The chubby creature nervously hid under the office’s single desk. Maybe it would’ve even been successful, if not for a stubby tail that was clearly visible across the room.

Now, to the steady clack of heels approaching, it hid its wrinkled face underneath shivering paws.

“Come out, come out, you sweet little thing, I won’t hurt you.” Those emotionless words carried a threatening aura that caused the chubby creature to shiver even worse. “I only want to scratch your…belly!”

To a series of terrified yelps and barks, the puppy tried to flee as hands darted in under the desk, but its claws just scraped the same slick spot for too long as it was yanked from the floor.

Airborne, there was nothing the pup could do but spread its legs wide, playing dead as it was flipped over on its back to be cradled in a pair of slender arms.

Even as its tongue lolled out, however, in a most convincing manner, at that, its snorted breaths betrayed it.

The pup’s short snout simply wasn’t made for a quiet existence, and now, the cute sounds made the young woman’s face set in determination. Between her black eyes and even blacker lips, it was with ferocious intensity that she began rubbing its belly.

𐫰 𐫰 𐫰

For a long while, Vanessa had stood within her uncle’s office, gazing through those wall-sized windows.

Over these past months, she’d made a habit of coming here. Her uncle was rarely present anyway, and the empty void outside the Moon-eater’s windows served to reflect something deep inside of her.

Just like the ship itself, without her fiancé, she was drifting through space. Without that filthy optimist by her side, her existence was dormant.

Lately, however, that beautiful manifestation of her soul had been blocked out by a massive gate, hovering there above the surface of New Hub.

In less than a day, it would be opened up. The surges of energy passing through it were becoming more frequent, and countless ships were already counting the minutes until they’d be allowed to set off on their pointless struggle to make this pointless endeavor worthwhile.

All of it meaningless, much like life itself.

Still, Vanessa couldn’t help but wonder if her sweet Mikayes was out there among them. He’d been playing hard to get lately, but if that was the kind of flirting he enjoyed, she’d simply have to hunt him down without fail.

“Isn’t that right, my sweet bean?” she whispered to the chubby pup in her arms. By now, it had completely resigned itself to its fate, allowing its belly to be continually scratched.

It was hers now, and no one would take it from her.

“Good,” she continued in that same whisper, “it’s only by surrendering yourself to nothingness that you can learn what it means to be something. Pointless motion just distracts from the meaninglessness of life. So, join me in darkness as we patiently await the sweet relief of death to whisk us away.”

Whether it’d understood her words, or if the reaction was merely instinctual, the puppy was already shivering in her arms by the time the door to the office slid open behind them – a pair of heels that came to a halt.

“I thought I smelled something gloomy,” Cassandra Sin’vitri mockingly spoke. “What are you doing in here, cousin? Shouldn’t you be off contemplating suicide in some corner where no one can see you?”

“It’s not called ‘contemplating suicide,’ it’s called ‘relishing the last throes of my young and beautiful years,’” Vanessa said without ever turning around. “Rushing things along would only detract from the beauty of death’s eventual arrival. The end is not an instant, it’s a lifetime.”

“This is why you’re not allowed inside of the council meetings, freak.” Cassandra snorted. There’d been one today. As a Sin’vitri, Vanessa could’ve gone but chose not to.

Just like their uncle, she had better things to do – namely contemplating death. Unsurprisingly, it was that same uncle whom Cassandra was there looking for.

“Where’s Themen?” she asked.

“If his absence has not informed you enough, I feel sorry for you, Cassandra,” Vanessa said. “You always struggled to comprehend anything that didn’t fit snuggly between your ears, and you’re not getting any prettier either. Your mother must be struggling to find some marriage candidate willing to take you.”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Those words left a sour expression to pass across Cassandra’s face. She was over a decade older than Vanessa, having turned thirty-four last month.

Considering their family status, most members of the Vitri family married before twenty-five.

“No matter what dull man my mother deems worthy of me,” Cassandra spat, “it’ll at least be better than a thousandth bastard son of Dimitri Velanovski. A black sheep for a black sheep, how tragically fitting.

“Your mangy fiancé can’t even use his last name, and yet he doesn’t want you. What does that say about your ‘youth’ and ‘beauty,’ Vanessa?”

The pup in Vanessa’s let out a quiet whine as it stirred in its slips, her arms having stiffened. “All names are equal in love and death, and my Mikayes adores me more than the stars. Not that you would understand, who have only ever adored yourself.”

“Well, I hope his love for you runs as deep as your delusions,” Cassandra sneered, “else, he might get real upset as he hears how his fiancé didn’t even lift a finger to stop one of the Pacers from becoming his overseer. Oops, I hope I didn’t have something to do with that…”

That earlier whine turned into a gurgling snort as Vanessa squeezed the pup far too tight, and the room around them turned visibly darker.

Cassandra shuddered before she managed to shrug off that sudden chill. “Spite won’t make you any prettier, cousin,” Vanessa said. “Nor will it make your life easier. As I’ve told you, I have no interest in our family’s petty power struggles, but that doesn’t mean I’m above ruining your chances either.

“I know how you’ve been using our family name to further your own schemes, despite the fact that we are here as arbiters of this expansion, not profiteers.”

“You wouldn’t…”

“I don’t fear our family, Cassandra, and I certainly do not fear you. Do not test me, or I’ll make sure that we both go down burning together. Leave. My. Mikayes. Alone.”

There was a pause as Vanessa’s dark, impassive eyes turned towards her cousin. “Uncle is not here, by the way. You may leave now.”

𐫰 𐫰 𐫰

Those doors had only just hissed shut behind Cassandra as Vanessa strode over to her uncle’s desk. A few button presses, and the holographic wall which cut the office’s true size in half began to disintegrate into a translucent barrier.

Beyond it, the meticulous, sterile aura of authority that marked the rest of the office was broken by colorful posters, collectible toys, random instruments, and an impressive collections of games that dated back to a time when ‘retro’ was first starting to get its meaning.

In the middle of it all, a middle aged man sat upon his cushiony recliner. His hair was long and uncombed, raven black save a few gray streaks, and he kept it up in a rough bun. There was rough stubble upon his cheeks as well, silvery scars crisscrossed his harrowed face, and he wore a pair of simple, washed-out bathing robes.

Despite his disheveled appearance, however, the man seemed to be having the time of his life where he held an ancient controller, excitedly hollering at the large screen where a chubby figure was just jumping over a few pixelated blocks.

At least until Vanessa tiredly made her way over to knock on that translucent barrier blocking out all sound.

The chubby figure on the screen fell short, disappeared into a hole, and a blocky “GAME OVER” appeared just as her uncle snapped around with an annoyed expression.

For being one of the strongest people within the entire Empire, Themen Du’vitri certainly didn’t look the part.

He was a wiry man, on the shorter side, and as he begrudgingly pushed himself out of that recliner, he didn’t even bother shielding himself as his robes fell open to reveal dingy underpants. More scars ran across his bony chest, and a piece of his left thigh was missing.

Still, more striking than the rest combined was, perhaps, the sheer fact that, for the past three days, completely neglecting his duties, the commander of the Astral Fleet’s largest ship stationed above New Hub had been holed up in his office playing video games.

“What is that thing?” her uncle huffed the moment the translucent barrier had fully disappeared. Although the pup had fallen back asleep now, snoring away in Vanessa’s arms, Themen still threw it a suspicious glance.

“I found it, so it’s mine now,” Vanessa answered. “Look, it’s all tame as well, so—” The moment she moved to put it down and its chubby legs made contact with the floor, the pup began frantically fighting to get away once more.

Just like earlier, however, its claws merely scraped against the slick tiles without getting any traction, and Vanessa just picked it up again with a click of her tongue.

“Why does everything I love try to escape me?” she asked, raising the pup up to stare straight into its wrinkled face.

“Ever tried smiling?” her uncle snidely commented, only for Vanessa’s dark eyes to turn his way.

As usual, her face remained completely impassive, and the only muscles she ever used were those required for her to look around and talk.

“And risk ending up like a wrinkled ballbag in fifteen years?” she asked. “No thanks. The expression of my fathomless joy is not worth the sacrifice.”

Themen just rolled his eyes. “So, what did you want anyway?”

The stiffness that found its way into Vanessa’s eyes just then was barely noticeable, but it was enough to remind Themen why so many people feared and avoided his niece. “I just wanted to ask in what way I should inform Adrianna about what her beloved father has been up to these past couple of days.”

Themen’s jaw fell open, only to then shut to a faint cough. “I, of course, meant: what can I do for you, dear niece?”

“The Pacer they’ve put on my fiancé, do something about them.”

“Ah,” her uncle began as he, in the short moment it took for him to scratch his ear, caught up on everything that’d happened over these past three days. “Sorry, Vanessa, nothing I can do. Had you wanted to change his fate, you should’ve attended the council meeting today. Things have already been settled, and the Pacers don’t operate under mine or the empire’s orders. They’re sanctioned directly by the Triumvirate, meant to ensure galactic law and regulations are followed.”

There was a pause before Vanessa asked, “Will it be bad?”

“It will certainly be…bureaucratic.”