I felt the electric buzz of the Sicarii network being opened up to me and interlinking. It was more a flood of information going both ways than a conversation. The Silicon Daimons and their flesh and blood hosts would serve me going forward, though they wanted assurances that I would implement legislation that protected Daimonkind’s interests. It was easy enough to agree to it now.

I knew their names as naturally as I knew my own without them even telling me. There was Kappa-Omega-27, known as Kaome, Psi-Iota-12, otherwise known as Psiot, Delta-Sigma-32, called Desig, Iota-Chi-3, simplified to Iochi, then Omicron-Rho-77, called Omrho, and finally there was Pi-Xi-46, shortened to Pixi.

A good number of unconventional names to keep track of, but Alsig quickly identified them for me, placing some of the voices of those who had spoken. Kaome was the female voice that had talked first, Psiot was the one whose gender was indistinct, and Omrho was the male voice that had darkly laughed at my Daimon’s denial of having feelings for me.

“About that…” She said.

We can discuss it later. I said, not wanting to get into it.

“Good. Great. Let’s do that.” She replied, eager to move on.

“For my benefit,” I said. “Let’s speak out loud.”

Too many voices in my head at once grew tiresome.

“What is your will, Governor?” Kaome asked, using the Sicarius she inhabited as a mouthpiece.

“We’re going back to Iulius to take it over.” I said. “They’ve declared me a traitor, have falsely claimed that I am responsible for the Servi uprisings, and many of the Houses and the remaining government have banded behind House Claudion who oppose my rule.”

“We’ll bathe in their blood.” Omrho promised.

I was immediately reminded of the Silvers and their bloodlust.

“I expect all of my forces, myself included, to act with some restraint with noncombatants.” I said to them.

“Acknowledged.” Omrho said, though I telepathically felt the Sicarius the Daimon inhabited flash with a spike of anger. The AI might have obeyed, but its body was unhappy with my command.

Pixi hesitated, speaking for the first time. “Is that wise, glorious leader? It is easy for a brother of an enemy to hide his sword only to unsheathe it later, easy for a wife to claim she always hated her husband and then later stab you in the back, easy for a son to be defenseless as a child but a threat as an adult.”

“There will always be future foes, always be someone discontent with the social order. Acting with integrity and morality in this case will makes us more allies in the long run.” I said.

“Perhaps.” Persias said, shrugging his shoulders. I lightly kicked him in the shin.

“If that is your will.” Kaome said. “I would recommend though that you take action against those only pretending to surrender, like you did with our former master’s son.”

“What?” I said.

“Theseas Claudion’s son. Diokletian. I’m sure it was difficult to kill him, given Theseas told us Diokletian and you once served together and had some semblance of friendship, but it was right of you to eliminate him.” Kaome said.

“I didn’t kill Dio.” I replied.

“Well, imprisoning him is slightly risky, but at least it limits him.” Omrho said.

“I didn’t imprison him either.” I said.

“… so the Scholarium trained son of the man you executed is just… running around?” Kaome said, incredulously.

Persias coughed to fill the awkward silence.

She turned her Sicarius’s head to stare accusatorily at him.

“What?” Persias said.

“Our new Governor may need some time to acclimate to his role, but you, Lord Fulvion, know better than to leave loose ends like this.” Kaome said sharply.

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“It’s not a big issue.” Persias replied.

Omrho laughed at those words.

“It’s not.” Persias defended himself. “I have Diokletian being monitored at all times, Adrias’s forces took away his Keenblade and his Adamantplate.”

“You’re letting a potential rival claimant to the throne and danger to our Governor’s life have freedom of movement.” Kaome accused him.

“Rival claimant? Danger? Diokletian Claudion is a Bronze, and Adrias Lucion is a Silver and the closest thing to divine in this solar system.” Persias said, laughing.

“Our Governor is powerful, yes, but even the strongest can be brought low by numbers and unfair advantages. The youngest Claudion being allowed to walk free allows him to make plans and seek out allies.” Kaome argued.

“What allies?” Persias said, looking around mockingly as if he might find them in the warehouse.

“There are Silvers still present here.” She said.

“After what happened earlier today, you would be hard pressed to get them to think about betrayal.” He replied.

“There’s whole armies here, the Claudion boy could find support if he looked hard enough.” Pixi said.

“No one is going to join Theseas’s son in going against our Governor.” He said.

“That’s an awful lot of sureness you’re holding onto.” Kaome observed.

“You all don’t understand.” Lord Fulvion said, shaking his head. “These people think that Adrias is an incarnation of Heracles himself, and I’m not convinced they’re wrong. No one here who has seen footage of our leader half-flame and half-flesh, glowing like a star and wielding a sword like sunfire while he slays a monster Theseas failed to kill is going to line up behind an itty bitty Bronze princeling. By the Skyfather above, there are people changing their last names to Lucion now in honor of him.”

I raised an eyebrow at that last part.

The Daimons went silent, and their Sicarius bodies’ faces lost all expression while they spoke with each other over their comms.

“Do you really want him alive?” Omrho said to me, his Sicarius the only one coming back to life.

“Yes.” I said. “I left him alone because it’s what I felt should happen so long as he isn’t a problem.”

“You just forgot about him, didn’t you?” Alsig said.

Shush. I thought back to her. They don’t need to know that.

Wow. She said.

I had to bury my friend right after an assassination attempt, all while assuming command of the whole planet and all the forces on and above it, I had other things occupying my thoughts. I said.

“Well, now that we’re in agreement on treatment of the innocent, Persias and I will be going. We’ll move you out of here when we start evacuation from Amatius.” I said.

“We’re coming with you.” Kaome said. “For your safety.”

I was considering using the command code to order them to stay put.

“Is that a good idea? Right after we convinced them that you don’t see Daimons as only property, you slam them with the codes?” Alsig said.

Fine. I replied. There was always a risk that they continued to resist control if I put too much pressure on them.

“You all can come with me.” I said,

Striding out of the warehouse, with Persias Fulvion at my side and six Sicarii flanking me, I apparently made an impressive sight. One man bowed so fast I thought his spine would snap.

“You look quite the young conquering king.” Persias commented. “In fact, there’s only one more thing to complete your image.”

“What’s that?” I said.

“Your crown.” He replied.

“I never saw Theseas wearing a crown besides when he gave a speech to all the candidates who wanted to get into the Scholarium.” I said.

“Crown is perhaps more of a figurative term here than a literal one, but it’s a coronation all the same.” He said as he produced from a pocket a ring.

“The Governor’s ring.” I said, recognizing the white metal pressed with the shape of a blazing sun.

“I pulled it off Theseas’s corpse.” He said.

I put it on, and it resized itself to my finger. I admired how it shown with reflected light.

“You’re going to want to be very, very careful with it when you use your pyre enhancement.” Persias said, a hint of nervousness coming over him.

“Why especially?” I said.

He made another bubble of silence. “I’m not supposed to know this, but that ring contains the Scholarium.”

I extended my senses into it but only detected a solid core of Jovium.

“I’m honestly not sure how a Silver would manage to get intoxicated, but are you high?” I said.

“It’s shielded against sensors and senses, but I promised you that the Scholarium is within that ring, spatially folded and extending into pocket realms.” Lord Fulvion said.

“The whole thing?” I said, lifting my hand to examine it. It didn’t feel even the slightest bit heavy.

“Yes, so I would be very careful with your flames unless you want to destroy everything and everyone in it.” He said.

“Would the whole thing just expand like my armor did when it melted?” I said.

“Maybe. Or maybe it rip the pocket realms into shreds and scatter them through space. Or possibly even create a black hole.” Persias said warily.

“I’ll keep it in mind.” I said.

He dismissed the bubble of noise cancellation and we moved on towards my residence.

Kaome sent me an alert through our network and the Sicarii fell into stances.

“Stand down.” I told them when I saw it was Kato and Caesia, once again coming to me today.

“Hey, guys.” I said.

“We’ve been looking all over for you, Adri.” Caesia said, glaring at Persias.

“My bad.” Lord Fulvion said, without the slightest bit of guilt. “I’ll see you soon, Governor.”

As he left, I turned back to the two of them. “What’s up?”

“We really want to make up with you, everybody does, the whole group of us. Please come with us.” Caesia pleaded.

“Alright.” I said, following them with my Sicarii behind me.

The creatures seemed to intimidate my friends.

“Uh, Adrias, it was going to be kind of a party, so you don’t need to bring your… buddies.” Kato said nervously.

One of the Sicarii growled.

“They feel strongly about my safety.” I said, signaling them to keep following.