between you and Morganya? You are, after all, both Affinite empresses promising a better world for your people.”
Shock burned through her, followed closely by disgust. What game was he playing with her? “Seyin,” Ana said, grappling for calm. “You’ve seen the charred villages, the burnt corpses, the trail of blood left behind by Morganya’s forces. She is not creating equality. She is using violence to upend the social order of the Empire while cementing her own rule.”
“And isn’t that what you, too, will do once you take the throne?” Seyin spread his hands in a careless shrug, then brought them together. “I see two Affinites fighting for the throne, both promising better futures to the vulnerable and exploited.”
Fury licked up her chest, hot and searing. “Morganya is slaughtering the innocents—”
“She is purging those who were affiliated with Affinite trafficking and exploitation.”
“And that isn’t equality or freedom! That’s massacre.”
A twisted little smile played at Seyin’s lips. “But isn’t that what history tells us? The path to becoming a ruler is painted in blood. In the death of thousands of innocent lives. Morganya, too, promised us equality and freedom. What makes you so different, that we should throw our forces behind you? You’re just a girl born to a silver spoon and a golden crown. That says nothing of whether you are capable of ruling.”
The fire that had been building inside her flickered out, leaving her cold.
“You see,” Seyin continued, “the issue that I have isn’t whether you or Morganya will make for the better ruler, Anastacya.” She flinched at the way he spoke her name, with dominance, as though he’d suddenly stripped her naked. “It is with the system itself. The last emperor, and the one before him, and the one before him…they all promised the people wonderful things. Yet letting a monarch go unchecked means there is nothing to protect the people should that monarch fail.” He looked somber now, spreading his hands. “Suppose you are merciful. Suppose you are gracious, and that you rule with justice. What happens after you die? What about the next ruler, or the next, or the ones after that? Can you guarantee that they, too, will carry the benevolence and sense of justice that you claim to have?”
Ana struggled to think of a rebuttal and found that she had none. She thought of the first time she’d run into Imperial Patrols, of how they’d treated her and May like criminals, of how she’d seen, with her own eyes, the inequities that her father had allowed to bloom like a sickness in their empire.
All along, she’d sought the throne because she trusted herself to change it all, because she knew with a conviction greater than her own life that she would bring equality to her empire once again.
Yet never had she thought to question the system of rule itself. What Seyin was saying…was unthinkable to her in the moment.
“You say you fight against Empress Morganya,” Seyin continued quietly. “You say you wish to create an equal world under a monarchy. But it is the monarchy itself that is the fault here. The people—Affinites and non-Affinites alike—have suffered for too long under the theory of a benevolent ruler. It is time we had a say in the way our lives are ruled.” Seyin spread his hands. “The future is in the hands of the people. That is the mission of the Redcloaks.”
It felt as though her world were shifting, signs she had missed earlier blazing to life. Yuri loved her, but he had never promised her anything—not a throne, not an alliance, not even a common goal. She’d hinged all her hopes on him and his revolution. In her own creed for justice, for equality, she had never paused to question whether they were even on the same path.
But she had experienced life both privileged and oppressed; she had been a princess and an Affinite. Surely…“I’m not like the other monarchs,” she said, her voice raw. “I know how it feels to be an Affinite, to be told that you’re unwanted and to be reviled by society. I’ve seen what happens to the weak and the vulnerable in the darkest corners of this empire. I want to change the system.”
“Simply changing the system isn’t sufficient,” Seyin said. “We need to break the system.” He paused and lowered his hands, almost apologetically. “But, enough of grand political philosophies. You see now why the Redcloaks cannot and will not ally with you. You are the heir