The Aeterna Empire

Chapter 8 - The Broken Piece

"What's this about Adam's Successor calling me a damn cheat!" A voice roared through the auction hall. 

I chuckled quietly and kept my attention ahead to the spectacle. The first several members of the auction had been slaves, mostly singles but also including one poor Ire family that was thankfully kept intact. The announcer said they had fallen on tough times and sold themselves, but were hard workers. I nearly put my name in the ring on them. But the final auction, to which the voice had so rudely interrupted, was a captured live Night-Blood trapped in a glass case. Already the price had been in the millions.

The auctioneer stopped speaking to  see what was the matter and many in the room whispered and stared as the intruder stomped down the steps towards me.

"Why don't you try yelling this time, someone might not have heard that," I jested.

He glared at me. Flanked on four sides, his bodyguards also glared. If his eyes could change color it would be as white as the pale fury in his clenched fists.

"I'm not a cheat!" He seethed. I turned to look at him in response, but he spoke first, his eyes going wide. He gasped, "You!"

"Yes, me." I briefly glanced between the squad he took with him. If he was going to break my legs or kill me, I might as well go all in. I bluffed, "And I remember the remarks. Pidgeon-King, I think it was. Not the most imaginative insult I've heard, but I let it be. Adam, though, was less than enthused."

"Adam? You couldn't settle this like a man? You had to go to him!"

"Oh, no. I didn't have to. He witnessed the whole thing. You didn't see him?" I pressed. With the crowd of a hundred-thousand, and no one knowing what Adam looked like, there was no way he could say he did, but also with many of them being the noblest from around the world, he couldn't say he didn't either without losing face. "He saw how you cheated. Why do you think the Emperor was angry with you? How many people did you have to bribe to get so far?"

The words were barely out of my mouth before the whispering and shocked gasps reached new heights, and his fury rose with it. How did his head not pop?

I stared at him in silence, letting him stew in his own frustration and visible confusion for a moment. A good portion of what I said was a lie, but then he wouldn't know that, nor could prove it. The only thing I was sure of was he had bribed people, and if that one bit of truth could sit in him, then the rest would fall into place.

Surprisingly he calmed down through sheer will, and remembered his position. He had already done damage reacting rashly, validating the accusation in the people's eyes. He needed to recover or there might be economic or reputable losses.

"What do you want?" He whispered.

"A rematch," I answered. "Prove to everyone you didn't cheat, because you don't have to. If you win, I will publicly apologize for the accusation and pay you double what you spent on this entire night as recompense." Immediately his composure calmed, and his eyes jumped about calculating how many digits that price would be. I didn't dare think what it would be. The Aeterna may be paying my regular expenses, but this would stretch it beyond acceptance. I'll probably be working this off the rest of my life.

"And if I lose." He asked.

I pulled a page out of my father's book. I stepped out of my chair, took him into a one-armed hug, and, with all the dark intent and quiet, cold, seething I had been holding in my heart for a year quietly, I whispered, "Give me one of your slaves as a token, so I can go to sleep on this memory every night." I completed it with a bite to the ear, not enough to hurt, but to send him reeling back in shock.

He stumbled back, clutching his ear. "You are sick!"

"Oh, come now." I motioned to my own face. "Who doesn't like a bit of masochism? You're already a sadist, its not that big of a leap."