Emperioum Origins, Trivean's Story

A Lupvin amongst Dervans

Trivean's POV, 24 years old

It was a somber, rainy summer's day, as they lowered his coffin into the ground. He was dead; Doctor Westbork was dead. He was laid amongst the rest of his family, parents, uncles, aunts... his long dead wife and child... He never spoke much about them, just that he missed them and regretted losing them.

I stood there, staring at the grave, unmoving. My fists were tense and tears were held in my eyes as the ice in my blood raced through me. My feet finally moved, walking over to a tree. I acted on my first reaction and slam my fist into the tree with a powerful thud, and then my other fist followed suit. I fell to my knees, crying, not knowing what to do about my life anymore.

"Mister... Warmheart?" Asked a voice. I looked up and over to see a white dragon in a black suit carrying a briefcase standing next to me.

"Y-Yeah?" I asked, getting to my feet, holding back more tears.

"I'm Doctor Westbork's attorney. I need to speak to you about his will."

"Right, I figured he'd leave something to me, as wrong as that came out... Look, can we do this some other time? I..."

"Sadly, no. This is a very important matter due to how much he left you."

"H-How much?"

"Everything."

"EVERYTHING! As in..." My body froze and my mind raced, I feared exactly what everything meant.

"His house, company, fortune, everything. And a final message to you," said the attorney as he handed me a small metal disk. I knew it was a hologram disk, and knew how to play it. I opened it quickly, displaying the holographic image and message from Westbork.

"Hello, Trivean," said Westbork's hologram. He was sitting in a chair in the virtual image, with it's eerie red glow. It almost looked as if his ghost was in front of me, and in a way, it was. Seeing him again, hearing his voice... It brought back a sense of comfort that I knew would leave the second I turned it off, and dreaded it turning off.

"If you're seeing this, then I am dead," said Westbork. "I am still of sound body and mind at the time of this recording, you just turned Twenty-One, and you're in the bathroom combing your fur after our dinner with the king and prince. I leave to you everything in my possession. My... Our, home. The company. My patents and royalties. My finances. Everything, except my clothes and body for reasons that you and I both understand... I have no living family or relatives that could claim my inheritance, my wife and child died long ago, before I ever met you... I was a different man back then, I wa... a s... I... ch..."

The hologram distorted and faded in and out, changing into static and distorted images.

"What?!" I said, desperately gripping it, trying to get it to work. "No, no no!"

"The recording was distorted for me around here as well... But he's right, he was the last of his bloodline that could claim the inheritance," said the attorney, in a more somberly matter of fact voice. "Now, it's all yours'."

"B-But... I don't know how to run a company! Let alone a multi-billion dollar one!" I exclaimed, the world swirling around me. Billions of dollars for me to lose, I was an engineer, not a business man! Thousand of livelihoods rested on me, and I couldn't handle that pressure. I hated it, and I didn't want it!

"Sadly, that's your responsibility to figure out what to do with it..."

"I ask..." said the hologram, stabilizing again for a second. "That you finish the Nine Project before you act on anything. And that you forgive me for my past and for what I have laid forth for you. I've added the necessary tools to your Red Eyes, your beautiful red eyes, to undo what I have done, if you wish. Good bye, my son."

"H-His past?" I asked, unsure about what he meant about it.

"I'm not sure either, a lot of his records were sealed due to his closeness with the king and such. You understand," said the attorney.

"Yeah, I understand," I said. "But he never told me about anything he was hiding."

"Right, but as for that last part. There will be a delay in you selling the company or anything until the project is completed, or until ninety days are over," said the attorney.

"I-I understand," I said. "Is, is there anything else?"

"No, that's all... Need me to call you a cab?" Asked the attorney.

"No, I-I'll be fine," I said. "I just... I need some time alone still." The attorney nodded and walked off, leaving me there alone.

I stayed there for as long as I could, holding back my tears. It was when my body almost gave way and collapsed when I walked back and took a cab home. I didn't drive because I knew I wouldn't be able to get back safely.

I finally got back home, and just sank into bed, not caring about anything. Too many memories in that house, too many long-lost hopes, too many issues... I was planning on selling it and going somewhere new.

He left all of his royalties to me, and it was enough to keep me alive for the rest of my life, but I needed to keep the company running so everyone didn't lose their jobs. I started looking over my notes, just to distract myself, and I found his map of where he thought the lab was. He bought the entire land, a small mountain range a few miles north of the capital city, and left it to me.

I looked over to the AI cores, nine of them lying on my desk recording me, observing my emotions and learning from them. The cores were small metal spheres with cameras and sensors in them, just machines for the AI program to learn in. I sat up, looking over to them, my hands held in my lap and looking at them.

"Well... Doctor Westbork is... dead... He's not coming back," I said to the cores, my ears drooped down and in a somber tone. "I... There was a project that he and I were working on before he passed... you guys, specifically. There is a cybernetics lab that he theorized is in a small mountain range that was abandoned under mysterious circumstances... He bought the land and left it to me... along with everything else... I owe it to him to finish the project, to try and find the lab... If anything else, I can build a house out there... Worth trying... I know you can't talk back or anything yet but I know not to give up and to keep going, to finish this... I'll leave tomorrow afternoon. Tonight I... I just want to forget today."

I got up and walked off, trying to find something to do. Video games were getting boring again. I knew not to eat my weight in food, that was just unhealthy. I passed by a closet that I knew Westbork had camping gear in, and I looked inside of it. There were tents, climbing gear, everything I needed for the trip. I took it as a sign to go for it, and I started packing.