Amara POV
Weeks passed.
The once-thriving hum of Blackwood Castle had dulled. Not silent—but different. A type of quiet that didn't come from peace. No, this was a hush born of uncertainty, of tension.
Chris Blackwood—Blackwood 1, Supreme Ruler of the Empire—was still missing.
No leads.
No ransom notes.
No remains.
Nothing.
Five weeks.
Five long weeks of silence from the one man the entire empire bowed to.
Amara had held the empire together with the sheer force of will. Council meetings, military reports, economic overhauls—every day was a battlefield. And every night, she lay awake, staring at the empty side of the royal chamber bed, half-expecting him to walk in with that damn smirk of his, pretending he was testing her or plotting something grand.
But he never came.
Classic had been strangely composed during the ordeal. Supportive, calculated, and eerily loyal—perhaps too loyal. He said little, did much. He met with foreign dignitaries on Amara's behalf. He calmed the public during a BBN broadcast. He even managed to rally the Council to keep faith in the empire's leadership—"temporary absence," he called it.
Still, Amara watched him closely.
She wasn't a fool.
Something about this disappearance didn't sit right. There was no breach. No alarm. No trace. Chris had simply vanished... from within his own castle. The most secure location in the known world.
And now... whispers had started to spread through the empire.
"Is he dead?"
"Did Amara stage it?"
"Has Classic taken the throne silently?"
"Is there a rebellion brewing beneath the calm?"
Amara silenced those rumors with an iron grip. She promoted loyalists, purged questionable officers, and restructured the intelligence division to operate around the clock. BAM units patrolled every inch of the capital. Surveillance drones filled the skies.
And yet... nothing.
One morning, as she stood in the throne room—his throne still untouched, unsat upon—she turned to Classic, who stood beside her.
"Do you believe he's still alive?" she asked plainly, staring straight ahead.
Classic hesitated only for a breath before answering.
"Yes."
She turned to him, eyes sharp.
"Then where the hell is he?"
Classic didn't respond.
Instead, he nodded once and walked away, hands behind his back.
And in that silence, something within Amara clenched.
She didn't just want answers anymore.
She wanted the truth.
Even if it destroyed everything.
—