Honestly, I’m caught off guard a bit. I mean who wouldn’t be? Here I am stressing about the future of the Black Cove City, and all of a sudden someone shows up in my office and then scolds me.
I haven’t been scolded like that since my mother.
What do I even say now? Hi?
“Hello, my name is Raizen. It is nice to meet you. I’m glad you brough up being a Patriarch, I have no idea what that means.”
“Hm, decent. You will call me Elder Zal. You will be taught; in fact, your lessons have already begun. Your spear. It should never leave your presence. Never. You were promised a spear. Here.”
Right after she said that a beautiful silvery spear simply appeared on my desk. From the shaft to the blade, it seemed to be made out of a pristine almost blue-like silver material. It was stunning. I reached out to grab it and it was cold to the touch. The shaft itself was about 8 feet in length, and the blade was likely another foot by itself. It was perfect.
I stood up and gave it a light swing.
Of course, nothing happened since it was just a light swing, but I didn’t need to do anything else to tell.
This spear can withstand my power.
A wry grin somehow made it to my face.
“Hm, better. Now come with me.”
I didn’t get a chance to say yes or no before I found myself standing in what looked to be a big room. Is this a training room? Both the floor and the walls were made out of this tan like material. It felt a little bouncy beneath my feet.
“You are onboard my ship. Some of the things we discuss cannot be heard by others, and there are few people you need to meet. Firstly, to understand what a Patriarch is, you first need to understand who you are, and how you came to be.
“Infernals can be born in one of two ways. A male and a female get together and make a child. As long as one of them or both of them are Infernals, the child always be 100% Infernal. There a very few other races that can compete with our genes, and even in those cases it is highly unlikely that their genes would overpower ours. In that situation it is more likely a child simply would not be conceived.
“That is the normal and most common occurrence. The other way is how you came into being. You were born of the Eternal Flame. To understand what that means in its entirety you need to travel back to our home and seek answers yourselves. All you need to know is that even if you had a mother and father on this planet, you were born of the Eternal Flame. You are bound to it, and have the ability to speak to it, to seek aid from it, and most importantly, you can pass it on to others.
“Infernals born through the ‘normal’ method, are not born with the ability to use the Eternal Flame. We all share the same traits, with the natural strength of our bodies, or heightened recovery and other things you will learn later, the Eternal Flame is not one of them.
“Only Infernals born of the Eternal Flame are born with it. Despite that, all Infernals can come to wield it, if a Patriarch/Matriarch accepts them into their Clans. You are able to give another Infernal the power of the Eternal Flame, at the cost that the Infernal will bound to you for life. They would serve you as your arms and legs and never be able to betray you, of course, you never be able to betray them as well, nor would you ever be able to take the power of the flame away from them.
“It is truly a lifelong relationship, and not one to be taken lightly. It is the wish of every Infernal to be accepted into a clan and be blessed with the Eternal Flame. You are a new Patriarch; you have no members in your clan. Your first Conflagration has yet to be formed. And that makes you a hot commodity. But only among the junior members of our race. You are far too weak for some of the older, stronger Infernals. And it is far too soon for you journey to our home Planet, not until you have fully established your Seat of Power here.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“For now, there are two of those juniors I mentioned that have traveled here with me, in an effort to build a relationship with you. As a Patriarch you need a force. These two would like to be the start of that force. You can reject them entirely, but I recommend giving them a chance to serve you for a time and you can decide their futures later.
“Frian and Lirian come.”
The only exit I saw in this room slid open as two young boys calmly walked in. They look like twins. Both of them had reddish brown hair, and caramel-like skin. They had solid builds and looked to be about 5’5 in height.
They walked up past Elder Zal and stopped a few feet in front of me and bowed.
“We greet the Eternal Flame.”
I see this is going to be a common thing. I really have no idea what I’m supposed to say to that and just gave a light grunt with a nod in return. Though their greeting is not what I focused on. Instead, it was the feeling they gave off. They kind of feel like the Qi Refinement Hobgoblin I fought. Are they in the Qi Refinement realm?
That would be a little embarrassing.
“So, you can feel it a bit. They are both at the Peak of Qi Refinement. At 13 years old. You have some catching up to do. There will be time for that. For now, meet Frian and Lirian, Their parents arranged for them to have this opportunity to be the first pillars of your future Clan. Will you accept them?”
There’s been a lot thrown at me here and I don’t understand some of it, but a pressing question I have right now is a Clan. Why does she think I’m going to start a Clan? I get that I have the ability to give the flames to other Infernals, but why should I? I just don’t understand it.
“Before I answer that. Why should I be starting a Clan? Why is it assumed that I would do so?”
“That is a fair question. Listen carefully. This is something you would learn more about once you make a trip home, but Infernals serve a purpose. Where there is chaos, there must be order, where there is death, there must be life, to everything there is there must be balance. There are two things that you will encounter no matter what you do in life simply because you are an Infernal.
“One of them can be summarized as conflict. People for one reason or another will seek conflict with you on both small and large scales. Not just petty things like an idiot upset your better at something, but true conflict. For one reason or another it will seek you out. It will be natural, and seemingly unavoidable, but it is because you are an Infernal. We are the harbingers of war and change. Our fires burn Eternally, and our Spears remain Swift. We do not necessarily seek out wars, but once it finds us, we welcome it, thrive in it, enjoy it and decimate our enemies until not even their ash remains.
“We go where we please, we fight where we please, we do as we please. We are Infernals, and nothing can ever quench our flames. And we will NEVER bow our heads to anyone! Do you understand.”
I was getting a bit fired up listening to her and I barely managed to suppress a grin from making its way onto my face and simply giving her a nod.
“Good. Now, the next thing. Demons. Demons exist, and they outnumber every other race in the world. They are vile things, and there are very few things in the world that can kill a demon, and even if one managed to kill one, they would simply come back after some time has passed. Which is why most aim to seal them rather than to kill. Except for us. Eternal Flames are the only thing that grant a demon true death.
“I am not telling you to go be a demon hunter, nor am I telling you that your life’s purpose is to protect others from demons. You are an Infernal, do what you want. But what I will say is that demons will eventually come find you. They come find you to negotiate your bottom line so that they move freely within your domain, or they might come to kill you. At the end of the day, it all returns to the first point. Conflict. It will find you.
“Now to clarify, this does not mean you will have to fight wars everyday for the rest of your life, unless you choose to do that, what it means is that things will happen naturally at certain points of your life. Maybe you will enjoy facing such troubles on your own, or perhaps it would be nice to have forces that can handle certain things before it reaches your doorstep while you go do whatever it is you want to do.
“Again, the decision is yours. Infernals do what they want. Of course, that mainly applies to Patriarchs and Matriarchs such as yourself. If Frian and Lirian join your Clan, they will of course be subject to your orders.
“Do you understand now?”
“I believe I do.”
“Good, then do you accept?”
I understood her points now, and again, a lot to digest, but based on everything she’s said, there’s no harm in having them around for a bit. This doesn’t mean I have to give them my flame or whatever it is she said, this will just be like a long interview. Yep, let’s go with that.
“I accept.”