The Aeterna Empire

Chapter 5 - The Sons of Kador

In the days of the Long Night, the chancellor of my father went out into the darkness, too skeptical to stay, and unwilling to become a nobody with nothing as the Aeterna declared. He was undoubtedly consumed by the waves of Night-Blood and did, in fact, become nothing, forgotten to history and left behind in the old world.

Soon after the Long Night, Caius disappeared, and I hadn't spared him a second thought, and if anything, hoping he would suffer the same fate.

"Caius," I said flatly. "You survived."

"More than that, I have lived!" He laughed. "Oh, such an opportunity this year has been! The Aeterna has changed everything, swiped the slates clean, and anyone with sense will have stepped in to stake their will on it! Did you know the Ne-Blood are obssessivly, and moronically competitive? And as victors the pride and money are in no short supply!"

He smacked the towers of towers across his desk onto the floor, spun in a dance, slid into his chair, reclined, and put his feet up on the desk. Some of the towers rolled into my feet.

"So you are the owner of this gambling hall." I guessed.

"Got it in one!" He pointed at me. "More than that, I have some hobbies, connections, and enterprises going. This," He motioned about. "Is just a humble local establishment."

"Humble," I repeat sarcastically. My eyes grazed his furnishings. The painting of destruction was three meters high, and the rug on the floor covered the entire room in a magnificent red with tassels along the edge. Then my eyes drifted out the window where his patrons were wearing as much money as they were losing in an hour, with slaves carrying arm-loads of pilfered artifacts and towers. "Right."

"You like it?" He grinned. "It's my favorite, my most inspired piece." He stepped out of the chair and tapped the painting. "Now be honest! I want your real, unbiased opinion of it."

I gave the painting a dismal eye. "It captures the moment."

"The destruction! The glory! The magnificence for some being the damnation of others! The transition from the old day into a new dawn. The day everything changed for us! I tried to capture it at its core, but I can't help but feel I am missing the mark somehow, that something is missing."

He turned his back to me entirely and agonized over his art. I sighed. "Is this why you put a bounty on me? You had this Mirrad-Blood capture me just to give a review of your art?"

The Mirrad-Blood flinched and turned sharply towards Caius, probably surprised I caught onto it. Caius waved him off. "Not at all, I have a better reason."

"Which is? Caius, I have infinitely better things to do with my day then to sit in a chair covered in blood stains, barbed wire around my wrist, and strapped down, and watch you debate your color pallet over the personification of a nightmare I have had in my head for well over a year."

"Its been a year since our reunion and you really want to ruin the moment like that?"

"I was kidnapped and strapped to a torture chair!" I yelled, losing a tiny bit of my temper.

"Fine! Fine, have it your way and lets just skip right to the end! Why are you always like this?" Caius exclaimed disappointingly. He returned to the chair and rubbed his temples, sighing. "Remove the cuffs."

The Mirrad-Blood stepped forward and ripped the wire from the chair, thankfully without hurting me, and released my feet. Instantly, I jumped up and rubbed my wrists. I was about to head out the door, but Caius' words stopped me.

"I need your help," He said. I stopped. He had never asked for my help before. Caius continued, "Our people are being enslaved and bought by the Ne-Blood, and I want to do something about it. I know who the buyer's are, but they are being distributed further, and I don't know to whom. I need your help to get that information."

My first instinct was to jump on the opportunity. My people were reduced to the status of dogs and I had been powerless to stop it. But this is Caius presenting the case of stepping up. I'd like to think anyone can grow, but not him, not in only a year.

"And what would you do with it?" I asked.

Caius replied, "Provide them with the means to freedom."

"Weapons," I translated. "You will distribute weapons among the slaves."

"You would do the same."

Yes, I would have. If I was in his position I'd have been doing the same.  "Yes. But this is the Aeterna Empire we would be putting them against. Our enemy is a god and the answer you have come up with is to arm a large number of civilians with weapons, untrained and without military leadership. Let's be honest, neither you nor I would know much in that respect."

"Perhaps not, but Fereren does."

"Fereren!" I gasped. "He is here?"

"No, but he will be soon. He was quite motivated when he heard what became of his family."

Aelius.

I lean over his desk and look him in the eye. He smirks and leans back, enjoying the moment. He has my undivided attention, I know he does, and he knows I know it. "What happened?"

"Ref-Blood pirates found them on the road north. Killed his wife but enslaved his son, and you're sun-child, I believe. We, my colleague and I," he motioned to the Mirrad-Blood. "Recently stumbled upon him. It doesn't look good. He could die."

He put on a face of pity, but it only sparked my anger further. Others might be fooled, but he and I both know it was a mockery. Oh, how I wanted to ring his neck! But that wouldn't help Aelius.

If Aelius was here, I needed to save him. And if Fereren was really coming, then this plan might work. The troubling prospect was Caius, but that wouldn't, couldn't change anything. I needed to save my nephew.

I breathed in and out slowly, restraining myself. I straightened up. "Where is my sun-child?"

"He is in the 'employment' of one Barjol'Thygrin'Ne, who will be celebrating his victory in some tournament, as well as showing off his greatest slaves. As the largest slave buyer in the country, he is also distributing them, and probably keeps the transactions of his largest buyers close to his chest, or in a literal chest.  Now, here is the best part, I don't need you to actually acquire the information! Just distract him. People have never really liked me, for some reason, but you're a social butterfly. Do that, my colleague steals the lists, and I will personally buy your nephew from him to return into the safe hands of yourself and Fereren."