Chapter 66 (Patreon)

Chapter 66

Jalel adjusted his dark, well-made, form-fitting robes and smoothed out the sleeves where they meshed with fingerless gloves.  The brunette slave girl attending him adjusted his collar and he gave her an appreciating nod of respect, one she blushed furiously at before smiling widely and exiting the waiting area.

He smirked himself, finding it quite funny how little was required of him to make a slave’s day like that.  Despite being quite the ass in many circumstances, he at the very least could safely say he treated his slaves with a moderate amount of respect.  The humans weren’t all that far off from animals on the totem pole, but he treated them like pets and had even grown to like some of them very much.

Even if they were a lesser species.

The double-doors began to open, and Jalel smoothed the flaring cloak-like tail of the garments he wore before before taking confident steps forwards into the room.  It was a splendid attendance hall, with dozens of well-dressed nobles he’d grown up knowing for better or worse on either side in luxurious and elevated chairs.  Slave attendants stood with note pads, platters of food and drink, or various substances to smoke from that added flavor to the scented air wafting into Jalel’s nostrils.  Directly ahead and underneath an enormous banner of the crescent blood moon on a black backdrop, sat the queen of their empire.

The queen herself looked not a day older than 20 years of age, though she was nearly a million years old now and had to restrain her aura in the presence of lesser creatures just so she wouldn’t crush them under the sheer weight of looking at them.  She wore a thin veil, bright red eyes glowing from underneath it where strands of dark brown hair flowed like silk over her shoulders down to a large ruby-colored amulet laid out on her chest.  Otherwise she wore a bright white and silk robe similar to his own, though hers had a more flowery look to it and spread out across the splendidly polished wooden throne she sat on that displayed carved depictions of lesser races holding up vampiric nobility.  Her three sons and lone daughter stood on either side of her, Jalel’s cousins, and all shared unimpressed looks with one another as he made his way down the red carpeted aisle to kneel before the queen on her elevated platform.

The low muttering of the court quickly subsided under the dim light of lanterns overhead when the queen raised a hand, and all went silent.

“Raise your head, dear nephew, and tell me of what you found.” Queen Nephridi commanded with a voice that whispered out across the room effortlessly, shaking Jalel to his very core under the sheer weight of the power contained in those words.

He shuddered involuntarily, then nodded and did as he was commanded to meet her own gaze from underneath the veil she wore.  “It is indeed one of our own.  The lost branch of our family has been, found, at least in part.”

Muttering and hushed whispers immediately tore through the room, echoing about the hall until the nobles got a harsh glare from the queen to immediately silence them.  She turned back to her nephew and gave him an approving nod while her children all grimaced in turn.  “Very good.  You were able to locate them both then?”

Jalel frowned, then shook his head and apologetically touched his head to the floor.  “Forgive me, my queen.  I was only able to find one, but I am certain that the other is of the same blood.  The one I found was named Riven Thane, a rather unimpressive man but one able to use the gift of malignant prophecy.  He spoke of his sister, Allie Thane, and I have no doubt that she too is the other beacon of prophecy you sensed.  However, Elysium is unwilling to let me travel to their homeworld.  It is still within a quarantined frontier sector, and I was only able to meet Riven due to special circumstances surrounding his tutorial upon initiation into the multiverse.”

The queen’s silent gaze quirked up in a small smile, and one of her pale fingers began tapping at the armrest of her throne.  “Indeed.  It appears that my granddaughter survived the tribulation after all… and no doubt had children of her own.  How curious.  Any signs of Sheline?”

“I’m afraid not.”

“How unfortunate.  I do hope she still lives, she was my favorite after all…”

At this, all four of Queen Nephridi’s children frowned even more deeply and her eldest son even began to sneer.

“Nevertheless, it is a starting point for finding her again.  And at the very least they will be useful assets to use in a century or two whenever the integration ends and the floodgates to their new world open for us.”  Nephridi leaned back in her chair and thoughtfully hummed, pushing her fingers up against her soft lips and rocking her head back and forth while smiling in deep thought.  “Was there anything else you could tell me about this ‘Riven’ character?  Anything interesting?”

Jalel immediately thought back to when he’d discovered the shard of gluttony Riven had acquired, but actively avoided talking about it at all cost.  That shard would be his one day if he had anything to say about it, and no doubt telling the queen or any of the others here would immediately throw his plans asunder.  “He was unimpressive in all regards.”

One of Jalel’s cousins snorted in amusement, getting a glare from his mother.

Nephridi frowned at the actions of her children and shook her head before sighing and crossing her arms.  “Nothing at all?”

Jalel shook his head again.  “No, your majesty.  He was sub-par in all standings.  He lacks talent, lacks intelligence, lacks combat prowess, lacks good decision making, and even spent a malignancy point for the life of a human girl he didn’t even know or benefit from.”

A snicker from the sidelines resulted in an abrupt scream, and then a man combusted into a flowering cloud of blood that rapidly condensed and flew threw the air like crimson ribbons over to the queen’s outstretched palm.  She absorbed the noble, causing the hall to go deathly silent now that she was growing irritated with their disrespect towards her descendent, and she gave another meaningful glare over to her children on either side of her as they stood absolutely still under her angry gaze.

She shook her head, absorbing the last of the blood filtering through the air and crossed her legs.  “Well that is unacceptable.”

“I thoroughly agree.” Jalel stated in reply, hiding his savage smile underneath a mask of sorrow.  If he could keep the queen disinterested, he’d be able to take Riven out in the future without much problem at all.  “I suggest we abandon-”

“I will see to it that he gets proper education and training if he’s lacking that much.”  Nephridi said thoughtfully, speaking over her nephew with indifference towards him.  “Rhael?”

A large male slave attendant in shadowy robes stepped forward and bowed deeply.  “Yes, my queen?”

“See to it that we figure out a way to access the quarantined frontier sector.”

“Uhm… My queen?” Rhael replied with a confused look and raised eyebrow.  “I am not sure that is possible.  It is against Elysium’s laws.”

The queen nearly facepalmed, but she managed to struggle against the impulse and just let out a long sigh while massaging her forehead.  “Dear god I’m surrounded by idiots.  No, you fool!  I do not mean to travel there, I merely wish to - oh gods damn it I’ll do it myself!”

With a huff she stood up and walked out of the room and into a side hallway, leaving the entire gathering of nobility rather speechless and sharing glances with one another.  The queen was certainly powerful, powerful enough to lead a bloodthirsty and violent empire for generations upon generations, but she often lacked what other leaders of other factions had in terms of patience or political maneuvering.

This time was no different, and Jalel’s gut tensed in irritation.  The way her majesty had reacted could be a potential problem, so he’d have to think of some countermeasures to offset this unfortunate state of events.

***

“Well this throws a wrench in things.” Athela stated absentmindedly while staring at the two wounded, blood covered elves who lay half-exposed on a bed of furs and under blankets that’d been stripped from the supplies of the dead.

They’d settled into a darker recess of the forest half a mile away from the battleground where the trees were larger and the brush was thicker, next to a large boulder the size of a truck that had a small stream passing by.  Athela had set up traps and walls of red webbing all around the perimeter at a good distance away, and Riven was absolutely sure that if he crossed the kind of makeshift lair in the forest without knowing what had created it - he’d absolutely 100% avoid it at all costs given how it looked.  Despite this it really was the perfect spot, considering they had all the shade Riven needed to avoid discomfort and water for cleaning the wounds of the two wounded women.  Originally the wounds had been full of dirt and contaminants, and although the stream’s water wasn’t completely sterile – it was a hell of a lot cleaner after a washout than how they’d originally presented.

Not long after Riven had cleaned their wounds, both of the exhausted elves had fallen asleep.  Quickly even, especially after their initial fears of being eaten had been somewhat put aside after an extended period of time with the strange trio watching over them.  Their bloody garments had been set aside by Athela in order to better examine their bodies for further injuries before being covered with blankets, then cleaner garments taken from the dead were used as bandages, and Athela had even gotten one of them to laugh at a stupid joke she’d made before the girl had passed out due to the battered state of her worn-out body.

“Yes… Yes it does throw a wrench into things…” Riven stated slowly, tossing the guild-hall bauble up into the air and snatching it before it landed, then he repeated the action over and over again.  He lay on his back, staring up into the canopy with one leg crossed over the other, and tried to keep his eyes off the two injured beauties not far off.  “Elves huh.  Who would have thought…”

During the time they’d been waiting for the elves to at least somewhat recover, he’d been going over his options on how to proceed.

He still needed to find his sister Allie and his best friend Jose.  The quest log would tell him the general direction Allie was in every once in a while, and it’d actually confirmed this over the course of the last twelve hours.  It happened when little while ago it’d pinged her location for an entire minute that took the form of mental sensations confirming both person and place in the wreckage of the small city at the foot of the mountains  Last he knew – his sister had been about 12 miles from the gas station Riven had started at after leaving Negrada’s hellscape.

He’d figure out if they’d been going in the right direction later with the next set of pings, and would adjust as needed based on what happened.  However it was safe to say he was on the path to reunited with them soon.

Then there were the two injured elves.  Riven wanted to question them desperately… to find out what they knew, and why they’d been fighting the goblins in the first place.  To ask them if there were more goblins in the area, more elves, and why they’d reacted like that to seeing that he was a vampire.  He was a monster now, and he knew he had a negative charisma that would influence others to some kind of degree… but he was still more or less human in nature.  Wasn’t he?  Surely charisma wouldn’t cause that kind of reaction from EVERYONE he met, right?  He still felt like the same person he’d been just days ago, only now he had vastly increased prowess with a voracious appetite for blood.  Didn’t seem like too bad of a tradeoff to him considering the change had saved his life.  Hadn’t they jumped to conclusions about him and his demons rather fast, considering that they’d just saved the elves from a violent death?

Speaking of voracious appetites… he may end up going back to feed on some of those bodies.  Just thinking about it made his stomach rumble, and the gnawing hunger in his gut grasped at him like a wild, rabid animal waiting to be unleashed.

He clenched his fists to quell the urge.  Instead his thoughts traced back towards the city he’d seen further down the mountain and into the plains.  He had a feeling, based on how the elves were dressed with hardly anything but furs and primitive wrappings, that whoever or whatever had built that distant city was not them.  The other equipment that the elves had was also subpar at best, being nothing but long hunting knives, longbows, and steel arrows.  Not a group he’d assume to make such large structures at such a distance.  He couldn’t make out the architecture very well from so far out, but it did look Earth-made from where he’d seen it on his vantage point up the mountain.

Athela walked over, poked Riven’s shoulder with her bare foot and smiled down at him.  “Cheer up!  You look miserable.”

He raised an eyebrow her way as the arachnoid woman plopped cross-legged onto the ground beside him with narrowed red eyes and a wide, brilliant grin.  “You good!?”

Dusting himself off he shook his head and pointed a finger in her direction with raised eyebrows in mock aggression, pocketing the guild hall’s bauble in a cloak pocket.  “You’ll be sorry for kicking me.  I’m going to strike back in the near future and you won’t even see it coming when I do.”

“Kicking you!?  I just poked you with my toe!”  She stuck her tongue out and pulled down an eyelid.  “Bleh!  But seriously, are you ok?”

He smirked, then nodded with a content groan while adjusting his posture on the ground to rest his head on her thighs as a pillow.  “Yeah I’m ok.  Just shut up and stay there, no funny business or messing with me while I’m resting.  I’m going to sleep, wake me up if something important happens.”

Athela was about to give a snappy response and raised a finger to protest as her chest heaved to draw in air, but thought better of it after she watched Riven close his eyes.  Her finger dropped, and a mischievous glint appeared in her eyes.  Instead she merely muttered under her breath and to herself so that only she could hear.  “Funny business!?  I don’t know what you even mean by that!”