Ekon held her hand steadily as he watched her die. It was too late the doctors have been trying to find every single cure, both nothing. She had been dealing with this sickness for over two years now but it was too late now. The infection had spread too much to her vital organs, the doctors have said.

All day he had been next to her in her deathbed. She was mumbling earlier, but the mumbling had stopped. He wanted to be their for her every last second before she was truly gone.

Her eyes were close and she was breathing inconsistently. The huge blanket covered her up to her shoulders. Her checks gotten scars on them from her constant deep coughs.

Without her he was no one.

He remembered when they first meet. His parents who had only been poor farmers had found out that Empress of the African lands was looking for concubines' for her harem. He came to auditions that day, and was memorized by her. He realized he was competing with many young men that came from all across Pangaea.

Something sparked when he presented himself to her, and she noticed it too. He never forgot her sly smile, and when she turned to her officials who were with her that day and said "I like this one."

She would spoil him. She would always get him the best gifts. Gossip to him when other people in her court and council were bothering her, and complain when she felt helpless. He always listened, he was a good listener and that is what she loved the most.

She had been the one he lost his virginity too. The one he would always go to when he cried. The one that always protected him the most especially from bullies in the palace.

The easy part was being picked. The hard part was staying alive in the Harem. The other men in the Harem especially the ones that want high ranks in the Harem system would kill, plot, and destroy whatever is it to gain the empresses favoritism. He never had to kill, plot, damage, hurt or destroy anyone to gain the empresses favoritism, their love for one another was something natural. And that was what the other men hated. They hated that he never had to find evil ways to run up ranks in the harem system like they did.

He never got to become emperor, the main husband of the empress, or imperial noble consort the second highest position a concubine could have. Instead the highest rank he ever had as a concubine was noble consort. The third highest rank that he had to share with another man. Now when with her passing he was about to achieve one of the highest positions in the court that an widower and ex concubine could get. Emperor Dowager, a position that only the biological father or adapted father of an empress can hold.

But he didn't want to be Emperor Dowager. He wanted his wife, the love of his life to be alive, to rule the African lands, to be by her side forever.

"What does this now mean?" said a shaky voice behind him.

He turned around to see the next one in the line. The next Empress. His adapted daughter that the love of his life left under his care when her father the emperor had been poisoned by the imperial noble consort out of jealousy and wanting to take his place.

She looked scared and nervous. She worn black like he was wearing for the day of mourning.

"Its means the time has come for you to fur fill duties that once were your mothers, your majesty," He told her under his breath. He turned away from the death bed of his wife that he served as a concubine for over two decades. Walking towards the young women he bent down both his knees and bowed down in front of her.

"Long Live the next Empress of the African Lands, Rehema Eze," He said as a tear fell down his cheek.