"Hey, is that your father?" Senec asked, suddenly changing the topic.
Startled, Slavian turned around. Senec was looking down into the warehouse through glass. Slavian crawled up next to him and looked in. Surely, what were the odds of his father being here of all places?
A white-haired man was escorted into the building by a couple of guards.
"Izthark?" Slavian gasped. What was he doing here?
Senec looked at him skeptically. "So not 'Father', then?"
"No, he's... a step-brother." Slavian answered. "Way before I was born. Adopted."
Senec kept the skeptic look. "He's the adopted one?"
Slavian nudged him hard enough to knock him down and they would have entered into a scuffle if a voice below didn't stop Slavian in his tracks and dump cold, stinging ocean water on all his veins.
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Izthark entered the dim warehouse with his hands tied together at the wrist. Even in the brightness of the day the illumination was poor through stain glass windows on the ceiling. The building was a single massive room. The Numerenai might have thought it originally built for boat construction, brewing, or even ballroom dancing, but the material and construction was not proper. No, this place was built for mass storage from the beginning, and it fulfilled that purpose with rows upon rows of crates piled on wooden racks towards the walls leaving only a large opening leading from the center to the door.
The facility was full of men working, taking inventory, moving cargo, unloading from cargo vessels, or bringing it down for transport. Towards the center was a man coordinating the workers while sitting at a table painting on a nearby canvas.
Caius.
Caius looked up as Izthark approached with guards and said, "Now gentlemen, is this really the way to treat an honored guest? You stand in the presence of children to the god-emperor!"
YOU ARE READING
The Aeterna Empire
FantasyIn the realm of Dyson, a Kes-Blood prince steps up to rally his people and allies against the incoming threat of the Aeterna Empire, forcing him to learn what it means to be king and what he must sacrifice to save his people and his world.
