Chapter 197
General Viku had been right.
Riven’s mirage body stood on the bridge, with a large glass half-dome in front of him. It gave a large view of the planet, the warp gate, numerous fleets of merchant vessels from different parts of the multiverse, and the space station.
That cube-shaped space station was the most eye-catching sight. It was the size of a small moon, about a 50th the size of the planet below - which in turn was absolutely enormous. It was layered with dozens of enormous many-mile wide docking stations which each had enough room for a small fleet on its own. Even now there were thousands of ships coming and going at any moment, looking akin to a beehive in some respects.
Screens along the glass dome identified the different fleets or individual ships in turn, which showed Riven there were at least thirty two different factions present in front of him - with many private corporations from within the Blood Moon Requiem itself. The makes and models ranged from large energy bubbles with solid cores, to insectoid carapaces and living vessels, to hulking steel creations remnant of what he remembered viewing on Battlestar Galactica as a kid.
“Azag Hive Cluster?” Riven asked, pointing to the screen that identified one of the insectoid fleets incoming from the warp gate. “I killed a bunch of those fuckers back on Panu.”
“I remember.” Viku chuckled with a shake of his head. "Some of your feats are displayed on your equivalent of television here. That was one of them. You're quite powerful for an F-grade mage, a prodigy even."
“Is the requiem allied to the hive clusters?”
“There are numerous hive clusters, so yes and no. Some of them yes, others no. Politics with that race are always complicated, it’s a long story. This particular hive cluster is called The Blue Venom Azag Hive Cluster, while the one invading your integrating planet isn’t even in this sector of space and is called The Black Sky Azag Hive Cluster.”
The planet below was dark in nature, slightly larger than Earth had been, orbiting a white dwarf star with swirling clouds of black and green in the atmosphere. The clouds only allowed brief glimpses of the continents below, which was probably a good thing considering vampires ruled the planet now. Even the sarak seemed more or less acquainted with the dark, given they were natives of this place.
Then lastly, with the backdrop of the nebula present to the left of where he now floated on House Wraithtide’s flagship, was the warp gate.
The entire thing was likely created from either some kind of magic, or was just using some very magic-dense materials along the outer perimeter where it glowed with blue light. It was shaped into a ring, being many miles across in diameter, with a swirling orb of condensed energy in the center. The ring activated every ten or fifteen minutes to either bring a merchant fleet here, or let a merchant fleet leave back to wherever it was they came from. When the warp gate activated, the central ball of energy would expand and then connect to the outer perimeter of the ring before twisting in the center like a whirlpool and blowing a hole in the side of space to create a wormhole.
It was truly fascinating to watch.
After a time, General Viku cleared his throat and looked left to where Riven was still gazing out the side of the carrier. “I had hoped we could do more to help you back on Panu, but unfortunately the system is rather stingy about what we can send. Even this takes an enormous tax for every attempt at communication, and Elysium only barely allows this method. I just wanted to apologize that we haven’t done more.”
“No need to apologize.” Riven said with a smile. He glanced over to Kathrine, and then back to the general - turning his body around with hand clasped behind his back. “Let’s get down to business shall we? Tell me about these rebellions, and what we can do to fix them.”
“Fixing them will take a matter of days. Rest assured. I am just concerned about recurring problems due to the source.” Viku replied with a frown. “This in large part is happening due to certain slaves being given weapons and magical items that can cause a lot of mayhem, mostly being sourced from your own family’s vaults. As I am sure you’re already aware, this in large part is due to disgruntled family members. Firstly because you’re taking what they see as ‘rightfully theirs’, which in itself is ridiculous. Secondly because they don’t like the changes you’ve made by giving them certain luxuries that most vampires would deep over the top.”
“Do you think my ideas are over the top, general?”
Viku shrugged. “It doesn’t bother me one way or the other.”
“I see.” Riven turned back to watch another incoming fleet flash through the portal. “I would have thought the sarak would appreciate my efforts, rather than try to kill and destroy civilians shortly afterwards.”
“It is likely they don’t even know it was you who did that. Nor do most of them know the very nobles who wish to keep them down are plotting against you. They have a very limited scope of knowledge because they don’t have much access to news networks, information hubs, or the cortex.”
“Would opening those channels of information up be a problem? Would I be able to send a message to the entire planet in an address?”
The general hesitated. “Not at all, but gathering the news networks and transporting the proper communication arrays that are specific to this planet would take some time. Perhaps a week.”
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Riven nodded. “Then the first step is to do that. I’d also like my entire extended family to be here, please. I’ll be addressing them separately.”
“All of them?” Viku asked curiously.
“All of them. And make sure you have your strongest soldiers on board as an escort. In the meantime, I want you to quell the uprising with as little bloodshed as possible.”
General Viku’s grin widened. “That can and will be arranged, my prince.”
“Good. Now let’s talk specifics on what I intend to do, and what I need to know. Then I’ll see you in a week’s time when all the necessary items are gathered, and we can figure out just how to go about fixing this whole mess to stop it from ever happening again.”
***
The trip to Luteski was an enlightening one, and it lit a fire under his ass to get a move on all the things he’d been neglecting. To get his life together. Even now there were still talks at his manor going on between Allie and some of the independent factions surrounding the Thane Necropolis on either side of the portal - but he didn’t intend to interfere with those talks unless necessary. He simply had too much on his plate to do otherwise, and Allie enjoyed politics more than he did.
Instead, Riven first visited a couple places around the Blood Moon Requiem’s trading compound with Kathrine. First stop was to meet Instructor Pladius - a well known scholar and one of Kathrine’s teacher. He’d been the same mage to set up the communication array General Viku had sent them, and was thrilled to finally be told his services would be needed.
“I hear you tutored Kathrine growing up.” Riven said while shaking the older man’s hand. “I look forward to taking your lessons too, and I apologize for any offense I gave by not attending sooner. I’ve just had a lot on my plate, and it’s been rough trying to fit it all in - but after the trip back to my parent’s planet, I realized there’s a lot that needs to be learned.”
The old man bowed enthusiastically with a wide smile, displaying his fangs. “Of course young prince! I do not take offense at all, an am very excited to begin our lessons in earnest! When can I expect you to be here?”
Kathrine looked on from the sidelines with both amusement and eager approval, before interrupting her instructor with a quick raise of her hand. “Do not push the issue Platius, I know you’re excited but we can hardly expect him to keep a thorough schedule. He’ll be here as much as he can be - though he did say he’d try attending his first lesson this week.”
That appeared to be more than enough for the old man, who started talking about various topics concerning politics, magical theory, economics and history lessons that they could talk about when Riven got back.
Next stop were the other nobles who’d come to try and get acquainted with the heirs to the Wraithtide Household. Duke Blemrich, the taller man who always had his hair in a black ponytail, was quite surprised and relieved to see Riven intentionally go out of his way to talk and was just happy to hear Riven would be making an attempt to get to know them better over the course of coming weeks. Lord Carsion, the shorter blonde man with a sharp nose, was eager to talk trade agreements concerning Luteski - which he explained was a very exclusive arena to trade in and one his family would pay handsomely for to achieve access. Lady Muren, the rather pretty vampiric lady of the court whose family had sent her here to try and woo him - did very little other than attempt to get Kathrine to leave so they could talk privately.
Of the three nobles, Lady Muren was the one Riven liked least. But he would not make hasty judgements just yet, and told them all he’d be back to talk more in detail soon.
Afterwards came the final stop at the compound: an instructor. Kathrine told him the name of this instructor was Captain Rusof, a very capable young man a little older than they were who had excelled at the academies and on the battlefield back home. He was level 90 and still in F-grade just like Riven was, which was the level cap for this tier of trading hub. Regardless of Riven having surpassed him in combat level, Kathrine assured him that Captain Rusof was skilled in both martial combat and magical combat - and that she suggested he give a shot at sparring with the man.
To this end Riven was led into a large magically reinforced padoga on the compound grounds where numerous soldiers were engaged in training exercises. Many of them bowed and moved out of the way respectfully when seeing Riven, but many didn’t realize he’d even appeared and continued to clash in brilliant displays of battle that left Riven in awe. Despite his own power levels to be much higher than any of theirs simply in terms of brute force, each of these soldiers was leagues beyond him in terms of skill - and it was very apparent very fast.
He continued to observe them for a few minutes, not interrupting the ongoing fights in the large center stages and very much envying the way they moved their bodies to adjust to attacks. Still, Riven was not by any means unable to stand out and drew quite a bit of attention to the point that even these fights for the most part calmed down with the soldiers looking his way.
It was then that this ‘Captain Rusof’ made himself known.
“Prince Riven Wraithtide, 37th in line for the Vampiric Throne, I welcome you to our training hall.”
The man who said this pushed through the crowd of gathered soldiers to stand before the prince and princess duo, bowing low to each of them - then correcting himself and even bowing low to Athela before standing up straight.
This gained him a lot of brownie points in Riven’s book, because Athela seemed absolutely pleased that she’d not been ignored like the nobles had been apt to do.
The vampire captain was shirtless, well built, handsome, and wore his hair in the style of a short mohawk. He was slightly taller than Riven was and had a very confident posture to him, while looking expectantly forward. “I must admit, I was unsure of whether or not you’d actually come. I am pleased to see that you have. What is it that I can do for you today?”
Riven let on a slow smile, then with a thought - his armor, Messenger, removed itself. Riven summoned Jackal from his spatial sack and gestured for the captain to follow, heading towards the ring. “I’ve been told by Kathrine that you’re pretty good. I wanted to see that for myself. Would you mind sparring with me? I know that I have a level advantage and that you’re held back by the cap requirements on being here, but I won’t use any offensive magical attacks. What do you say?”
The captain’s eyebrows rose, but he followed through the crowd of soldiers regardless. “You want to spar in front of everyone here?”
“Is that a problem?” Riven asked curiously, pausing to look back over his shoulder.
“No… Not necessarily.” Captain Rusof shrugged with a grin, summoning a well decorated spear to match Riven’s own spear-staff. “But you’re going to get your ass kicked. I don’t want to hurt your fragile royal ego too much by doing that in front of a crowd.”
Riven sputtered a laugh, now widely grinning as the soldiers around him gasped, shook their heads, or backed away. It was very apparent they hadn’t expected this kind of disrespect, or what they considered disrespect, though Riven very much enjoyed the change of tone. “Is that so? I look forward to finding out just how much your words hold true my friend. Come on, let’s see what you’ve got and just what you have to teach me with.”