"The heir to Othaman, you say?" She queried to her daughter, Josephine, as she aided the Pretender-Empress with sorting through the various missives and letters crossing her desk, "The blood of Mary Carrington, you mean to say," She'd correct her then, that final statement carrying more meaning than she relayed openly. "A child, made to speak on behalf of those who have sworn off GOD in favor of, as the Presbyter said, temporal power. I will pray for him, and for those other children that will likely be made to author such letters. Especially when he must contend with the taint of murder upon his lineage atop everything else."
To the imperial, it seemed murder had become a minor blemish upon a person's character in her stepson's empire. It would not be in hers.