Chapter 194

Riven tapped his fingers against the wood, acknowledging the elvish king with a nod before gesturing for the man to sit. “Please relax, you look rather stiff.”

The older man did as Riven asked, and the two men stared at each other in silence until King Glassleaf lowered his eyes to the table.

“Let me ask you a question.” Riven stated, picking up a piece of cheese that Allie unceremoniously slid across the table with a loud squeak. Chewing on it and swallowing, Riven lifted a finger. “Tell me, what exactly makes you think that we are afraid of your people continuing to fight?”

There was a long drawn out silence after that, and the elvish king merely blinked Riven’s way while becoming paler by the second.

Thus Riven continued. “You make it seem like, should I not allow you and your wife to leave here, that your people ‘fighting until the last man’ would be something of a problem for us. Let me be very up front by saying that I could, by myself, go and crush the remnants of your country without much fuss. We all know this, don’t pretend to think otherwise. The fact that I have not already done so is twofold. One, conflict itself breeds up and coming warriors that we’ll need in the trials to come. I couldn’t force you to surrender but while you didn’t, some of my own soldiers were gaining levels at the expense of lives. Two, I don’t slaughter people mindlessly - despite what the world seems to think of me after I tore apart Daskus. That was… a special case.”

Riven glanced over at Athela and touched her hand, and he could have sworn that she blushed while averting her eyes - getting him to grin. Though concerning the color of her pitch black skin… it was hard to tell. “I am not saying this to intimidate you, Mr. Glassleaf. I am merely making it very clear that this war is over whether you like it or not, and meeting you and your wife is merely a formality to make the transition go more smoothly. Allie and I had considered just killing both of you when you arrived, but doing so would likely make the populace of your old kingdom inherently rebellious and would leave us with the choices of either mass enslavement like we’ve already done, or a slaughter to use their bodies to create more undead. The latter is what Allie wants to do, I can tell you now.”

“It would be a lot easier.” Allie nodded in affirmation, getting a choking sound out of the elvish queen, but Riven held up a hand to stop them from replying.

“I’ve already told her I’m not going to allow that. Allie may run things here in the Thane Necropolis but there are things I put my foot down for, and as I said earlier I will not just wantonly slaughter your people without good reason. This would mean, however, that your people would need to be introduced into re-education classes - specifically the children who will be set up in camps for a good amount of time separated from the adults, and there would be an almost absolute reduction in any military capabilities your people could have while working as a vassal under our state. This would mean laying down all arms and handing them over to us as we apply newly appointed city guards from the necropolis. Instead your people will be pushed into things like farming and agriculture, construction to rebuild your country - which is now OUR country, and other various crafting trades; at least for the time being, and people will be able to apply for exceptions depending on the situation. I am in agreement with your proposal to let your people that we’ve captured go, and your people would be allowed to pursue fulfilling lives. However, anyone that has proven themselves as an enemy to our cause, or that has already proven themselves that way, will be sentenced to continued slavery as long as their crime is not punishable by death. For now we will set the equivalent of a martial law in your country for the first three months in order to make sure you aren’t trying to attempt anything sneaky, and depending on how that goes we will discuss potentially withdrawing our troops. We will need all the slaves you took from Dawn’s borders to be given back to them as well, as I know that when you started this war there was a lot of that going on concerning taking human slaves from Dawn’s borders. Lastly you will be my direct subordinates should anything of significant concern arise. You will report to myself or Mara, not Allie, as I know there is a lot of bad blood concerning the slaughters she orchestrated on your people and I want this to go as smoothly as possible. I have very little leeway and wiggle room to negotiate on these topics, but if there are any disagreements let me know now so that we can start moving forward.”

The elf queen hesitated, then cleared her throat to speak. “My only concern is the children being separated from their parents. This is concerning, on many levels, and I’m not sure our people would abide by this. It would result in mass panic.”

Riven shifted his gaze to Mara in the background. “How is it coming along in the re-education camps we have now? Are you having any problems?”

Mara shook her head. “No, sire. But that situation was far different than this one. The elves we have already taken were taken by force, integrating the remaining cities and village communities that Tereen still commands would be far harder unless we actually put them all in chains.”

“Do you feel confident you’d be able to handle it your own way then?”

Mara nodded. “As long as I have the backing I need.”

“Then do it.” Riven turned to the two leaders of Tereen with a blank expression. “Anything else?”

Queen and King Glassleaf hesitated yet again, muttered to one another briefly, then King Glassleaf shook his head. “Other than the specifics of each of those topics you mentioned… It seems fair. When can we expect the return of our people?”

“One month at most. We’ll need to fill the spots that they were keeping as slaves on our farms or in our mines. Those that have committed crimes to be kept as slaves will be branded along the tops of their hands to show their status as kept slaves by the crown.”

King Glassleaf nodded again, resting back in his chair with an expression of mixed anxiety and relief. “Very well. I would also like to propose that perhaps we could seal this pact by blood, perhaps this would strengthen our relationship over time.”

Riven raised an eyebrow. “By blood?”

“Yes.” King Glassleaf said with another anxious nod. “I have a daughter, Princess Shay Glassleaf, who is about your age and would make a fine wife or concubine-”

Riven held up a hand to cut him off. “I refuse. Allie, please move on.”

Disgruntled, the elvish king sat back in his chair as his wife gave his hand a comforting squeeze, and Allie chuckled while pushing the next topic forward. “Next we have to decide on what to do with the vampiric prisoners of war.”

Riven frowned. “We have prisoners of war?”

This time, it was King Arthur Brix that spoke up - and he stood to bow Riven’s way before straightening his posture and putting his hands behind his back. “Hello again Riven. I believe I can answer this in more detail than anyone else at this table can. Most of the prisoners of war were taken during Rippenvire’s invasion of our capital city, Mandon - and were placed in various holding cells across the decimated upper levels. Records show we have a little over seven thousand of them after they started surrendering near the end of the battle.”

General Bruner raised a hand and grunted his acknowledgement. “Along with another two thousand or so prisoners under our command.”

Riven met Allie’s gaze. “Can you explain to me why they’re still alive?”

Allie returned a mischievous grin. “How’d you know it was my doing?”

He only gave her a flat look back.

She snorted, crossing her arms to lean back in her chair. “They’d make good foot soldiers if they were absorbed into our forces. Think about it. Why not?”

“Why not?” Riven repeated, shaking his head and letting out an exasperated sigh. “Because there are thousands of them and they all require blood to feed on, because they still haven’t left the planet as a faction yet, and because their base - nor their beacon were ever found. Keeping them around is asking for a prison break after they showed they can portal in like that.”

Allie held up both hands to either side with a shrug. “That’s why I wanted your opinion on the matter. Many of them are offering allegiance to us after figuring out who we are.”

There was a long pause.

Riven glanced back over to King Arthur Brix, who wore a grim expression and remained standing but said nothing. “How many of your citizens died that day? How many of your troops died that day?”

He looked to General Bruner next. “How many of our own died that day?”

“An estimated 6,400 of our own troops died taking back Mandon, my king.” General Bruner replied flatly.

King Arthur Brix kept his gaze fixated on Riven, but he slowly shook his head as his jaw clenched. “I don’t even know the number yet. We haven’t had the opportunity to count or even make estimates, but the number is within the hundreds of thousands.”

Riven nodded, motioning for him to sit. The king did so, and Riven looked over Allie’s way. “Screen them for anyone really useful. Execute the rest.”

“My prince…” Kathrine Vonsilla Crushada the 9th, eldest daughter to the Duke and Dutchess of House of Crushada, 107th in line for the vampiric throne and outer sect princess of the Blood Moon Requiem stood up. She smoothed out her black dress with red flowers and curtsied respectfully. “Perhaps it would be wise to keep our brethren alive as a sign of good faith to our neighbors. Rippenvire is an underling state, subordinate to one of our friendly competitors concerning vampiric power in the multiverse. Not butchering their promising young ones would be… appreciated.”

Riven glanced her way with a frown, then pulled up the world quest time concerning the invading forces just to confirm his thoughts.

[World Quest 3 Update, Invaders from Beyond: Other factions of the multiverse have greedily been watching your small planet, wanting its resources for themselves. Be it mass slavery, genocide, forced societal integration, or being farmed as literal food - your planet’s people are in danger. Invasion tokens have been distributed, and the invasion portals have finally been opened.

Invading forces have 5 years to either conquer Panu entirely, or alternatively survive that long in order to acquire reinforcements from the homeland. Any invading force left at the end of 5 years will have free access through system portals until a victor is decided. To rid this planet of an invading force, you must destroy their beacon - which will be highlighted by a marker in the sky above its location with the symbol of their empire.

Invading Forces:

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

* The Empire of Dying Suns

* Pagaroth

* The Kingdom of Shatterstone

* The Black Sky Azag Hive Cluster

* Rippenvire

Prepare yourselves, natives of Panu. The enemy is coming.]

He nodded. “Alright. Then have them withdraw from the planet, and I will do so. Destroying their beacon should evict them, yes?”

Kathrine hesitated, then shook her head. “Not necessarily… The invasion tokens are a one way ticket. The only way to get back home would be to either win the quest early, or wait until the 5 years passes after keeping their beacon intact. Otherwise they stay on the planet even if the beacon is destroyed.”

“So you’re saying we should keep them alive for five years to appease these… pseudo allies of yours?”

“Of ours.” Kathrine corrected with a frown of her own. “And they aren’t necessarily allies… they’re more like acquaintances, but they’re still our kin.”

“Well letting them keep the beacon intact is out of the question, there will be no portals between this world and their own. And how much blood does a small army of approximately nine thousand vampires need regularly to survive?”

Kathrine grimaced, but her gaze turned on the elvish queen and king. “We could use their people as cattle.”

“You did not answer my question. And even if we did, is it sustainable for that many vampires at one time?” Riven cocked an eyebrow and leaned forward in his chair. “I know for myself that I drink from either Luke or Genua at a bare minimum of once every three days - and they often alternate when they begin to get sick from lack of blood. That would mean we’d need to bleed about 9000 people once every three days, but would need even more than to make sure they weren’t being drained. Perhaps 14,000 elves, and they’d possibly be out of commission concerning any work in agriculture or labor intensive positions. Am I right?”

“You are probably correct, yes.”

Riven’s lips formed a thin line. “And this is hinging on the idea that they killed thousands of my own people, and won’t rebel against us, and will accept our proposal to destroy their beacon.”

Kathrine hesitantly nodded. “Yes, but… I am not exaggerating about the ramifications it would send across our social circles in the wider multiverse. For a high prince of the Blood Moon Requiem such as yourself to show mercy on them would be… a needed change, in my opinion. I know it is a hard pill to swallow, but even someone like me as a dutchess of my noble house and as an outer sect princess of the requiem would not have such a lasting impact should it be my decision - versus a decision coming from you.”

Riven glared her down. “Allie, how much money in Elysium coins did we make by killing all those vampires over the course of the battle? And will it be enough to sustain an entire population at current capacity with food for at least three years until our agriculture settles into a rhythm?”

He looked left to his sister. “If we have enough, then put the vampires in concentration camps. We will then sift through them and systematically execute all those who we deem as threats. We will incorporate those we can find useful and who swear new allegiance. If we don’t have enough money to do that by using the Elysium Altar to sustain us, then kill every last one of them and display their corpses on pikes along the roadways. Which will it be?”

Allie exchanged glances with Kathrine, and she smiled. “We have more than enough. I will begin putting them into concentration camps and killing those who won’t comply.”

The king of Dawn deeply frowned at this news, but gave an affirmative nod that he’d accept the decision when meeting Riven’s eyes. Kathrine looked thoroughly relieved and even a little bit happy, and Allie seemed excited.

Riven closed his eyes. “What next?”

“Trade routes and diplomacy concerning new alliances, republics and kingdoms on this side of the portal and on the other as well.” Allie replied when flipping another paper on her stack over to take a look.

“Not interested. Figure it out yourself, I have faith in you. Next?”

Allie turned another page. “The war with the dwarves in the underdark is hitting a climax. Deepnest calls for aid, and vampire diplomats from another native underdark sect have come forth to deliver a message concerning news on the vampiric elder god world quest.”

At this, Snagger stood up with a wave - getting frowns from Katherine and some of the others in the room at the perceived lack of respect. “Snagger sees-feels Riven has grown-stood strong since last seen-met! Am happy to see-observe your growth-gains!”

Riven smiled lightly, having forgotten how the ratkin of his underground friends talked. “Ah, yes. Good to see you too man. Let’s definitely catch up later over drinks, but for now - what’s the deal with this war you’re requesting aid for?”

Snagger’s large rat face, brown fur and all, turned to look at his sister Mesha - a smaller white ratkin woman and then to their broodmother Rashtalia. Broodmothers were essentially the equivalents of nobility under the ratkin queen, and she was just as Riven remembered her to be during their brief visit to the underdark.

Rashtalia was slightly taller than Riven was, standing at 7 feet akin to Snagger’s height, and wore the same platinum necklace that hung down over her chest that he’d seen her wear when visiting. She was thinner than him, with brown fur and was dressed in a form fitting white robe. Her long bare tail, the clawed hands and feet, and her mouse-like ears and face were a stark contrast to any women Riven had ever known - but he could still tell she was feminine for a rat person.

She bowed low, her twitching nose almost touching the table before straightening as Snagger took a seat. “Rashtalia is honored-relieved to be stand-sitting in presence of great batkin such as you-yourself! Alliance-friends with Thane Necropolis has made-created much wealth-loot for Deepnest, and your armies-troops have kept-made our trade routes safe-sound. But now that we-us push dwarves back-dead into their hole-tunnels, they grow-rage fiercer-strong. Defensive holds-castles in the underdark stop-prevent us from moving-getting further. Us-we ask for Riven-Allie friend-kin to help lead swarm-armies to battle, to crush-kill enemies and take their gold-stone for ourselves! Queen is willing-hoping to pay-trade for help, and will attempt-try to make it worth to you-us mutually!”

Despite only having gone to Deepnest once himself, Riven was very aware of how the conflict between their allies in Deepnest and the dwarves had started and how it’d proceeded up until now. The dwarves had essentially tried to commit a genocide against the ratkin for more resource-rich land to expand into, pushing them back and even attempting to slay Riven once upon his initial trip into the underdark. Even now, Deepnest provided the Thane Necropolis - and primarily the engineers in Chicago - with an absolute abundance of minerals those on the path of the Machine Pillar could utilize to create different weapons and machines of war; like mechs, tanks, jets and helicopters. This alliance of theirs had quite literally become an absolute gold mine, along with other minerals, and he had no reason to say no to their request for help.

“I’ll personally attend the war effort myself.” Riven eventually said after mulling it over in his mind, getting an overly excited squeak from the broodmother who nearly slammed her head in another low bow upon his words. “It’ll be another week or two, but I’ll be there. Let your queen know I’m coming, and I’ll likely bring some of our more weathered and experienced troops too.”

Rashtalia eagerly nodded before sitting down. “This one is very happy-merry to hear it and will see-tell queen of Deepnest this happy-good news! You are great-good ally-friends, oh great batkin!”

Riven smirked, then waved at Allie to get on with the tedious task of being leadership figureheads. “Next. Didn’t you say something about the vampiric elder god world quest?”

Another squeak from Rashtalia caught his attention, and she stood one more time. “Oh yes! They wait-seek you in Deepnest, wanting to meet-come to their aid-help and address such things-omens there!”

“So the diplomats aren’t here then?”

Allie and Rashtalia shook their heads simultaneously.

“Very well. On to the next then, I’ll talk to them when I go to help against the dwarvish incursions in the underdark.”

The course of the meeting delved into a variety of topics after that. Questions on how to set up the governing structure now that the Thane Necropolis was head of this small alliance were at the forefront. Talk about paving roadways with patrols and culling various wildlife in the area to help caravans was another issue. Just like King Glassleaf of Tereen tried to pawn his princess daughter off on Riven, so did King Arthur Brix of Dawn - but Riven quickly made it very clear that he wasn’t interested in either offer. As it was he had Athela, and that was enough. If she wanted to play around with other women then she’d let him know, until then it was a no fly zone and that conversation hadn’t come to pass yet as it had with Fay previously.

There were talks about regulating access to the cube, which he intended to access himself this week after going over the details concerning that odd artifact one more time.

[Puzzle-Box Cube Labyrinth: This stone cube is a permanent fixture on the world of Panu, granted to Daskus, the City of Canyons by Elysium as a prize to the populace after the king of Daskus completed a difficult system quest with perfect marks. Afterwards it was stolen and taken to the opposite side of Panu after Daskus was destroyed. Rules: The trials are formed by utilizing monsters, mazes, and puzzles with a real possibility of death. Only 10 may enter an instance event at once, instance events that are not full may be entered by outsiders at any time as long as they are within the same tier of trial, any amount of instance events between different groups may be ongoing at any time, you do not require sustenance while inside the cube, you may only complete the Puzzle-Box Cube Labyrinth event up to 3 times with scaling difficulty and scaling prizes via attempt tiers 1 / 2 / 3, and you may leave the Puzzle-Box Cube Labyrinth instance events at any time - but only through the single entrance and single exit points inside. Leaving the instance event will forfeit all remaining attempts at completing this system event or collecting its prizes. To create your own instance event or joint another’s, just stand underneath the cube and focus on it while thinking ‘Activate’.]

Riven declined to monitor it beyond making sure people weren’t being *forced* into attempting the trials for other people’s benefit. Who was he to stop people from pursuing power in a world like this?

Taxation was brought up.

So was an official written script of laws to be published for everyone to read across the lands the Thane Necropolis now controlled - including Dawn’s borders, Tereen’s borders, Brightsville’s surrounding lands and those on the other side of the world across the Riven’s Eye Wormhole where Chicago, Rockford and Milwaukee were located. Most of this was set up for Dr. Brass to handle, and he’d taken a very keen liking to administrative duties.

Though he and Riven didn’t talk much anymore.

More and more, on and on for over twelve entire hours the talks dragged on until Riven called it and said they’d continue this meeting the next morning. Thankfully Athela had taken to spoiling him with deep-tissue back rubs and back scratches, and food had been delivered multiple times over with a couple of breaks, so it hadn’t all been bad.

Standing up at the end of the day when the meeting was dismissed and the sun had long since set, Riven let out a groan and turned into a kiss from Athela - putting one hand on her left cheek and smiling down at her before a mischievous grin crossed her face.

He raised an eyebrow in suspicion. “What’s that look for?”

She only grinned wider and pushed her body up against his, groping him and causing his eyes to go wide as she whispered in his ear. “Can we go have some fun now? I’m horny!”

“AHEM!” Azmoth interrupted, pushing them apart and turning them both around to look Allie’s way. “Lady Allie want talk. Both go. Sleeze time later.”

Athela snarled at the bigger demon and started muttering under her breath, but Riven began to laugh and tugged Athela over by the base of her neck to kiss her again before heading forward. “Come on Athela, I think I know what this conversation is about. And it’s been a long time coming, if you ask me.”

***

Up in the private quarters of her supersized bedroom where Allie had once housed her numerous male concubines, she closed the door behind the other occupants and locked it with a click. Turning heel to face the room, she smiled at Lahn and Shovi before turning her gaze to Riven and Athela. “Thanks for coming. I wanted you to be here in case I got out of control…”

She didn’t even bother looking over at Lahn’s father, siblings, and bully who were all sitting at a table - very pale, to her right. Lord Nikola Lucio wore a typical frilled shirt and vest, well made with fine threads and gold trimmings. His son and daughter in question also wore victorian style outfits of their noble rank, with Parius Lucio - Lahn’s brother staring at the floor. Meanwhile Linela Lucio, Lahn’s sister, had not stopped gaping at Riven ever since recognizing him for the man she’d hit on in the store a while back.

Back when Fay and Riven had still been together.

The thought obviously troubled Riven and Allie could tell, but she ignored it. This was her time for vengeance and justice, and she was going to draw it out long and hard until she was satisfied that things were officially dealt with.

That made her turn to the last person in the room…

Gleetus Nefrand, the bully who’d shattered Lahn’s good limbs in an act of spite. He’d somehow survived the vampiric purging, much to Allie’s satisfaction, because if anyone was going to brutally murder this motherfucker…

It was going to be her.

A wicked smile with protruding fangs illuminated her beautiful features as she stepped forward to where Gleetus remained bound to his chair - the only one who was tied up. She leaned over, smile widening and red eyes flashing to meet his gaze as he pissed himself with trembling lips. “Oh, I’ve been waiting for this day for a long, long while. I believe it was interrupted last time, but now we get to finish the job. Don’t we? The question of the evening is this… will anyone be joining you? That, my friend has yet to be found out - and I have some curiosities that need to be settled here in front of Lahn and his lovely family in order to make those decisions final. If you’re helpful, you might not experience as much pain before you pass.”