By the next morning, the palace no longer felt like the same place.
The sun rose.
The courtyard stones warmed beneath the light.
Servants opened windows, carried water, swept the corridors, prepared breakfast, and hurried from one building to another as they did every ordinary morning.
Yet something had changed.
A whisper had entered the palace.
And once a whisper entered the palace—
It rarely remained a whisper.
At first, it was only one servant speaking to another near the kitchen.
"Did you hear?"
"Hear what?"
"The Empress."
The second servant immediately looked around.
"Lower your voice."
"I am only telling you what I heard."
"What did you hear?"
The first servant leaned closer.
"They say the ministers want Her Majesty punished."
The other servant's face changed.
"Punished?"
"She is being blamed for everything strange happening in the palace."
For several moments, neither spoke.
Then the second servant swallowed.
"Everything?"
The first nodded.
