The nobility of the Sanguinocracy were in a buzz. Despite having established Mortis’ version of the Iberian Peninsula as the place where the vampires of the Midnight Aristocracy had effectively carte blanche to almost anything they wanted, there had only been a scant few occasions where their Primogenitor, Alexis Draculina Nekronus von Darksol, also known by the moniker of ‘the Crimson Empress’, had even bothered to step foot in the new nation itself. This, it seems, was to be one of those times.

Despite her kin essentially begging her to temporarily move the capital of Darksol from the former lands of Albion to the newly established city that had replaced Madrid while Kain slumbered, an act which was an obvious attempt to make their kind be seen as the ‘superior beings’ of Darksol, Alexis had never even given the Sanguinocracy much thought. In her eyes it was almost like a game. What kind of game was it that she was playing; you ask? Well, that will be revealed soon enough.

To get back on topic, there were many theories as to why Alexis decided to make a visit to the newly finished city that had replaced the ruined capital of the former Siempre Dorado Kingdom. Some thought that she was here to finally establish Nocturne (the name of the city that was built on the ruins of Madrid) as the temporary (and possibly permanent) capital of the Greater Darksol Empire. Others thought that she had come to personally weed out the annoyance that was the Daybreak Resistance. However, neither of those theories were correct.

Alexis had no intention of pissing her husband off by even considering the idea of moving the capital. Besides, the citadel wasn’t something that could just swap positions, not to mention that the pair of thrones in the castle itself were basically the very hub of the Empire itself. As for the second theory, she had no concern for the Daybreak Resistance, but not for the reasons you might expect. It was not pity or compassion that led her to leave the holdouts of the original Luminas faith around; no there was a far darker and more sinister reason for her and the higher ups of every member nation of the Greater Darksol Empire allowing the movement to persist.

As for why she had come? Well, there was work to be done, of course. What work? Well, you see, it has to do with the reason that, despite knowing who was a part of the Daybreak Resistance, where they were, what their objectives were and how they intended to accomplish them, Darksol allowed them to continue to exist.

Alexis was here to attend a public ceremony that intel had suggested that the Daybreak Resistance was planning on crashing. For, you see, the rebels and troublemakers could never hope to win back the world they once knew, nor could they hope to truly do anything against the potent propaganda machine that painted them as the villains at every possible opportunity. They lost the war, but refused to admit it and just kept on fighting regardless, further proving that they didn’t want the world to experience the marvels that Darksol had brought to it.

Each act of terrorism and violence was just another weapon to be used against them, but Darksol would not let them die. Alexis and Kain had long ago come to the conclusion that the best way to deal with potential hardline dissidents was to give them a place to gather, a banner to be under and acts to commit in the name of their cause. Alexis was coming to this gathering for the express purpose of foiling yet another of the ‘genius plans’ of the Resistance.

This was the game that she was here to play; a game where the opposing party did not even know that they were being set up to lose. Every year saw more of the poor fools die horribly in pointless displays of devotion to what now was dead and buried while each year fewer and fewer came to take their place. Every defeat, every victory, every time anything happened the rebels were painted as the bad guys, but their movement would not be allowed to simply fade away.

…

As Alexis monitored the entire venue from nearly every angle using ghosts and giant bats, she let a smile cross her face. Another group of fools had come to join the soon-to-be dead bastards that were going to walk straight into another ambush. She expected that, by now, they would have realized the futility of it all, but perhaps the plants had done a better job than she had anticipated.

This game was one of the few things she really enjoyed about this nation that was so full of arrogant pricks. The way things were set up, it was unlikely that the rebels would get a true ‘Game Over’ until a few more years down the line. She had, after all, established the rules for the game with the House Founders, and they had agreed that this would be a decent way to avoid the utter boredom associated with immortality. Kain had been correct in the assumption that letting the holdouts of the Confederacy gather into a single cohesive mass that could, without their knowledge, be directed in any direction that Darksol chose would be a fun way to pass the time and keep the militia, police and military alike in a decent state of readiness.

She waited a while longer before stepping out into the open, letting the door open with a creak as she passed through it and into the wide-open air of the plaza. She easily spotted the handful of archers scurrying across the rooftops as they attempted to get a better vantage point. She marveled at the sheer stupidity of them; it was as if they didn’t know that there were flying creatures that acted as Darksol’s ‘eyes in the sky’ practically everywhere.

Although she was annoyed at the utter idiocy displayed by these fools, she continued to walk down the stairs and into the gathering of mortals and immortals. She watched as the crowds jostled around a bit and the idiot archers took their position. She was surprised when a single woman whose skin color and general appearance was rather uncommon for the area approached her. Based on what little Alexis knew of Darksol’s newest neighbor, it was a near certainty that this woman was one of the survivors of the massacre of the Sultanate spies that occurred not even three weeks ago. Despite how the obvious outsider held herself and tried to mask her emotions, Alexis could tell there was hostility in her eyes.

“I have something for you, oh Empress of the Night.”

Alexis laughed internally. Surely this woman wouldn’t be that obvious, right?

Nope! The woman pulled a dagger coated in silver and tried to shove it into Alexis’ chest. However, even if the blade hadn’t simply bounced off her clothes it would not have been nearly enough to even inconvenience her. It was at this moment that the archers tried to shoot, only to be swarmed by Fel Bats and Hell Bats. Alexis exerted a minimal amount of pressure in the direction of the would-be assassin and, as you would expect, the woman fell unconscious immediately.

“Take her away and interrogate her.” Was all Alexis said on the matter and the gathering continued as if nothing of note had occurred. Alexis smiled again, as if her hunch that the would-be queen-killer was an agent of the Arbiana Sultanate, she may very well be able to use that as a reason to push Darksol’s new neighbor into a position that would benefit the Empire in the long run.

She was still attempting to avoid a war, all in order to keep Kain from being disappointed in her once he woke up. But, if Darksol was not the aggressor and had tried multiple times to avoid conflict, then Alexis figured that there was a decent chance of Kain being supportive of her actions. But such actions would need to wait, for there was a ribbon-cutting ceremony to participate in and she wanted to get the hell out of the Sanguinocracy. The whole attitude they had towards her was nice and all, but their excessive flattery and insistence on her moving the capital was getting really old really fast.

What did Kain call such people? Simps? Yeah, this was an entire nation that simp’ed for her, and she was not into that at all.