Karis buried his face in his hands. It had been eight months since his courtesans had vanished, taking with them his sons. Half a year had passed, and he was being urged by court and council to disinherit them and marry again to produce more appropriate heirs.

“Your Imperial Majesty, Tamas has several leads he is following up on. It’s only a matter of time.” Imre was trying to be soothing but it had the opposite effect on Karis.

“Imre, you have said those same words every day since Lynet was executed. There has been no change. He is no closer to finding them now than he was when this first started,” Karis growled. “Please stop trying to placate me when it is patently false.”

There was silence for a moment. “Your Imperial Majesty, part of my job is to try to keep you sane. You are making that job very difficult right now because you refuse to stop dwelling on an issue that’s out of your hands at the moment.” Imre sounded almost angry. Karis was startled and looked up at the other man. Imre was glaring at him.

“How do you expect me to stop focusing on the disappearance of my sons, Imre?” Karis demanded.

“It’s not your sons, Your Imperial Majesty. It’s one son in particular, and his mother. I am also not such an idiot as to not know which pair it is. It’s Sayana and Ethian. You may think I’m blind to these things, Your Imperial Majesty. I know how to put together context clues. Again, it’s part of my job.” Imre continued glaring at him.

Karis was shocked again. Imre had only seen them together briefly at the end of their evenings together. “How could you have figured that out from just seeing us together briefly on those nights I was entertained by her?”

“Your Imperial Majesty, I am not deaf and you two were not so quiet as you might have thought. I heard what you said to her on multiple occasions. I know you love her. I know she loves you. I also have access to the master password to the death lock feature on the succession register.” Imre gave him a look that made it clear he knew he’d done something that would make Karis angry, and he didn’t care.

“You accessed what I locked.” Karis glared at Imre.

“I did. If there was ever any dispute over the validity of what you locked, I needed to be able to answer under a psychic scan that I had seen the name prior to you becoming incapacitated or dying,” Imre told him flatly. “Something someone in my position is made aware of during our training.”

Karis blinked. He’d never considered that possibility. He thought about everything else Imre had said. He sighed and slumped back on the couch. “Yes, Imre, I am specifically searching for Sayana and Ethian. I will not stop searching for the others once she is found. I do want all six of my sons back. However, they are the ones I am most concerned about.”

“Isn’t Sayana the most well-read out of all your courtesans?” Imre asked.

“She is,” Karis confirmed.

“Haven’t you told me repeatedly that you consider her one of the cleverest women you have ever met?” Imre pressed. Karis nodded. “Then consider that she’s the one who’s going to take the longest to find. She most likely had a plan before she ever left here, Your Imperial Majesty. She knew where she was going, what she was going to do, and who – if anyone – she was going to reach out to for help. We just have unravel that probably extremely clever plan of hers to find her.”

Karis realized he was right. Sayana, and Marin with her, were two of the cleverest women he knew. There was no chance the two of them would have run off blindly. They’d had a plan the moment they’d made the decision to leave the courtesan wing. He just needed Tamas to unravel the clever plans of his two most intelligent courtesans.

Karis frowned. “That is not going to be easy to do, Imre. Sayana and Marin both will have done as you suggest. Marin is not as well-read as Sayana, but she is also extremely clever. Ethian and Fallon will be the hardest to find.”

“I’m going to say something you’re not going to like, Your Imperial Majesty.” Imre gave him an apologetic look. “Pull resources off the hunt for Sayana and Marin. Focus on the other four first. Get the easier targets out of the way. Then you can put more resources in the field to find Marin and Sayana.”

Karis wanted to reject the idea out of hand. The thought that he would have to wait even longer to reunite with Sayana was painful. Yet, he reluctantly had to agree with Imre. If he pulled some of the resources off the hunt for Marin and Sayana and put them on the search for the other four, he could then divert more resources to the last two as the rest were found. Karis sighed. “Imre, please send for Tamas.”

“Yes, Your Imperial Majesty.” Imre’s voice held real empathy and Karis realized just how valuable his valet truly was.

Tamas arrived a short while later. “Yes, Your Imperial Majesty?”

“Tamas, I want you to focus your search on Ji-Hye, Angharad, Renate, and Zarina for now,” Karis told him. “We need to find them first.”

“May I ask why, Your Imperial Majesty?” Tamas asked.

“I realized I was going about this the wrong way. I know my ladies well, Tamas. Marin and Sayana are going to be extremely difficult to find. They would have left the courtesan wing with an extremely detailed plan in mind for how they intended to conceal themselves and my sons. It could take months to unravel what those two devious minds came up with,” Karis explained.

“Are your other ladies not also clever women?” Tamas asked.

“Not in the way Marin and Sayana are.” Karis put up his hand. “I am not saying they are stupid. Far from it. They are clever, and they will not be easy to find. But they will be far easier to locate than Marin and Sayana.”

“I see.” Tamas nodded. “We pull our resources in for now, and then we can devote more to the search for the last two as we go.”

“That was my thought precisely.” Karis messaged Tamerlan, who sent something to Tamas. “I have just added to your budget for this search, Tamas. See to it that the money does not go to waste.”

“I will utilize it in the most advantageous way possible, Your Imperial Majesty.” Tamas bowed and left.

“Now, I would recommend focusing on your work. You can’t let it back up, Your Imperial Majesty,” Imre suggested.

“You are correct, Imre.” Karis picked up his pad and got to work.

A short while later, Imre’s pad chimed. He looked at it and sighed. “Please excuse me, Your Imperial Majesty. I’ll be right back.” He left the room with an irritated look on his face.

Karis set his pad to the side and walked over to a small box on the sideboard and pulled out a holo still. He slotted it into the tiny projector and activated it. It was a freeze frame of Sayana and Ethian as they fled the courtesan wing. It was the image he’d given Tamas to give to his agents in order to help find her. He stared at her frightened green eyes.

“Why did you run, my Sayana? Why did you not come to me or Arken? What so frightened all of you that you did not trust us?” He stared at the image for several minutes until Imre returned.

“Your Imperial Majesty, have you done any work while I was away?” Imre asked with some exasperation.

Karis sighed and turned off the holo still. He put the module back in the box and sat back on the couch. “No, Imre, I have not. I am brooding again. You are right, of course. I need to work. The unanswered questions reverberate in my skull even as I attempt to focus on anything else.”

“Your Imperial Majesty, those questions are going to remain unanswered until we find at least one of your ladies. Someone will be able to answer them. In the meantime, it’s almost lunch, you’ve done no work, and you’re going to be up until three in the morning again. If you’re trying to kill yourself before we find them, you’re doing a good job of it,” Imre snapped at him.

Karis glared at his valet. “Find me something to eat and cancel the audiences. I will work this afternoon until it is time for court.” Imre nodded and did as he asked.

Karis worked as he ate and then continued working the entire afternoon. He fought against the voices in his head and the crushing depression he felt and managed to make a huge dent in his workload. He decided he was going to cut his time at court down as well. Perhaps if he did that, he’d actually get to bed at a reasonable hour.

The meal was unremarkable. He’d gotten used to the randomness of the food served at court. After the dishes were taken away, he sipped his wine and listened as the court gossiped. A lord approached the high table. “Your Imperial Majesty, how long do you intend to continue the search for those women and their sons?” he demanded.

“Lord Neilan, I will search for them for as long as it takes to find them,” Karis told the man coldly. “My sons are very important to me, as are their mothers.”

“You cannot be serious, Your Imperial Majesty. When a child loses a favorite toy, you tell them to look for a different toy. If you are so enamored with the idea of courtesans over taking a wife, contract six new ones. They are all the same, after all.” Neilan was completely aghast.

“Courtesans are not toys, to be discarded on a whim, Lord Neilan.” Karis’ voice was low and dangerous. “They are thinking, feeling people and I will hear no such insult cast in their direction again.”

“Yes, Your Imperial Majesty.” It was clear he didn’t understand Karis’ line of thinking, but no one argued with the emperor. Neilan bowed and walked off.

Karis fielded a few more comments about the search and then left in disgust. Imre didn’t comment when he came back barely two hours after leaving in the first place. He called Adem and they got Karis changed. Imre handed him a glass of wine and he got back to work on his paperwork. Karis worked until a little past one and then went to bed.

Karis woke up with a shout only a few hours later. His heart felt as if it was being stabbed in his chest. He grabbed for his pad and flashed Imre. He didn’t have the strength to get out of bed. He gasped as the pain got worse.

Moments later, a disheveled Imre came running into the room. He assessed the situation and grabbed his pad. He flashed a message for someone. “I’ve called the Imperial doctors, Your Imperial Majesty.”

Karis clutched his chest. He was in so much pain he couldn’t even respond. Moments later, two Imperial doctors came pounding into the room. They ran a scanner over him and one of them pressed a hypo spray into his neck.

A short while later, the stabbing pains began to subside. As his breathing began to return to normal, a second hypo spray was pressed to his wrist. The pain which had begun to radiate instead of stab began to ease almost immediately. “What the hell was that?” Karis asked, looking up with streaming eyes.

“That, Your Imperial Majesty, was the beginning of a cardiac event,” the first doctor told him soberly. “You need to come into the med lab so we can run a few tests. I’m hoping this is just a onetime thing and that you haven’t developed some kind of blockage at your young age.”

“Starflare, I hope not. Let me get dressed and I will come in immediately.” Karis was shaking. That was closer to death than he wanted to come while Ethian was still an infant. The doctors left and Imre, who was still wearing his own sleep suit, got Karis dressed.

“I’ll go get dressed and then return to wait for you,” Imre told him. Karis made his way to the med lab.

An hour – and several tests – later, one of the doctors who’d treated him during the emergency approached him. “Now, there are no blockages. Your heart didn’t suffer any significant damage. Our best guess is this was brought on by stress. We’re going to recommend an anti-depressant and an anti-anxiety medication for the time being, as we know how upset you’ve been over the loss of your ladies and your sons. That should take some of the stress off your heart. However, you must find a way to alleviate some of your own stress. Or this could happen again.”

Karis grimaced. How was he supposed to alleviate the stress in his life? “I will do what I can.”

“Give us a few more minutes to finish synthesizing your new medications. Take them with your breakfast.” The doctor hurried off to go check something.

Karis decided to make time in the afternoon to spar with Narin. That would help with his stress level. The physical activity would give him an outlet for all his energy and simply talking to someone who was a sympathetic ear would take some of the strain off him mentally. He made a mental note to flash her a message when he got back to his suite.

It was fifteen minutes later when the doctor returned with two bottles of pills. “You said take these with breakfast?” Karis asked.

The man nodded. “Let us know before you run out and we’ll synthesize you more.”

“Imre will take care of that for me. He is very good at paying attention to things like that.” Karis took the bottles and headed back to his suite.

“What did they say, Your Imperial Majesty?” Imre asked as he walked in.

“I need to take these with breakfast.” Karis handed him the pill bottles. “We also need to tell them before I run out so they can synthesize some more.” He grabbed his pad and flashed Narin the message. He didn’t expect an answer. It wasn’t even five thirty after all.

To his surprise, she sent an instant reply. “I was hoping to see you more often, Your Imperial Majesty. I’ll see you in the practice room tomorrow. After a cardiac event, you should rest for a day.”

Karis chuckled. He should have realized. Guard, military, they were all early risers. Imre looked at him curiously. “I forgot that even though it is stars’-cursed early for me, Narin would already be up.”

“You are not sparring today, Your Imperial Majesty.” Imre gave him a hard look.

“No, I am resting as much as possible today, Imre. I will be meeting her tomorrow, and every afternoon for the foreseeable future. I am supposed to do something about my stress, and sparring with her has always been a great release for me,” Karis told him.

Imre pulled out his pad. “I have blocked out a couple hours every afternoon after the audiences for your sparring sessions, Your Imperial Majesty. You are officially unavailable during that time for anything.”

“Thank you, Imre.” Karis yawned. “I suppose I am up for good now. Will you or Adem if he is up bring me my breakfast? Juice this morning instead of tea. I worry the caffeine might put strain on my heart today.”

“As you wish, Your Imperial Majesty.” Imre stepped out of the room. Karis sat down and picked up his pad. He could read for a little bit, until his clerks and the bureaus reported in. He settled into his book and was just out of it enough that the intrusive thoughts didn’t invade his awareness for once. He slid into the world of the fifth emperor and his political woes and, briefly, forgot his own problems.

He barely paid attention to what he ate, or the two pills Imre gave him. He continued reading for a few more hours until the paperwork dropped into his inbox. He looked it over. “Imre, cancel the audiences again. I know that will upset a lot of people, but it is another heavy day, and I need to focus if I want to go to bed at a reasonable time.”

“Yes, Your Imperial Majesty.” Imre flashed the message. Karis got to work on the petitions and reports.

It was just before lunch when Imre got his attention. “Your Imperial Majesty, Lady Ananya wishes to speak to you.”

“Ananya? This is odd. She usually does not come herself. Tell her I will spare her some time.” Karis was surprised. Ananya had become less and less vocal over the past several months and had all but withdrawn from court from what he’d seen. He wondered what she wanted.

Ananya entered the room a few minutes later. She bowed. “Your Imperial Majesty, I am tendering my resignation effective immediately. If I do not, the strain is going to kill me, and I have grandchildren that I would rather spend my time with.”

Karis blinked. This was not what he expected. “I will take your resignation, Ananya. I am surprised that you are willingly giving up your position however.”

Ananya smiled bitterly. “I am not a fool, Your Imperial Majesty. I listened to Vasco, and it has cost me a great deal over the years. I will not let it cost me my life and ruin my grandchildren’s childhoods. I value my family more than my career, as alien as that might be to Vasco and some of the others.”

“Enjoy your retirement, Ananya. Thank you for your years of service to the empire.” Karis wasn’t going to make her miserable. She recognized she was no longer part of something she wanted to be associated with. Let the poor woman go spend time with her grandchildren.

“Thank you, Your Imperial Majesty. I am certain Jacilynn will continue running the bureau efficiently for you until such time as you find a replacement for me.” Ananya’s wry tone told Karis she knew who he’d been going to for help all this time. She bowed again and headed out.

“That is not what I expected.” Karis looked at Imre. “I will have to move her replacement in sooner rather than later. I will see what can be done.” He returned to the paperwork, already considering which of the three courtiers Tamas had found for him he could slot into her place.