Chapter 209

Lord Justo Barimont was a handsome man, even for a vampire, and he let that fact be known as he swaggered around the compound giving orders to the various soldiers or maids while two personal thralls from the heartlands waved large white fans to cool him off. His eyes were bright crimson as all purebloods were, and his platinum-trimmed robes had the symbol of a green flame embroidered on his chest to symbolize the house he hailed from.

“This place truly is a drag, isn’t it Puncie?” Lord Barimont muttered under his breath to one of the two thrall women nearby, sipping on some wine in a crystal goblet while gazing over all of the cattle that were just so flippantly let loose to run about this dreadful market place. He glanced Kathrine’s direction across from him on the balcony where she sat rigid and stiff in her chair, as beautiful as ever, and frowned at her. “Have you not taught these lost royals about proper etiquette concerning slaves? These cattle should be locked up at all times when not accompanied by one of our kin. It is disgraceful, I must say. Truly disgusting. Like having cockroaches in your home, only this isn’t one or two - but it is a swarm of cockroaches. Diseased, ugly, smelly cockroaches.”

He gestured with a grimace at the roiling crowds of bartering orcs, humans, undead and more below him, his nose tilted up in a look of absolute disdain. “You have been failing your duties, obviously, princess. I’ll have to speak to my fiance about changing things. Immediately.”

Kathrine’s face flushed red with anger, and it was all she could do to not reach across the small glass table between them to strike the man. Instead, she took in a deep breath when her instructor - Pladius - put a hand on her shoulder to calm her down. “Truly. I wonder what your wife-to-be will think of it when you start telling her what to do, as you say you will.”

Lord Barimont snorted a laugh, then grabbed one of the thralls fanning him and yanked her down to face level. Waiting for the young woman to expose her neck and brushing away a hanging diamond earring, the young lord sank his fangs into her neck and began to suck. After having had his fill after a few grimaces and winces from the woman, he pushed her off and shoved her back. “You speak as if Allie has a choice in the matter. Let me assure you Kathrine, she does not. I even came prepared.”

Kathrine snorted right back, glancing at the personal guards he’d brought with him. They were soldiers bearing the green flame of House Barimont on their plate armor in a similar fashion that the elites of the Blood Moon Requiem already stationed here did so with the blood moon emblem, only the elites already here were sworn to the imperial throne while Barimont’s men were personally contracted. Then she looked to the three warding rings on his fingers and the large amulet on his chest.

“If you speak of your soldiers and your little trinkets that you managed to pay ungodly amounts of tax to bring to this F-grade world, that’s quite amusing.” Kathrine said with a raised eyebrow, crossing her legs and taking a smoking pipe to puff on it. “If you’re already worried about an attack from your fiancé even before having met her, it does not bode well for your future interactions. You’ll need to do more than just survive if you wish to win her heart.”

“I do not need to win her heart.” Lord Barimont snapped back with a glare. “I bought her hand in marriage, she is mine.”

“She is a high princess.” Kathrine retorted. “Unlike me as lesser nobility, you cannot just talk to her however you wish. The queen will have your head. Allie is her favorite granddaughter's daughter.”

“The queen is not the only one with power in our empire, need I remind you. There are seven elders and seven great houses - the Queen is just one of them.” Lord Barimont replied with a wave of his hand, looking up to the sky when gathering thunderclouds clapped with lightning over the mountains a few miles off. “I have the backing of one of the other elders.”

Kathrine raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Truly? I find that a newly raised house like yours having such support is unlikely at best. Even if that were the case, what’s your plan? You’re just going to tell her of your wedding and leave? What is your purpose here?”

The young lord slowly turned his head to look at her, evaluating her for some time. “What else would I be here for? The High Queen and council want children. I intend to give them one. We will consecrate our marriage today.”

Kathrine’s fists tightened in anger. “You could not have given her some time to digest the news before just throwing yourself on her?”

“No. Unlike you, princess, I have a house to maintain.” Lord Barimont said with a shake of his head and a grin. “I am not of noble birth, but I am a pureblood. My family made our fortunes off the dealings of war, not taxation. If I wish to remain in the highest realms of the political field I must make sure that my blood is intertwined with the royals, so my parents have deemed it necessary that I start now. Soon I will be the father of a new princess, one linked directly to the throne just like you - but with a higher place in the pecking order. That, in turn, will make me even better than you. I will be of higher rank.”

Kathrine blinked, then immediately began to laugh - in turn causing Barimont to frown. “Lord Barimont! You are quite delusional, aren’t you?”

Kathrine brought up a dainty hand to her mouth and giggled to antagonize the man across from her. “I will be married to Allie's brother, who is the technical heir of House Wraithtide. Not only that, but I am already a princess and my standing will only go higher after the betrothal is made public. In what possible way would you be better than me?”

Lord Barimont, for all his blustering, had completely forgotten about Riven. His face turned a shade of purple-red, and his grip cracked the wood on the chair he sat in. “We will see whether or not your young prince even survives this integration, princess. We will certainly see.”

The mood immediately grew cold.

“Careful how you say that, lordling.” The princess stated with an immediately venomous hiss to her words. “Should that be interpreted as a threat, I will have you and your entire house beheaded before the day is over in the name of the queen. Do I make myself clear?”

Captain Rusof, head of the military and the man who trained the elites here at the commune, immediately put his hand on his blade. His black and red armor shimmered with a flash of distant lightning, and his red eyes bore holes into the lordling and his personal house escort on the other side of the balcony. He’d been standing idly by until then, but upon the announcement that Kathrine saw this off handed comment as a possible threat - he and the three soldiers beside him made it abundantly clear just where he stood on the matter of decapitating people who’d become out of line.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

The guards Lord Barimont had brought also shifted to their own weapons, gazes narrowed as Barimont tried to keep his composure under control - though there was certainly a mixed bag of emotions underneath that forced stoic gaze he evaluated Kathrine with. “It appears you have read my words incorrectly, princess. I would never dream of intentionally harming a prince of the main bloodline in any way, ever. Please call off your dogs.”

There was a pause, and Kathrine held up her hand - causing Captain Rusof and the three other elites of the Blood Moon Requiem’s lower-leveled soldiers to stand down. The tension in Lord Barimont’s face eased, as did the postures of the guards and thralls who accompanied him.

The silence lasted for another five minutes, no words spoken between anyone there while both Princess Kathrine and Lord Justo Barimont, while they continued to watch out over the commune grounds.

“When can I expect her? I am growing bored of this dreadful place.” Lord Barimont eventually said, smoothing back his already perfect dark hair. “Please send word to Princess Allie Wraithtide once more. I do not like to be kept waiting and these system rules regarding how far I can travel outside a commune are downright infuriating.”

“I have already sent the message three times.” Kathrine growled under her breath. “I believe she’s with someone at the moment and cannot be bothered, according to the workers at her manor.”

“With someone?” Barimont said, eyebrows furrowing.”

Kathrine’s expression became smug. “Yes. With that crippled cattle boy she likes. I believe she planned on taking his virginity today. But don’t tell anyone, it’s supposed to be a talk between just us girls.”

Lord Justo Barimont’s jaw went rigid, and a second later the wooden arm on his chair shattered underneath his clenching grip. “Disgusting. I will have words with her about this. My future wife will not be allowed to sleep with cattle, cripples, or anyone for that matter - except me. And I will show her what a real man is like after I deal with that insolent boy who dared to lay his hands on her. Puncie, get the collar.”

Kathrine took another puff of her pipe, confused when the thrall woman handed over a thin, leather-made collar with runes inscribed into the surface. She could immediately tell that these runes were the real deal, a powerful set of threaded suppression bindings. “And what exactly is that?”

Barimont slammed it onto the glass table between them. “You’ll see for yourself when Allie Wraithtide arrives in person. After all, it was made for her by Elder Thune himself.”

***

Allie stopped her approach in the shadow of a two-story pub on the outskirts of the trade district near the Elysium Altar. High above her the halo of green flames encircled a dark spire, at the base of which were thousands of people buying and selling things directly with the system store. They'd place their hands on the spire's base, select what they wanted to take or sell, and exchange Elysium coins - before more often than not leaving with goods to carry away. The two trading communes, a fortress of the Blood Moon Requiem - which was closed off to the public, and another being Negrada’s commune in the form of a huge red tent which actively supported trade from anyone that walked in - were seen at their respective stations. Outside of the altar’s perimeter were the buildings she now found herself hiding between, where dozens of restaurants, trading halls, auction houses and crafting workshops were bounding with business.

“Master…” The hiss of her newest minion Fimrindle called to her from the shadows. “I bring news.”

Allie stoically stared towards the Blood Moon Requiem’s compound. “Does Riven’s story check out?”

She blinked, and the iron scarecrow was suddenly right beside her with a motion that she hadn’t even seen - staring at her with X’s carved into its face for eyes. In one hand it held a lantern, and in the other - a scythe. Even despite it being her minion now, Fimrindle was certainly off putting due to how and when it so abruptly moved.

“It does. Your designated fiancé is waiting for you inside, and from the queen’s perspective this is just a formality to try and win you over for the courtship - but it appears your future husband is more eager to begin than expected.” Firmindle said with a voice that sounded like wind being blown through a pipe. “They do not know you know. However, there are more findings that are not within Riven’s account of his talk with the High Queen.”

Allie’s eyebrows furrowed and she turned to look at the creature next to her. “How so?”

“It appears the queen also warned this young lord about the potential for a volatile reaction on your end. There are also more players on the board. An elder of the clan, likely from the council of elders the queen spoke of. His name is Elder Thune, and Lord Justo Barimont speaks of him as a backer for reasons that I cannot understand due to a lack of background information. They created an item of some kind for you, a collar. I can sense sedation and suppression magic coming off of it.”

Allie’s features immediately grew malicious, and a spark of teal death energy erupted involuntarily from the ground under her feat. “Why would she warn him? Is she playing both sides? Do you know what my supposed fiancé intended to do with the collar?”

“The assumption I have is that he was going to use it to keep you sedated should you become angry. He needs to give you a child. I’m sure you can draw the connections.”

Her jaw became unhinged. Her soul flared as the souls of the dead called for blood. A barrel nearby exploded when her eye twitched, and she began to see red. “Is Riven back yet?”

Fimrindle only barley moved his head back and forth. “No. He is still on the expedition with Deepnest to conquer the dwarves and will be gone for at least a few days by Mara’s estimations.”

…

…

…

“And what if I do not go meet this man? Did you get a sense of what would happen?”

Fimrindle tilted his head slightly, shifting left when a pair of squabbling merchants passed the alleyway by. “If you do not comply within a reasonable time, and if the conversations I overheard are accurate, it is likely you will be taken into the heartlands against your will at the end of this integration to be ‘trained properly’ in accordance to behaviors suiting a princess of the Requiem. Then they would enslave the locals of this world and take them to sell on the galactic slave markets as labor and cattle. The world would be torched when they leave. This is also assuming that Riven would attempt to help you, disregarding the laws of the Requiem, and thus making him unable to claim sanctuary for this planet should he go against the will of the council.”

“And what of Lahn if I cooperate?”

“I do not know. My assumption is that he will likely be killed should you resist, but there’s a possibility he’ll be killed either way.”

…

…

…

“I see. I suppose it is time to meet this fiancé of mine then.”

“Do you wish to wait for Riven in case he does not want to negotiate?”

Allie shook her head. “No. This is something I need to do on my own.”

***

Allie wore her usual outfit while approaching the large front gate of the Requiem’s trading commune fortress. Her form fitting soul-woven bone armor, along with the skull mask she usually wore, were all on and her wand was hooked to her belt. Her heart pounded nervously in her chest, and the doors started to creak open.

She didn’t have to knock as they’d already been expecting her, and mere moments later she found herself face to face with the man she could assume was her betrothed only a couple yards off. He was disgustingly handsome, well muscled and having a strong jawline, with an obviously fake smile on his face. He had bright red eyes and dark swooped-back hair, and wore an emblem of green flames on platinum-trimmed robes. Standing beside him was Kathrine who had taken on an unfamiliar look of discomfort, wearing her usual black dress that emphasized her curves, and behind the two nobles were armored vampire guards and thrall or vampire servants standing in rows.

Kathrine stepped forward with a slight nod. “Princess Allie Wraithtide, I am glad to see you again. We have much to discuss. Please, follow me.”