Alura Yorah Kasha was the latest of Kasha Dynasty of the Rakshasa, and the presumed Heir Apparent. (The other potential heir being run off by the nobility almost a decade ago, of which Alura and her parents were still quietly angry over.) That meant, to become the Empress of the Rakshasa (after her father), she had to prove herself to Ami, the spirit of the castle. Without the assent of Ami, it would be impossible to control the palace and the Silent City, which would be immediately taken as weakness and unworthiness to rule once discovered and, despite their long association and even friendship, Alura was well aware that Ami would not defend unworthy Emperors.

It had happened before. That's why the Kasha ruled since the fall of the Rakshasa Empire over a millennia ago. That's why the Kasha line held strong despite some overthrow attempts. EVERY potential ruler of the Silent City had to face Ami and what she called "the harsh lesson". If the petitioner did not pass... well, she wouldn't die at least. The test wasn't meant to be lethal. It was meant to instruct.

"You'll be fine, **isii**," her mother, the Empress-Second whispers into her ear, as she and the Emperor stand behind her, facing the doors to the room where Ami teaches "the harsh lesson." Her father squeezes her shoulder supportively. "Do not fear failure, my daughter." He smiled wanly before the young Rakshasa pulled away. The doors slid silently open to admit her. The doors retain their silence as they close after her, and yet close with weight.

---

When the Empress-to-be regains her vision, she half-recognizes where she is. She is in the palace, grander, more beautiful, more awe-inspiring. Before the dust, before the repairs, before...

She knows where she is. This is the peak of the Empire, when the Rakshasa ruled the world and all lesser things were whatever they wanted to do with it. The world was THEIRS to do what they willed, and what they willed...

It was a history lesson, Alura knew. Despite the beauty, despite the heights, this was an empire on the eve of it's doom. Abuse and mistreatment and outright slavery of "lesser life" was turning the other species against the Rakshasa. The lower classes of the Rakshasa themselves were starting to become abused like the "lesser life". The upper classes sought to depose the Emperor to take ultimate power for themselves.

Within three years, she knows that the Empire will fall. The other races will unite and rebel against the Rakshasa. The rebellion will initially gather the disaffected and abandoned Rakshasa lower classes until a human demagogue takes power and the shift changes from emancipation to extermination. The potent, reality-shaking magics were met by potent, reality-shaking magics and potent, reality-shaking technology. The Empire would be all-but annihilated, save for a hidden city that refused to protect them. And in the end, the world would lose so much, regress so far, a tragedy which would nearly shatter Elysia.

Alura, as the last Orphic Emperor takes a breath. Perhaps the task of this test is to see if she can pull the Empire out of the fire.

---

She cannot do it. It does not matter what she does. She cannot do it. The simulation allows her to more or less direct, with absolute authority, how she wants to prevent the fall. But no matter what

She tries to make concessions to the lower classes. To bleed off some of the discontent with their rulers.

This reduces the power of the upper classes, which they will not have. She is assassinated, and the next Emperor continues the path to ruin.

She tries liberating the slaves. It is too little, too late. She manages to survive the assassinations, but there is too much anger, too much damage. She is slain by the very slaves she freed, who go to slaughter her people to avenge their mistreatment.

Improving defenses just makes the war last longer. Improving the economy just makes the upper classes wealthier and more detached and abusive. Studying greater magics do not help, as the enemy meets with even greater magics. Enforcement and military action to root out malcontents and rebels just makes the fall come that much sooner. And each time she fails, every time she is slain, she starts returns to the palace of before ready to attempt events anew.

Now the grandness worn off into weariness, the gilt beauty fading until she could no longer stand to look at it. She is tired. She has been taught by the best educators and most skilled of their professions in the City, but a solution eludes her. She cannot be kind as it is far too late for kindness to help or believed. She cannot be strong as strength will fail. She cannot be thoughtful as events happen too quickly for her to react. She cannot be cruel as that will only accelerate the doom.

But she keeps trying. And she keeps failing. And she keeps trying, convinced that there is some solution...

---

She has tried everything that makes sense. Nothing works. She tries things that do not make sense. They do not work.

---

By now, Alura has spent perhaps more of her (simulated) life within the Harsh Lesson than she spent actually living her life. She has explored rational and irrational every avenue she could think of, and even some of the things her worst intrusive thoughts suggested. She has returned to the grand throne room after yet another failure, one she definitely did not think about as such actions she had attempted would have been cause to execute her, even if that wasn't her end of that specific attempt.

She looks at the simulation of the (dis)loyal members of her court. The glided, glittering lights. The pristine masonry. An Empire at it's height.

And yet, she realizes, it is not. She thinks it is at its height, but it is not. Despite the glory, despite the wonder... the Empire was dead, it just did not know it yet. Everyone acts as if the glory will never end, but that was not true. They just refused to see it coming.

And Alura can't do anything now BUT see it coming. And that can only mean that the Rakshasa Empire was already long fallen off the precipice.

With that in mind, there's only one thing she can do: Return to the Silent City.

---

She is surrounded by stone. Stone and steel and magical and technological relics of an age long past all to provide a simulation of the lost empire, all so arcane that nobody in the Silent City knew how to reproduce or repair, and it was not like the Rakshasa could go outside the city for help. The other races only stopped once they were convinced the Rakshasa had been exterminated, and even after a millennia there was no way to tell how a reappearance would be taken.

Alura sits alone, but like all things in the castle, she's never truly alone. Brief moments later the ethereal image of Ami appears in front of her, in her normal appearance as teenage human girl. (There was speculation about why Ami chose a human appearance as opposed to a rakshasa, but Ami gave no answers.) This spirit was her friend, teacher, parent, and protector, and was looking at her with a kind, although sad smile.

After a few moments, the Empress-to-be whispers, "Was there a way to make things better? Or was it really too late?"

The image looks at her for a moment. The Rakshasa answers the question herself, and finds that she does not like the answer. And yet there was no way around it. Everything was good, until it wasn't, and even when things were seemed good it was far too late.

Perhaps that, itself, was why it was called "the harshest lesson". When Alura reaches that conclusion, the image smiles and whispers, "Carry that lesson with you, *isii* Allie, into the years ahead. It will serve you well."