyalty to her, and they even kept silent because they are willing to go down with Aristia. Still, she promised she would protect them, so this is what she will do.

"Please understand that they are mere subordinates who followed my orders blindly. They didn't know what they were doing." Aristia insists, still keeping a mellow voice, looking directly at Chris. She completely disregards the presence of the other officials, as she couldn't care less about what they think of her.

Chris lets out a large sigh, closing his eyes tight. He was trying to help her out – to get her to put some blame on others so he could lessen her punishment – but Aristia's already made up her mind to take all the blame. After all, she truly was the one who made up the plan, all on her own.

"I understand. Still, they must be held accountable for refusing to report to me when asked. They will be relocated far away from the Capital. Actually, why not to the Kingdom of the South, since you so dearly promised them that we'd allocate any resources we have should they need them?" Chris lets out a mocking, short laugh, but Aristia just smiles, grateful that her maids won't have to pay too dearly.

They could always start anew somewhere else, she figures. All of them are young and beautiful, and extremely quick-witted, so she is certain that they will find a place in this world, away from the Palace, away from the Empire of the Sun, and most importantly, away from herself.

Everyone in the room is on edge, the officials shift uncomfortably in their seats, clenching their fists and waiting for the Emperor to speak again.

"Then, you are free to go to your rooms until further instructions." Chris commands, and the maids get out quickly, as if afraid he would change his mind.

Left alone in the presence of her husband, her teacher, Jisung and the other officials, Aristia straightens her back and prepares herself to face whichever punishment they have decided to give her. She holds her head high and faces them fearlessly - even though her insides are burning.

"Have I been wrong on anything else?" Chris asks, which takes her by surprise. He's essentially giving her a chance to explain herself, to somehow rationalise why she's done this.

"Yes, Your Highness." She begins. "You've mentioned I complotted against the Crown, however, this was never my intention, nor my plan. Everything I did was for the peace of our home, our Empire."

"Yet you signed a peace treaty none of us knew about, let alone agree with. Did you think you could do whatever you pleased?" He challenges.

"I was afraid you would not understand my judgement. However, I believe I made the right choice."

As she says this, all the officials shake their heads, one of them beginning to speak.

"Your Majesty, this is not right! She can't do however she pleases!"

"I agree! Even if the treaty in itself wasn't a bad idea, the way she went behind everyone's backs is simply inadmissible!" Another one chimes in.

"She must be punished accordingly, Your Highness!" Another one of the officials exclaims with a scoff, and Chris lets out a long sigh, trying to control himself.

This whole situation is terrible, as he doesn't know how he'd end up turning it around to make Aristia escape the apparently inevitable fate she's faced with, and she's not helping the situation at all either, for she asks:

"What is my punishment?"

"Since your crime was so grave, there is no precedent." Chris sighs again after a few short moments, averting his gaze. "However, the Empire has established a protocol long ago in case of forgery of documents on a lower scale, which will be applied to your case as well. Seungmin, would you tell the Empress what that protocol is?"

Seungmin looks at Aristia for the first time, and as their eyes meet, she can sense how crestfallen he is to deliver the news. He looks completely different to the usually composed Seungmin she's worked with for the past months.

"The... uhm, the punishment in this case would be execution." Seungmin finds it hard to speak, and he closes his eyes before continuing. "Normally, a trial would be held to have a judge overview the case, however, since her Highness confessed to the Emperor himself and in front of all the officials of committing this crime... no such trial is needed."

"Thank you, Seungmin." Chris speaks, clearing his throat. His insides are burning and watching the woman he's grown to love receive this verdict, his heart clenches. He really doesn't know what to do to get her out of this tough spot.

Her position in front of the court officials is unfavourable, and even though, after thinking long and hard about it, he was willing to brush over her betrayal and look at the grand scheme of things – as the peace treaty is indeed useful to the Empire, the emerald mine dispute has been settled, and they'd even conduct some other useful trades for their agriculture - the officials won't hear any of it, and unfortunately, even though he is the Emperor, by the way their court is established, he must take into account the vote of the majority.

The officials become restless, urging Chris to deliver the final blow, and there is simply nothing he can do than inform his wife of her punishment.

"Aristia Bahng, as of this moment, you are stripped of your last name and of your title as the Empress of the Sun. Your execution will take place in a week's time. Until then, Changbin, please escort her to the dungeon."

A punishment fit for the crime, she believes. Aristia nods shortly and turns around, waiting for Changbin to lead the way. Watching her husband deliver this news felt like an arrow had been shot straight to her heart. Perhaps it's better that she won't have to see him again until her execution. She already feels sick, the nausea getting worse, and she's on the verge of passing out.

"Wait." Chris says, stopping them dead in their tracks and making them turn around. "Is there anything else you'd like to add? Anything at all?"

"Nothing, Your Highness. Please excuse me." She smiles softly, looking in the eyes of the man she loves, and she once again regrets not being able to trust him. Everything she's done was for the prosperity of the Empire, to ensure no other lives will be lost meaninglessly anymore, however, she went about it the wrong way, and the pain in her chest only proves this further.

She looks once more at Chris and feels a wave of sorrow wash over her.

She couldn't even bring herself to apologise.

~

"Your Highness, it might be best to go to your room first and grab something warm, since the cells are underground, and very cold..." Changbin frowns.

"Please don't call me that, Changbin." She smiles. "I am no longer your Empress."

"You will forever be my Empress, Your Highness." He counters.

"The Emperor commanded you to escort me directly to the dungeon, so we are unable to drop by my rooms. Please, respect his command." Aristia continues, and with a dejected nod, he leads her towards her cell.

He unlocks the door to the metal cage using a large key, but before she steps inside, he grabs her wrist and pulls her into a hug.

"I'm so, so sorry." He whispers, and when he pulls back, his eyes are filled with tears. "We all know that you fought for the Empire until the very end. Even the Emperor."

Aristia tries to stay strong and simply pats his shoulder one time before stepping into her cell and sitting on the old mattress on the bed, facing the wall. She doesn't think she could stand watching Changbin and his downcast expression any longer, not without spilling any tears herself.

~

The cell is indeed cold, and Aristia wishes she wouldn't have respected Chan's orders to come straight here.

She wishes she had a coat, or at least a blanket to cover herself with, and she wishes she would've had something to eat in the morning, because for the rest of the day, she wasn't given anything.

The next morning, she wakes up feeling as nauseous as the previous day. Her nose is slightly congested, her head hurts badly, and so does her back, due to sleeping on the thin, uncomfortable mattress.

There is nothing to do in this cell, nothing at all but stare at the brick walls.

For breakfast, she is given a fresh loaf of bread, steaming hot, and to her surprise, a warm blanket. She eats the bread with reluctance, but she feels so sick, not even 30 minutes later, she throws it up in the small bucket in the corner of the room.

Even though she's lying in bed in the other corner, the smell is horrible, and her nose, despite being congested, is quite sensitive to it. She doesn't remember having such a strong sense of smell.

She tries holding her breath, counting seconds in her head, but is unable to do so for long, as she feels another wave of nausea wash over her, and she finds herself throwing up in the bucket again.

The same happens during lunch, when she receives a warm soup and another loaf of bread. She assumes she's treated better than the other criminals that have occupied the dungeon before, but still, she can't eat, and she's so cold, even with the blanket.

By dinnertime, she doesn't even look at the food anymore. She asks Nora, the maid who's brought it, to simply take it back, because the smell of food is making bile rise up her throat, and she throws up again.

~

(A/N) Had a busy day and only managed to open Wattpad and post this now.

Damn!!! It appears there's an execution in the schedule.

What do you think could happen? Is there any way for Aristia to get out of this before it's too late?

Love,

Storm