Dimensional Veils and Magical Aliens

Chapter 16: Vvivva La Revvolution

Alternia Interlude - Equius Zahhak

Snap!

Well, there went another bow.

Heaving another sigh, the Indigo-blooded troll gratefully accepted the glass of milk from his lusus, being especially careful not to break it.

Crack.

Ah, at least he was mostly done with drinking it this time. Nepeta insisted he should use a sturdier container, but the milk just didn't taste right if it wasn't in a glass. So it was simply something he had to deal with. His trusty lusus was more than adept at cleaning up his messes by now, anyway.

Grabbing the offered towel, he mopped the sweat off of him as best he could, getting the parts that got trapped under the carapace so that unsightly microorganisms didn't start a colony on his person. As a highblood, he had a standard to uphold.

Speaking of which, he found his mind wandering to the robotics and devices that the royal seadweller of their friendgroup was doing. Equius dared not pry into the business of a member of the violet caste, but the amount that he asked for (along with the quality) was highly unusual. That and the fact that Ampora had stressed that these new traps and robotics were not for FLARP use. Generally, such a thing indicated a long sojourn away, or some terminal illness that would eventually leave the royalblood's Hive ripe for looting during other trolls' FLARP campaigns.

It was revealed to be the former by his dear Moirail (or 'Meowrail', as she loved to call it), who had gotten the information from Vantas. Specifically, that said royalblood's sojourn was somehow very far off-planet, and yet also flying below Her Imperial Condescension's radar.

Equius had felt fear that a higher blood knew so much about his fears with Nepeta (especially after what happened to that dirtblood, Nitram), and had hoped that the seadweller wouldn't use that information for capriciously violent purposes. Now.he was wondering if the violetblood was plotting something... traitorous. Or at least, attempting to gain some kind of advantage for the Heiress, who would eventually have to challenge the Empress for her crown.

It was something he might have to consider for the future. The trolls in the bizarre mobius disc that some of them may call 'friendship' used to be something he'd mostly ignored for the most part (apart from his moirail and his guilty flush-crush on Aradia). With the addition of 'treason' as a possibility among the royalbloods to the Empress...

A part of him wanted to reach out and give warning. As a highblood, he had a duty to serve the Empire to the best of his ability.

But... what would happen to their group? Everyone remotely related to any sort of rebellion would be culled, or worse, made an example of. They may all be incriminated. Certainly, the royalbloods wouldn't be spared, nor would the mysterious and loud Vantas, whom he knew Nepeta was flushed for. And what would happen to Nepeta? Would... would Equius be forced to kill her, just as his ancestor had killed hers?

It was a notion too grim to bear. His hands shook as beads of sweat poured from between layers of chitin, coating the metal parts he held in a layer of deep blue.

If instead, he supported the 'new' Empress when they took the throne (could they? Was it even possible to defeat a Tyrianblood who'd been around since their ancestors? Who'd survived countless other trolls of her caste vying for the throne?), Nepeta would be safe. They would all be safe. In the best case scenario, it would cement them in a position where they would be harder to cull in the new regime. Of course, this was all simply speculation. Maybe his imagination was getting the better of him.

There was no reason for a violetblood to abandon the ideals of the Empire.

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