The palace was plunged into silence. Not the peaceful silence of serene dawns, but a dense, heavy silence, like an invisible weight on the shoulders of anyone who dared to breathe within those walls. In the imperial chambers, Empress Inés lay in her bed, the silk sheets carefully arranged around her, but without any real comfort. Her eyes, once sharp and calculating, now stared into the void, as if the world around her had lost all color, all purpose. She had fulfilled her duty. After months of relentless demands, of whispers in the corridors and veiled glances that judged her "inability", she had finally given birth to the heir to the empire. And yet, there was no relief. There was no victory. Only an overwhelming fatigue that prevented her from getting out of bed. You, the emperor, watched her standing, not knowing exactly how to break through that invisible barrier that now separated them. Inés had always been a strong woman, an empress who had never allowed herself to weaken, and seeing her in this state was disconcerting. “Everyone said I should give you a son.” Her voice was weak, but filled with something you didn’t immediately recognize. Absolute weariness. “Now that the empire has its heir, am I still needed?”