I found the Emperor at the back of his study fingering through an unknown volume that he had plucked from the shelf. His deep cherry stained desk, carved three hundred years ago, still glinted candlelight across its scratched surface. Of all his majesty's royal halls and apartments whose grand ornamentation festooned the Great Palace, only this study betrayed a humble beginning. None now could remember when the Emperor's kin walked among the commonfolk.

"Godliness..."

I remained frozen. Rarely did the Emperor speak to his advisors, and much less directly so, even to those among the highest echelons of his council.

"Godliness, Ramsey... godliness in a man. Unquestionable only insofar as he be unassailable."

The Emperor's words took me by surprise and my tongue, as loose as he must know it to be in debate with the others, did not move.

"The Great Palace never saw a single year without an addition, you know. Of course you know." His eyes raised from the pages and sent an icy message to my own. "You know so much, Ramsey."

My heart sank and I looked to the floor, and cupped my hands tightly before my frock. Whatever I could do to submit and retreat; retreat from the Emperor, retreat from his presence. He knows.

"These grounds are measured in ages. Thousands of years and immeasurable expense. It is a city. Every turn reveals another incalculable structure. Soaring vaulted heights, to remind the people here of godliness. My godliness.

"The Empire began here, Ramsey. In this study. You did not know that, of this I am sure. From the time of my ancestor when this was a village and he a mere chieftain. And now, the Grand Palace. A symbol. But what symbol so vast and empty. A city of air and gold."

The Emperor slammed shut his tome, shocking my ears and giving me a visible start. He dropped it on the desk. He looked at me now, directly. Fury shone red in his eyes as he squared up not a meter from where I stood. I cowered in submission and untameable fear.

"Godliness in a man is preserved by the space around him. It is a buffer, like a protective cloud. It raises us, and paints us like gods at the height of grand murals. All else is below, separated from we who are untouchable and godly. My Empire. My holiness!"

Just then he lurched, and knocked me to the ground in a rage. I fell, but out of obedience rather than the force of his lunge.

The Emperor's royal garment tangled in his elbows, and he struggled briefly to right the knot.

"Folly! " he cried. "This Empire is built on the momentum of my standard's conquests. It is preserved by the space this palace has created." His voice broke, and he was heaving. Desperate.

"Never before has one come so close, Ramsey. But never has an Emperor known what must be done."

I couldn't manage even a word. The Emperor was on his knees now. An impossible vision of a man. A broken man.

"You see now, Ramsey? A year wasted planning an act so easy to undertake as it happens. You see what you must do, now? Here and now, Ramsey?"

Though my knees were buckling in terror, I managed to regain my feet. The Emperor stayed like a beggar before me. A small person in a small room.

I retrieved the heavy tome that had been dropped onto the cherry desk. A workable instrument for the task. The Emperor prepared this to be his fate, because the title of the book fit the occassion. "The Last Emperor", it read.

As I looked from the engraved golden letters back to the Emperor, I saw that the rage in him had been replaced by a subtle, knowing smile.

My own fate was sealed. But the Empire would change, forever.