The Aeterna Empire

Chapter 18 - Questions and Plans

Despite the Aeterna Emperor's age there were things he had never experienced before. Such as a son. And to see that son in a short time at once angry enough to kill him, and then afraid enough to flee. So, he searched out thought from sources he considered influential.

Deep in Dyson lay the city-state of Soran. An exaggeration, he thought, as no one but him had walked the length or width of it and so could understand its scale. It was no mere city, but a city-world completely encircling the known core of Dyson. The only portion known to man was the area beneath South Ire.

Deep in Soran was a pool of Night-Blood. A mistake, he thought, as the Night-Blood both rested as a lake and rose up to encompass a sphere on all sides, circling about in a circumference, layer upon layer in defiance of gravity. The sphere within the Night-Bloods grasp rested in the open air in equal defiance to downward motion with the tip of a Solaris tower coming down to it in inverse to its known structure close enough to almost touch. 

Deep in the Solaris sphere was a room. A throne room, or perhaps, a living altar. Inside was a woman of South Ire fused to a chair by her spine. Lights flickered in thousands of places around the room, and before her was a Soran-Blood wearing a dress typically associated with a woman. The woman on the throne had her eyes closed, but the Emperor knew better. Her eyes were everywhere, her reach was endless, and her mouths were many.

"It has been a long time, Mother." Adam said.

The Soran-Blood chuckled. Its voice was warm and proper as any young woman, unlike Soran-Blood's normally flat tone. "No need to pretend. Time is different for us."

"Perhaps, but people like to say that when its been longer than five minutes."

"Oh? Consider me impressed! You're trying to fit in."

"I used to fit in quite well, thank you." Adam rebuffed.

"Yes, you did. But death changes a person."

Adam nodded. She was correct. He had changed. Second's death had broken him, and the memory of it slowed his healing. He remembered everything. The axe, the crowd, the falling, the darkness, and the sudden earth.

"So does marriage. Olvia helped me heal."

"I know. I'm glad! I would have loved to meet her properly."

Adam didn't reply. Mother knew very well why Adam never brought his wife on his visits. A habit of keeping secrets for thousands of years wasn't going to be changed for a relationship, even one lasting in the hundreds.

"The perishable do not belong here." Adam replied.

"Wouldn't that make them the best secret keepers then?" The Soran-Blood quickly replied.

The Emperor stopped and felt a tang in his heart. He had not thought of it that way.

The Soran-Blood changed her tune, "I am sorry, its too soon. I shouldn't have said that. You have enough on your mind, what with an Empire and a son. Please, feel welcome. I do miss you."

"That's actually what I am here for. I am undergoing another change and I think you are the best person to come to."

"Oh?"

"If birth gave life to First, light gave birth to Second, and song gave birth to Third, we find ourselves now with Fourth."

"Why must you refer to yourself in such a way..." She said.

"Fourth was born the day Olvia told us she was pregnant. Now we are in conflict."

"Conflict? Alright. Why are you divided?"