Chapter 452 - Blood Ties (Patreon)

Notes :

Well, I'm okay. Being cooped up isn't great and the noises outside are...disturbing, but I'm alright.

So...this one, the ending wasn't strictly necessary but it was too perfect not to do.

I hope you'll enjoy the chapter !

///

Chapter 452

Red Sands Desert, Aurorean Empire

Capital City of Rebirth, Imperial Palace

Ah.

Alexandra moved towards Allya, hesitated, then put a hand on her shoulder. Emilia had even stopped nibbling on her neck and was looking intently at the Empress.

"Are things going to get...bad, on that front?"

Allya sighed.

"I have no idea. Normally? No. They disowned me. Couldn't take away the Aubétoile name from me only because I was a Knight-Valiant. Technically, they're no longer my family. But..."

"But they were, once."

"Yeah." Allya placed her empty glass on the tray, but Alexandra stopped her for reaching for another, and instead plucked a non alcoholic cocktail, offering it to her.

Allya smiled.

"I can hold my liquor, you know."

"I don't doubt it." Said the dungeon core. "But that doesn't mean it's healthy. Mentally or physically."

The Empress sighed, and took the proffered glass.

"Alright." She took a sip of the drink, seemed to like it, and took another, deeper one. "The problem is, I don't know what will happen if they do."

Alexandra blinked.

"You don't know them all that well?"

"My ex...friend I talked to you about, the one who sent the letter, knows me better than they do."

"...Damn."

"Yeah. It's not...It's complicated." Allya sighed. "When I became a Knight-Valiant, I basically got transfered to the Imperial household. With my family's enthusiastic backing, mind you. So I basically spent a lot of my time in Starcore rather than the family estate. And even there..." She shrugged. "Mom was always doing something, father was dead, and my siblings were all old enough there wasn't exactly any overlap in our interests, except me annoying them."

"As young siblings do."

"Indeed." The Empress grimaced. "Honestly I welcomed the whole move to Starcore. I was the youngest, the one with the most to prove. My oldest sister was already a naval officer of some renown, the other joined the World Mage Court, and my two brothers were either already climbing the ranks of the megacorps or lined up to take over the estates and already shouldering part of the burden. I wasn't...really good at any of the traditional things expected out of my family. I couldn't do strategy or tactics very well, so I couldn't be a military officer. I could be as cut-throat as the best of them, but I couldn't negotiate at a high level, so no megacorps. My magic was novice level at best, and though I wasn't bad at management we already had my brother for the estate. I was good at fighting though, so Knight-Valiant and becoming a glorified bodyguard seemed like a gift from the Gods."

Alexandra nodded, while double checking that their privacy fields were up. Given the sensitive discussions that happened during such functions, everyone of some importance had one, which made three currently protecting them right now, but it was clear that Allya was starting to lay her heart out, and she wanted to be certain.

"I thought the Erisian nobility didn't do the whole 'first child for the army, second child for the arcane', all that crap some other nobilities did?" Said Emilia.

Allya smiled.

"We don't. But there's...expectations of paths you can take? It changes from family to family. My ancestor, the founder of my house, was a great archmage, married a general, and proved to be a good administrator and dealt a lot with merchants. So all four of those paths were traditional and easily acceptable."

"And since being a Knight-Valiant was a great honor, and a huge boost of prestige for your house, the rest of your family approved of that as well." Said Alexandra.

She was trying not to make any other comments. She'd known Allya's ancestor, had her as a subordinate. In terms of management and administration skills, Océane Rivière had been unremarkable at best. Brilliant engineer, excellent programmer, and downright inspired when it came to nuclear physics. But good with people or handling them she was not.

"Basically. Though we had a lot of Knight-Valiants in the family, it had actually kind of created an expectation? That someone had to get the title at some point." Allya shrugged. "Everyone was happy. Solved a bunch of problems at once. Until..."

"Until you got exiled."

"Yeah...they disowned me. I saw my mother the night before my judgment. No one even spoke to me in the throne room, or afterwards. I was just given a bag, some equipment, and escorted to the airship."

Alexandra saw the contents of Allya's glass shake slightly. Anger or sadness?

She knew the Empress well enough to guess it was both, with anger liable to gallop ahead.

She squeezed Allya's shoulder.

"I'm sorry." Said the dungeon core, softly. "I'm assuming that normally, they'd refuse any attempt to contact you, but..."

"But now I'm the second most powerful woman in the world." Allya looked up at Alexandra. "Third." They both smiled. "I can't really be ignored anymore. More, I've become a matter of state. An incredibly important one. I'm sure there's some in the Empire that realized I'm becoming an existential threat to it. Or will become one soon. My...old friend certainly would have, if no one else."

The dungeon core nodded.

"To be entirely fair, I am amenable to a peaceful solution."

"Which I am thankful for. But if you think the Eris Empire is going to bend the knee to you without a fight..."

Alexandra winced.

"I know." She grabbed a drink from the golem, who had stayed by their side, its supply of canapés steadily vanishing as Emilia plundered them. "So they're going to be brought into that mess. And you don't know how they'll react?"

Allya made a complicated face.

"I can try. But it's not going to be reliable. At all."

"That's fine." Alexandra smiled. "Failure is a part of the scientific process. So long as your predictions don't turn out like my prototypes, we should be fine."

Allya snorted, and Emilia did a strangled noise as she almost choked on one of her canapés.

Alexandra gave her a startled glance, but the vampire got rid of the obstruction, and shook her head. The unspoken 'I'm fine' was clear enough.

"I'll endeavor to avoid things going quite that badly." Said Allya, and Alexandra focused back on her.

"That'd be helpful. So?"

Allya took a swig of her drink, and sighed.

"My mother will probably refuse having anything to do with it. When she makes a decision she'll stick with it, unto death. My oldest sister could be ordered to by the military, but I doubt it. The World Mage Court is big on neutrality, and they're in some really deep shit already with the collapse of the contracts, so they won't even contemplate sending my other sister. That leaves my brothers."

"Let me guess, the megacorporate one?"

Allya took another swig, and shifted uneasily.

"Probably?"

"What do you mean? You sound...unsure."

"I mean..." She sighed again. "My youngest brother, not younger than me mind you, he's...well, he is lined up to take over the estate, and the titles. But he doesn't have them yet. He's in the position where a lot of pressure can be applied to him, and he has to be trying to build up a political foundation without relying on mother. Our house's power has always been it deep history, but we have a lot of sway."

"Ah. So he was issuing a lot of future favors, building a network, expecting none of them to be called in until he's inherited..."

"And now he has something a lot of people want, right the hell now, with a lot of people he owes whose continued support he needs for his future."

There was a pause.

"Well that's fucking vicious."

"I have to back 'Crystal' here." Said Emilia. Privacy field or no privacy field, there were some risks that weren't worth taking. "That's vicious. I'm even more glad I was never the heiress."

"You and me both." Said Allya, but her smile was shaky.

"So." Alexandra shifted, and brought the Empress' gaze back to her. "If he is asked, and it seems likely he will be, what will happen?"

"Depends on if he goes to mother or not. If he does, she won't stand for it. But..."

"The entire point is that he's trying to make a power base without relying on her, and be able to take the reigns once she passes them on."

"Exactly." The Empress tried to take a swig of her glass, found it empty, and reached out for the tray...hesitating at the last second, and selecting a non-alcoholic drink.

"Good girl." Said Alexandra, and the Empress blushed slightly.

"Yes, well, he won't be a good boy. Most likely not." The blush disappeared as she frowned. "I'm not sure what he'll do, honestly. He can't be absent from the estate for too long, without being noticed. All the same, by that point most of the staff will probably answer to him or know he'll be signing their paychecks soon, so they'll cover for him. And there's teleporters in Asaria and Pavrow. Hell, there's even one in Sarth. All three would allow him to get here quickly. Though he wouldn't go unnoticed. Using a teleporter incognito is kind of impossible, and a travelling noble would immediately get noticed, especially given the tight lockdown we have on travel to Rebirth. So he'd try to make contact immediately."

Alexandra nodded. Then she froze.

Sarth.

Oh hell.

"...Alex?" Said both the Empress and the vampire.

"I need to check on something. Really quickly." She gave her glass to Emilia. "I'll be right back!"

She left the room in a hurry, people parting before her. First rule of Rebirth: the dungeon core moving with a purpose meant you should be somewhere else.

"What's gotten into her?" Asked Allya, and Emilia shrugged.

"I'm not sure." There were a few seconds of silence. "She really likes you, you know. She almost never does jokes on her prototype failures."

"Thank you?"

Emilia simply took a sip of her drink. Hmmm. The Empress was still brooding, and she could see her mood darkening, as she circled back to her family. Another depression spiral wouldn't do.

"So. I have to ask. Are you and Pyn planning a counter ambush? After we did the thing with the tentacles."

The Empress sputtered, dark thoughts forgotten, and Emilia smiled as she took another sip, giving her some time to get a coherent sentence out.

*****

As soon as she was out in the hallway, Alexandra hopped out of her avatar, and immediately pinged her network as she appeared in an empty simulation.

"Seraph, I need a status update from the expeditionary force right the hell now. And push a security alert on Jumper. Maximum alert level."

"Understood." Said the AI, their hologram appearing, before freezing. "...Huh."

"What is it?"

"I received a status update, right before my request came through."

"Show me."

*****

The farewell ball was as lavish as the welcome one. It was even more heavily attended in fact. Probably because it was the last chance to meet her, before she headed North to kick the UDC's butt.

CQ smiled politely as she moved through the room, exchanging small talk with nobles, and just having fun. The maids had, indeed, tons of gossip, and she knew more about the nobles here than most of them would realize.

Suddenly however, she found herself before a complete unknown. A handsome young man, in clothes that were positively ascetic compared to the Asarian fashions, yet no less well made. A foreigner?

His face looked familiar too.

He bowed before her, and to her pleased surprise, when she extended her hand, he kissed the back of it like it was the most delicate flower.

"Crimson Queen. Would you do me the honor of a dance?"

There was an audible gasp from the nobles around them, and she giggled. Few had been so bold!

"It would be my pleasure."

He smiled, and looked like someone who had just cut the red wire on a bomb, and seen the timer freeze.

She grabbed his hand, and tugged him close. No escaping now! She was promised a dance and a dance she would get. He followed as she began to bring them to the dance floor.

"So, you're a new face." She said. "May I know your name? Few are courageous enough to ask me for a dance."

Most were too afraid of her. Or terrified of her mom. Usually both. She didn't mind. Mom was legitimately terrifying to most people, plus it filtered the supplicants to only the most foolish or the bravest.

"My apologies. I am Maximilien Aubétoile. I believe you know my sister."

CQ stopped, right as they emerged onto the dance floor.

She was so shocked she almost didn't react when the assassin shot her.