The six Silvers, lords and ladies of unimaginable physical and political power, knelt before me and bent their proud heads.”

“We offer our swords, sorcery and wealth to your cause, Governor.” One of them, a man, said.

“Your names?” I asked.

“Akestes Surion,” the man who had offered fealty for all of them said.

“Moralia Cheravion,” the woman next to him said.

“Cordelia Obrallion,” another added.

“Akheron Thorion.” Said the man after Cordelia.

“Kelaena Kerberion.” Said the third and final female Imperator.

“And I’m Rikas Horation.” The last man finished.

“I accept your fealty and service.” I said. “Rise.”

“Of course, we are taking a significant risk supporting you. Amatias and most of the forces on it may be yours, but the whole of Apollo system and Iulius is gathering itself to destroy you and all who bear your banner.” Rikas said. “One might think that a significant risk deserves a significant reward, if you don’t mind my saying so, Lord Governor.”

I saw greed and hunger in their eyes, and I was suddenly reminded of ravenous wolves.

“What do you want?” I sighed.

“While we are all of Great Iulian Houses and are all Silver Ranked, we are all unfortunately not as exalted amongst our peers as we deserve, save Fulvion.” Rikas said.

“Those most secure in the established order have fled back to Iulius or had remained there, and have declared for House Claudion. We have the most to gain.” Cordelia said.

“You want to take their places.” I said, seeing their desire as clear as glass.

“We want them dead, their lines ripped out by the root, their supporters and followers broken and scattered to the winds.” Akheron bluntly stated.

“Complete extermination.” Moralia added eagerly, a sharp gleam in her violet and Silver eyes.

“You may not kill noncombatants and children.” I told them firmly.

“My Governor, without a complete reaping of their household and families, our rival Great Houses will only produce future enemies for you to deal with. We must leave not one soul of their bloodlines alive.” Rikas urged me.

“No.” I said.

Rebellious tension rippled through the room and discontent and hints of malice showed on the Silvers’ faces.

“Those are our terms, take it or leave it.” Cordelia said, winding a lock of her white hair around her finger.

“No, I’m not going to allow you to kill those who aren’t guilty of anything beyond being related to one of my enemies.” I said.

“Then we aren’t helping you. Without us and our forces, you can’t win a war against the whole system.” Akestes said.

“Adrias just needs time to come around.” Persias said conciliatorily.

“I’m not going to wait around while our so-called leader looks for his balls and learns how to make a hard decision.” Moralia said.

I was caught between basic morality and necessity. It was impossible. I was losing them.

Something about the word “impossible,” stuck in my train of thought though.

“Gods do the impossible.” Persias had said to me.

“I’m not a god.” I had replied.

“Everyone thinks you are, which is ninety percent of being a god.” He had finished.

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“You will fight for me and you will obey my orders on restraint regarding the innocent.” I commanded them.

“Why?” Cordelia said, rolling her eyes.

Fire ran through my veins and only my will prevented my clothes from catching fire.

“Because I am a god, and I will break you and everything you have built if you defy me.” I said with the booming voice of Heracles, pressing down on them with his majesty. I glowed with golden light and the windows and lights in Persias’s study shattered in sprays of glass. Every time my blazing heart beat in my chest, invisible force rocked them like an earthquake.

“Kneel.” I ordered them, scarlet flames igniting in my hand.

Cordelia, Moralia, Akestes, Akheron, Kelaena all fell to their knees, humbled and terrified. Rikas Horation remained the only standing, defiance in his posture and fury on his face.

“I will not be bullied by cheap tricks!” He declared.

I drove him to the ground with the authority of a god, wrenching Rikas to the floor like he was bearing the weight of a world on his shoulders, his knees punching through the floor.

“You offered me fealty and service before, but that clearly was not meant by your hearts.” I said, walking over to the kneeling Silver Imperators. “So I will give you a reminder of who and what I am, and who and what you are, whenever you question my words.”

I pressed my scarlet flaming hand against their chests, right above their hearts, leaving a seared brand that would never fully heal.

Persias pulled off his fine quality shirt and jacket and knelt before me bare-chested.

I tilted my head in question. “What are you doing, Persias?”

“You don’t expect me to be left out, do you? Besides, I always wanted a tattoo, but the ink would never last for more than a few seconds.” Persias said.

I pressed my blazing hand over his heart and left him forever marked and then I ended the divine fire inside me.

“Children and noncombatants will be spared.” I told them cheerfully in my normal voice.

“Yes, my Governor.” The Silvers said in unison.

After ten seconds, I realized they were waiting for permission to rise.

“You can get up now.” I told them.

When Rikas unwedged his knees and legs from the holes in the wood, I winced.

“Sorry about your floor, Persias.” I said to him.

“Oh, the entertainment value of seeing six patriarchs and matriarchs of Great Houses humbled is more than worth a few holes in a building I’m never going to see again after we leave.” Persias said.

Cordelia glared at him

“If you want, feel free to burn the whole thing down after our meeting is done.” He said, waving a hand.

“What are our main problems preventing us from conquering the planet?” I said.

“There isn’t a good place to land besides our estates and they’ll disable or remove the teleporters on the orbital ring and disable the receivers the instant our forces get close to Iulius.” Akheron. “They won’t let our teleporter pods touch down either.”

Persias poured himself a glass of whiskey and spoke. “If we do land on our estates, which should be secure from being taken by our opposition with our automated defenses and guards, the Claudions and their allies will just station troops all around the estates and barricade paths onward.”

“What about deploying troops on top of the skyscrapers by jumping or hoverpack or parachute? That’s how my strike force had deployed against the Servi’s fortress.” I said.

Cordelia shook her head. “Those mutants didn’t have an air force or ground to air artillery. If we get close enough that most of our soldiers won’t just splatter and are right above enemy territory, they’ll shoot us out of the sky.”

“What if… what if we go beneath?” I said.

“What? We can’t get close to the surface without fighting all the way down.” Rikas said.

“We’re at ground level and in protected land on your Houses’ estates. If we land there and dig deep underneath, we could get an unprotected path to the Governor’s Palace.” I said.

“Mine’s not far from there.” Akheron offered.

“They’ll know when we’re coming, their sensors will pick us up easily when the drills start and a whole army follows behind in their wake.” Moralia said.

“We could cloak those drilling machines and our forces.” Persias offered, sipping his liquor.

“Fulvion, the reason we don’t cloak everything constantly is because it eats up power like a starving dog. None of us have a generator large enough to fuel the number we’d need to cover up our movements.” Rikas said.

“Actually, we have a number of such power cores.” Persias said.

“Where?” I asked.

“Each of our flagships has a core hefty enough to do the job.” He said.

“There’s no way we can rip one out on one of our estates without surveillance picking it up. You practically have to tear the whole ship apart to get it. One of us would have to leave their flagship here.” Rikas argued.

“Indeed.” Persias replied, tilting his glass of whiskey and observing it.

“But who would…” Rikas said. “No!”

“You are the one who defied our divine leader most recently.” Persias said with casual smile.

I met Rikas’s gaze as he stared at me pleadingly.

“Your generator will do, yes.” I said and Rikas wilted.

“Even with cloaking solved, their seismographs and over detectors should register the drills working.” Cordelia said.

“I used a lance pod to board another ship on the way here. In addition to distortion fields, it had matter annihilation. Can we replicate that so that the drills work without disturbing the earth?” I said.

“Same issue as the cloaking,” Akheron said. “If we could easily get it large scale, we’d use it more. Just the one core is not enough to do both the cloaking and annihilation.”

“Excellent, we’ll have two of your flagships torn open for power cores.” I said.

The Silvers looked at me in horror, sputtering.

“But whose ship will it be, Governor?” Moralia said, nervously.

“I don’t care.” I said flatly. “Decide amongst yourselves, I want a decision by sundown. Persias, come with me. I need your help with the Sicarii.”