“We’re moving?” A thickly furred ape asks, adjusting the crown on his head as he glares at me in frustration. “Is that why you are training your people for war.”

“There is an opportunity for such a change in locale,” I reply, avoiding the more important aspects of what’s to come. “We need to decide who goes and who stays.”

“And why would we want to move?” Malea asks, an edge of suspicion settled deep into her heart though she allows none of it to show. “The queen is keeping rather quiet about her motives, but she’s ensured that the very heart of our empire is participating in this transition. She’s suggesting that the noble faction will be given power over our remaining caverns here in Frey, but clearly, there’s something more going on.

“Furthermore, I’ve heard from the republic that the president is handing over his position to lead an expedition into a foreign world. Everyone is trying to figure out where to place their fates, but the most powerful people here are interested in leaving.”

I’ve heard some of these rumours myself using my extended senses for spying. I’m not sure how much they know, but from the fact that they’re accepting the offer, I can suppose that they know enough.

Yet, they lie.

They’ve deceived their own people so that they can gather their most loyal supporters for this evacuation. There are only so many lifeboats, and it’s much safer to secure them for yourself before anyone even knows that there’s an emergency.

I’ve been left with the same problem, but I feel little trouble in finding my answer and it’s no different from the queen or the president.

My conversations with Adler have allowed me to explore my own morals and the reasons for my decisions, while also learning about how other systems work. The Unified States is a civilisation with a ruthless interest in maintaining life, yet even then there is no shame in deciding who gets to live and who gets to die.

Withholding information here prevents a competition for survival and allows me to choose who gets to live and who gets to die. Others would begrudge me for this, but my only regret is that I lack the power necessary to save everyone.

I make this same choice when I decide which beings can be farmed and which can gain the full rights of a citizen.

This situation differs in many of the details, but in the broad outline, we’re deciding who gets to survive in this distant dungeon, and who will be collared and sent into slavery by the welfare officers. There is a chance that the welfare officers won’t cause that much trouble, but things never go well for me so I’m going into this expecting the worst.

“This is an expedition away from Frey,” I say, keeping to the truth while avoiding the difficult topics. While I’m willing to be honest to a fault with my own people, these aren’t my people. If I tell them the entirety of this situation we’ll be caught up in a fight over whose caverns get brought for this trip, and then who gets to live where.

The rich and privileged get primary spots on the life raft, they get to decide who comes and who stays, and as friends with the captain of this ship, I’m the most privileged person here.

So, who do I bring and who do I leave behind?

“We’ll be set on a new world where there is room to expand. There’ll be plentiful resources, but also competition, essentially, we’re being freed into the wider universe.”

“So, we can either stay behind, or we can take our chances in a new place?” An insect queen asks. “If the leaders of both factions are taking their most powerful forces with them, then I think it’s fair to say that there’s plentiful opportunity whether we leave or stay.”

“I have some grudges to settle with the leaders of the other factions,” I declare, finding a good reason to leave without forcing this into a competition for survival. “I’ll be leading an expedition out into these wilds. Who wants to support me?”

“I’ll take up that offer,” Warren says, the familiar minion of Loekan who took off with a good half of the gremlins.

“I’m glad for your support. Some of our gremlin families are split between our caverns and it wouldn’t do to tear them apart,” I say.

He nods firmly, but his distant expression suggests that he might be more aware of the true situation than he’s wanting to show.

“I will go too,” the incest king declares, lifting his inbred hand into the air. I’m not sure my disgust for him is entirely fair, there aren’t even any noticeable ill effects from his poor breeding, but damnit, it’s hard to ignore once you know about it.

“There are only limited spots,” I say, starting the discussion in full. Most unsurprisingly want to stay, unwilling to take a risk in a new world far from the gods that they know. I do feel bad about deceiving them, but this isn’t a situation where the truth will bring us to a happy ending.

Arduelle can only save so many.

The discussion dies quickly after with only one final bombshell before we close the small alliance meeting.

“I’ll be forfeiting my position within the monarchy and formally joining your alliance for this expedition,” Malea says, standing tall in the midst of us.

I blink up at her, but she’s no different from the last time I looked. I get the feeling that she has several plots in action, I haven’t seen this particular confident smile since I first met her. That time that she convinced one of my merchants to participate in a potential assassination against me.

“There are boundless opportunities out there and I’d quite like to exploit them for myself, and not for the crown and throne,” she says, her deep-set smile communicating more than mere joy.

She’s tentatively welcomed into our alliance, but most of the audience isn’t swayed either in favour or against her announcement. Most want to return home to contemplate the challenges set out for us.

Time is moving on, and plans that we’d made are stolen away from us, only for us to write more in their place. Who knows what this new world will bring us, and what we’ll lose by following this path.

None of us are truly ready for what’s coming, but isn’t that always true.

“I hope that there’s no bad blood remaining between us,” Malea says, as she walks with us back to our own portal. “I hope that you will remember our previous deal as a friendly reminder of what I can offer should you tire of your position. There is no need for any hostility between us.”

“That’s fine,” I reply. “Your attempt at my life was a reasonable action considering that we were enemies then. I also can’t begrudge you for your schemes, as you’ve been almost painfully honest about them.

“You’re… useful and reasonably nice.”

“And pretty,” Eshya points out, “I think that’s the point that saved you from Kyra’s wrath.”

“Could you please not mess with my attempts at diplomacy?” I ask of her, but the smirk rising on her lips is a clear challenge instead.

“In any case, we are soon to be in a position to properly assess one another as peers. Don’t be too ashamed to reach out to me should you begin to feel the burden of responsibility.”

“You don’t need to insist so much on this offer of yours,” I say.

“No, no. I do,” Malea says, “You’re gradually growing accustomed to my presence, but I do not wish for that to degrade the relationship I seek to have with you.”

“What relationship is that?”

“I wish to be your successor on the day that you decide to retire,” she insists, glaring at me as she’s already made as much clear alongside her desire to push me into retirement like any ambitious son or daughter.

“Ah, yes that,” I say, shaking my head. “You’re going to follow me into immortality, then?”

“As much should be a foregone conclusion. Immortality is a necessity for any gods.”

“You’re confident in our rise to power, then? My rise into the realms of the divine?” I ask, watching her closely for any signs of lies.

“Of course. The goddesses here have faith in you, they’re training you, and going to considerable lengths for your sake,” she says. “That’s no guarantee, but it’s an indication of your potential.”

“You’re a strange one,” I say, walking with Eshya back towards the teleporter that will take us back home. “You started off threatening me, then you turn on a heel and offer me your services, and now… I still don’t quite know what to think about you.”

“But you do think about me,” Malea says, her feet tapping out a careful rhythm, a musical tune, as she escorts us to the teleporter and stands beside it to indicate that she will not be coming with us this time.

“The worst feeling to inspire in a person is apathy,” she says. “Should a person hate you, or love you, they can find some nature of respect for you. Even if it is in hatred, in time you may change their feelings and thoughts.

“If, however, they never know who you are, then there is no respect. There is nothing.” She smiles, with a measure of genuine affection. “I do hope that our relationship continues, whatever form it might take because I simply refuse to become another forgotten name in your story.”

Her passion bleeds through in every word, her eyes bright and her hands clutched tight, yet still held in a formal pose.

“I’ve forgotten a few people already,” I admit. Thinking back on all those I’ve met and the many who I don’t see as often now, those who couldn’t keep up with me, or who found themselves unwilling to walk the same roads.

I’ve had this conversation before, in some form or another, but it never truly sinks in. Every time I look back and think of those I’ve left behind I feel another wave of loss, for what could have been.

“I will not be one of them,” Malea says, nodding toward me and saying goodbye. There are some things that she must attend to if she wants to separate from the monarchy and join my small faction.

Whatever plots she has in motion, it’s not much my business, there are other things that I need to tend to.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“You could be using this time training,” Nel says, running her fingers through my hair as she whispers into my ear. The sound is near enough to send a familiar shock down my spine.

“I could be training,” I admit, laying back in her arms. Our bed is warm and pleasant, though I need to limit the expression of my power and make myself vulnerable to enjoy it at all.

“I’m not, because that’s not who I want to be,” I say. “Training and war are a means to an end, and there’s no reason to participate in all that fuss if I can’t get what I want from it.”

“What you want?”

“Warm cuddles,” I say curling up beside her and wrapping my arms around her. Her body warmth is enough to soothe some of the demons that have been pursuing me since the first day that I was introduced to these alien worlds.

The other girls are still out and training, though they’re likely aware of our rendezvous. I know that I’ve caught a few private scenes now and again, though most of the time I’m involved.

Vii’s comments are coming back to me again right now, about the strangeness of our relationship.

“Nel, what do we do from here? Are we going to be like this until the day after eternity ends? Are we going to be warring forever?”

“If you’d listened to me before now, then you’d already know that I’m not satisfied with this,” Nel says, her whispers turning to hisses. “Violence isn’t enough for me. This world in its current shape isn’t enough for me. We need a peaceful environment to raise our kids.

“Conquer a world, Kyra. Fortify it until there is nothing that can take it from us. I thought this place could be it, but if Frey and Arduelle are still so frightened of the welfare officers…”

“Don’t worry,” I say, rubbing her shoulder and sinking into the bed beside her. The simple warmth of another person, a person that I love, is enough to settle my anxiety.

Through my expanded senses, I can see no enemies, only borders that are well defended and a home that is warm and cheerful. For today, we are safe, and I need to keep it so.

My people are happy, they are growing, and soon they’ll need more than I can offer. They could be happier, they could be wealthier, there could be more of them, and there could be more opportunities.

Tomorrow I will see to it that this empire, this safe and happy place, becomes more so. I cannot build what we need in a day, but in the years to come, we will make a home that is truly safe, warm, and happy.

For tonight, we’ll build upon the foundations of the happiness that we’ve already found, we’ll build our relationships, as lovers, as friends, as neighbours, and as members of the same empire.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Stats and Skills

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 57,713 / 60,892 units

Current mana volume: 28,690 / 30,271 shards

Mana volume at crystallisation density (Max. mana volume):

Kyra: 30,271 shards

Kyra’s armour: 20,777 shards

Kyra’s throne: 1,109,298 shards

~Forms

Mana Canon

-Annihilation Heart (Adapted)

-Blood Fuel (Adapted)

-Bone Magic Storage (Adapted)

-Nail Shifters (Adapted)

Dancer

-Flash Nerves (Adapted)

-Quick Perception Mind (Adapted)

-Burst Reflex Muscles (Adapted)

-Layered Space Muscles (Adapted)

Turtle

-Rebinding Tissue (Adapted)

-Catalyst Sweat Glands (Adapted)

-Repulsive Skin (Adapted)

-Prehensile hair (Adapted)

-Fatty Tissue Blood Storage (Adapted)

Investigator

-Wide eyes (Adapted)

-Wide ears (Adapted)

-Sharp nose (Adapted)

Misc.

-Clean bowels (Adapted)

-Mana Drive (Adapted)

~Favourited Skills:

Magic:

-Annihilation Magic (Customised)

-Fire Magic (Functional)

-Space magic (Broken)

-Force magic (Functional)

-Ice magic (Broken)

-Wind magic (Broken)

Movement:

-Hand-to-hand casting (Functional)

-Mana surge movement (Functional)

-Stealth (Functional)

Senses:

-Eyes of an Empire (Customised)

-Combat Awareness (Functional)

-Watchmen (Functional)

-Hidden bug (Mastered)

-De-tagging (Mastered)

-Anti-stealth sight (Mastered)

Special:

-Spirit Transformation (Broken)

-Conformity (Broken)

-Training mana form (Functional)