It was over. The dream had ended. The chapter closed. An era capped off. The wide world of possibility stretched out infinitely. The black scaled dragon with forest green feathers gazing placidly back at Axis Mortimer from the other side of the mirror was a Duke. He had been seeking that accolade, that title, for seven years. From the moment his talons had kissed Imperial earth it had been his singular driving motivation. Obtaining it would mean his ability to come as close to following in Kirin’s footsteps as the Machine would allow. Or at least that’s what he had told himself. And while that noble defiance held a modicum of the truth, he had always known that a deeper, more primal sentiment pushed him to relentlessly seek Duchery attention. Becoming a Duke would entitle him to the chance for retribution, and he had fostered such a festering resentment of the machinations of the internal wheels and cogs of the Empire that the desire to punish its operators under the auspices of their own system had pushed him to ceaselessly chase selection. He had been consumed by the rush of such a mad dash, every action measured by its display of his one track mind. So potent and uncomplicated had been his desire for vengeance that he had ignored and rejected the opportunities for friends, love, camaraderie, respect, family, and a place to belong. Such things had seemed like obstacles and distractions, able to divert him away from the burning passion that kept him alive and moving. All of it, all seven years of isolation and alienation, all for a title that he now felt sick to his stomach to bear before his name.
The blank face of his mirrored self had devolved into a furrowed brow and curled lips at the thought. Duke Axis Mortimer. What an absolute farce. A sham. An honorless trick he had played on himself. He had wanted nothing more than to upend the Imperia Machina from the inside and in his pursuit had somehow managed to forget that the Duchery was as much a sordid part of the Machine as any other. However much he had managed to mitigate it, he was now beholden to it. The future before him was murky, and he no longer had so pure and untarnished a guiding light to steer him through the fog. Axis dragged a sheathed talon down his face, wishing the weight of the last several hours would lessen, if only enough for him to set his mind straight.
He would find a way out of the mess he’d flung himself headlong into. He always had. That’s how Kirin and the other Watchers had trained him. To discipline his thoughts and find the right solution, the right path. But he doubted the Duchery and the other edifices of the Machine would give him the chance for a while longer yet. In the meantime, he would just have to grit and bear the revulsion and disillusionment. Axis flipped the switches on the washroom wall where he stood, cutting off the scouring grit nozzles and sonic emitters that had been cleaning his blood and ooze covered body for over an hour now. A shiver went through his body as his scales dislodged bits of remaining grains and he fluttered his wings to straighten out his feathers before stepping out of the wash tower. He tossed on the loose fitting fleece vest already waiting on the vanity bench and clipped on the accompanying fauld, appreciating the comfort and weight as its soft fibers draped down around his thighs and well past the beginning third of his tail.
He slid open the washroom door, and strolled out into his and Katya’s new temporary living space in the heart of Nieves Tower. Significantly smaller than Charlie’s guest room had been and not nearly as upscale, the room was clearly more of a temporary measure than something meant to be occupied for any real length of time. It was, for one, only a single level with a much lower ceiling than was typical of dragon dwellings. A round table bench big enough for two occupied the center of the room with accompanying seating cushions and a viewjector. The left side hosted two nest cushions, but only one of them looked like it was meant to be there, the second being jammed into the corner, likely hauled in at the last minute from some nearly forgotten storage closet. The right side of the room had a few extra seating cushions and a large walk-in closet that was currently open. The walls were a solid matte gray of the banal variety that would make even the cheeriest dragon lose energy, and while the floor was ostensibly carpeted, it was so old and compressed it may as well have been pavement.
Katya was seated at the table bench, wearing an identical house ensemble as Axis that like everything under the direct purview of Chloe Nieves was made in white trimmed with brilliant red. The two of them had been shown to the apartment by two of Chloe’s charges waiting for them outside the Loft of the Duchery and since giving them the lens key for the exterior door, no one else had come to see them. Axis had immediately made for the washroom, and he had expected to exit to find Katya asleep on one of the nest cushions as she had made a beeline for one of them as soon as the door had shut. “Hey,” she said with a somber edge.
“Not tired?” Axis asked, taking a seat across the table. He knew that had nothing to do with her not sleeping but it felt better than stating the obvious.
“No…” Katya answered anyway. “Couldn’t sleep.”
“Shocker,” Axis said, though his zing lacked the usual bite. Katya nodded in sluggish agreement. She sighed and started to speak three times only to cut herself off. She was plainly frustrated with her inability to find the right words but didn’t make any further attempts, merely tracing invisible lines in the bench wood with a single unsheathed claw. “You’re welcome, thank you, and I’m sorry,” Axis said in rapid succession, not needing to guess the nature of the looming subject hanging over them.
“Same to you,” Katya replied. “I guess we both fucked up each other’s lives pretty royally, huh?”
“That’s putting it mildly,” Axis rolled his eyes. “But for the record, I don’t blame you. The Duchery can take the blame up its ass.”
“Mm…” Katya mumbled before a small hint of her normal musical voice returned, asking, “How… how did you know? About the demon I mean.”
“A chimera smoke monster that’s twenty stories tall’s kinda hard to miss, Truminoff,” Axis said wryly.
“Katya,” she interjected pointedly. “My name is Katya… we aren’t really strangers or simple colleagues anymore, Axis.”
“Katya,” Axis repeated, as if the sound was somewhat alien to his vocal chords. “Katya…” He paused, eyes seeing her almost as a new person entirely. “Well… Katya… it was uh… big,” he finished lamely with a gesture of fanned wings.
“Axis if we’re going to be stuck with each other, we have to learn to be honest with each other,” Katya said with exasperation. “You know what I meant.”
Axis offered a sheepish but acquiescing sigh but didn’t give a second sarcastic quip. She was right if a bit too straightforward about it for Axis’s liking. “I’m an Exodus orphan,” he explained heavily. “So I’ve got the Sense. Pi does too, just not as strongly.”
“How bad?” Katya asked empathetically.
“It’s paralyzing,” Axis confirmed. “Took two years with Dad’s help to uh, get over it.”
“I’m sorry…” she said.
“Oh don’t be,” Axis replied with a shake of his head. “It’s a good tool now. Just kinda brutal when I’m not expecting it.” Katya shrugged her acknowledgement and a mote of curiosity branched into Axis’s head. “Not going after me I get,” he said, “but what’d you do that made it choose the others first?”
“Turn about’s fair play I guess,” Katya tutted at herself. “I’m technically a fire breather. Just didn’t know it until I was older so wasn’t taught how to do it right.”
“Ohhhhhh…” realization dawned on Axis, “that’s how you got of the washroom so damn fast.”
“Um… yeah, sure,” Katya said. “I realized the selection was some kind of waiting game after an hour in the holding room, so I decided to start meditating through my Second State. I guess I wasn’t throwing out anything for it to latch onto.”
“Yeah that tracks,” Axis nodded.
“I realized something was happening when I heard the first scream,” Katya explained, “but I didn’t even get to stand before Holland and the other Dukes were cuffing me and… well you know the rest…”
“Bastards,” Axis swore. Katya bobbed her head in agreement and the two fell silent again. Neither of them had any idea what came next now that they had been recognized as Duke and Duchess by the Duchery. Their induction into the fold was so unorthodox it was pointless to speculate, and while Axis assumed their first assignment would be shortly forthcoming, how it would be delivered to them was a mystery. A direct meeting with the Empress herself seemed highly unlikely as fresh members, but then, she might take interest in them for how unique their position was within the wider scope of Machinery politics. If she had opponents within the upper echelons of the Duchery, he and Katya would be like lucky boons to her, but Axis suspected the Empress’s relationship with her closest servants was not nearly as fractured as what existed among the Royal Houses. And for Chloe’s part, Axis had a strong inkling she was too politically savvy to show an eager hand that could be easily construed as subverting the Empress’s authority.
Really all the two of them could do was exactly what they were doing: wait. A heavy cloud of uncertainty and vague notions of a debt owed hung between them, but Axis had endured as much before; and he suspected the same was true for Katya. Saving another’s life or displaying a willingness to die for someone else had a profound effect on both parties that was not so easily reconciled by simple words. The feeling would pass in time, especially as they would be keeping each other’s company, but in the present moment, small talk felt so insignificant and pointless next to the weight of their actions. Nevermind that, as close as they felt as a result of those deeds, they barely knew each other.
So engrossed were they both in their own contemplations that both started and jolted their heads to the door as the sounds of intense arguing grew louder from the other side. Katya wordlessly shifted around the bench to sit at Axis’s side, presenting a united front as the verbal conflict ceased only moments before the door hummed open and Chloe Nieves practically bounded through, however inelegantly. She was wearing a satin black vest with accompanying double sleeves and overlong fauld now, and her giddiness was palpable. “Well you know what they say about the gifts of the Progeny,” she rasped delightedly with a light flutter of her mismatched wings, “they never leave a dragoness wanting.” If it were even possible, her plain excitement had the effect of making her twisted visage that much more disturbing. Axis flinched at first as Katya’s wings extended just enough to brush his own in leery concern, but then, she hadn’t ever had to look at Chloe before. Axis at least had had time to process the mangled mess of albino dragoness when he had first met her. “Not only am I the sponsor of clearly the greatest Duke of this age,” Chloe carried on, briefly devolving into a hacking fit before continuing unabated, “by a twist of fate, I also am sponsor to quite the catalytic Duchess.”
“Hello Chloe,” Axis said, unfazed by her over enthusiastic bombasity.
“Katya Truminoff, Duchess,” Katya introduced herself stiffly, clearly still perturbed by Chloe’s appearance.
“Charmed, Duchess Truminoff,” Chloe replied with only the slightest inclination of her head. “I think you will find my arrangements with my sponsored Dukes to be far more appealing than those of my Sisters.”
“Whad’you want, Chloe?” Axis pushed. “I don’t think you’re the type to just gawk…” Though when her crooked grin remain unchanged, he added in a low mumble, “... though I’ve been wrong before…”
“Arrangements must be made for you christening by the Empress,” Chloe said like it was the most obvious thing in the galaxy. “As I am your sponsor I saw it fit to see that you were made presentable.”
“A Matriarch? Not the Duchery?” Axis chuckled. “Yeah I don’t think - !”
“Who were you arguing with?” Katya cut in, she too having detected that Chloe’s cheery demeanor was less than genuine, if not entirely fake. “Out in the corridor, there were raised voices.” Axis couldn’t help but smirk as Chloe’s face turned sour, and she glared daggers into Katya.
“Why is that they always come in such annoyingly perceptive pairs,” Chloe glowered, her neck twitching with the rumble in her chest. “To be clear, I am Matriarch Nieves. I do not argue. I am here to see to your christening before the Empress… but I thought we could have a little chat as well.” She took the cushion across from Axis and Katya, all trace of her initial boisterous attitude sucked away.
“Someone was arguing out there,” Katya said, Axis raising a brow of inquiry to Chloe.
“Other prominent members of my House, if you must know,” the Matriarch replied with peeved emphasis. “They are… less than pleased with the both of you having trampled over the status quo like wild animals.”
“How horrible for you,” Axis said without an ounce of pity.
“And you,” Chloe retorted, her indignance building as she said, “Your little stunt at your selection has made you the political enemy of every Royal House in the Machine, including mine.”
“Boo hoo,” Axis brushed her off. “What, would ya rather the ‘greatest Duke of the age’ been shot?”
“I would have preferred you cut off her head and been done with it,” Chloe snarled, jabbing her larger wing in Katya’s direction. “Instead you went and excommunicated yourself from the Duchery in the same breath as you joined their ranks while painting a glowing target on my back!”
“They threatened you,” Katya huffed in recognition. “You own House threatened to estrange you.”
“What?” Axis looked to her quizzically.
“Only the Duchery and the Empress are supposed to have control over a Duke,” Katya said, turning her head to Axis but keeping her eyes locked on Chloe’s roiling features. “But Holland accepted your terms, giving Pillar Nieves unique authority. All of the Houses probably think she conspired with us and Holland to do it.”
“Quite the politician you’d make if you ever tired of killing for your livelihood,” Chloe sniped.
“So what, you’re gonna take back the sponsorship ‘cause the road got a bit bumpy?” Axis asked, disbelieving. “You gave it to me ‘cause we have or were gonna get the same enemies and now that they’re crawling out of the woodwork a little early you’ve got cold feet?”
“Don’t insult me as a simpleton, Axis,” Chloe hissed. “I have no intention of making my position in your mess any more debilitating than it already is. But they will come for you. And her. And thanks to you tying what few good talons I have behind my back, I will be limited in what I can do to stop them.”
“And what about when they come for you?” Katya asked.
“We all have our strengths in our specific arenas,” Chloe grinned with sinister pride. “You leave the field of politics to me, and I will leave the killing to you.”
“So this is just a helpful warning?” Axis asked. “Which wasn’t something I needed to be told since it was pretty obvious this whole shit show was gonna piss people off.”
“Yelling at you about it was for my own benefit,” Chloe answered flatly. “However, I thought it necessary to impress upon you the rapidly increasing gravity of the situation we are all now in… rather unwittingly on my part. Even if you insist on blustering about not giving a damn.”
“Well, she’s got that bit right,” Axis leaned into Katya’s ear, to which she replied in just as hushed a tone,
“It wouldn’t kill you to take her more seriously.”
“I am,” Axis hissed back, “just not with all the doom and gloom.”
“When you are both done gossiping like dragonlings,” Chloe interrupted them louder than was strictly necessary, “I do have to arrange for your christening. And before you say so Axis, yes, this would normally be in the purview of the Duchery but thanks to you your rashness you have also burdened me with yet another responsibility.”
“Fine fine,” Axis restrained a more pointed comment. “Let’s get it done and over with. It’s just like a Naval Knighting ceremony yeah?”
“Under normal circumstances,” Chloe said, “yes it would be. But the Empress has, naturally, taken more interest in you two and wishes to take full advantage of the roles that fool Holland has granted you. You and Duchess Truminoff will be christened as normal, but the Empress has instructed that the three of us will take council with her immediately after.”
“I am honored,” Katya said with a note of awe.
“At least you understand the consequence of such a request,” Chloe slighted Axis and addressing Katya more directly added, “Do me the dignity of keeping your Duke in check while in her presence.” A revelling smirk crept into Axis’s face as Katya eyed him only for it vanish in mumbled curses and hissing when she jammed her foot onto his front toes.
“So ah…” Axis winced, flexing his talon from the dissuading blow, “we just gonna go in house clothes right up to the Empress’s throne?”
“As I said, I have to arrange for your christening,” Chloe said, and clacked the claws of an unsheathed talon together in clear signal for servants waiting outside the room. Four dragonesses came inside at the command followed behind by a mixed bunch of slaves carrying boxes and pushing along carts loaded with clothing of all types and colors. “Silvie,” she addressed the lead dragoness, “dress these two in something that won’t embarrass our House in front of Her Majesty, would you.”
“Yes, Pillar,” Silvie replied, motioning to her slaves and servant charges. Chloe stood and removed herself from the path of the racks and boxes.
She hobbled out, pausing only to instruct Silvie, “You have until I request they be brought up to the Throne Chamber of Rebirth.”
“Yes, Pillar,” Silvie repeated and upon her Matriarch’s departure said sternly to both Katya and Axis, “This is all very short notice so no being difficult or making this any more complicated than it has to be.” She gestured with a wing to Axis and added, “You, to the washroom with Alex and Jada. Give the Duchess some privacy.” Two of the servants shunted him off to the washroom with three slaves following close behind, and Axis sighed rather audibly with zero enthusiasm for whatever fashionable contraption was to be thrown over his scales. Had it been any other case, he would have had his Grand Knight’s ceremonial plate armor readily available and was certain that would have suited the occasion just as well.
Upon entering the washroom and sealing the door behind them, the two dragoness’s took to their task with a practiced swift efficiency that could only be expected of highly trained ladies in waiting. Axis supposed they were probably the best in the Palace, what with Chloe’s uneven proportions requiring very specific clothing and measurements. The dragoness Jada immediately took to ordering about the slaves to set this box here or push that cart rack there while she herself began sorting through and examining what she had at her disposal. From what Axis could see, it was all gaudy and horribly ugly looking. “Keep your head straight please, m’lord,” the other dragoness, Alex, said to him. She circled around him, lenses flashing as they confirmed his measurements. “Okay, off with the robe,” she said without the slightest hesitation.
“Eager much?” Axis said, slipping out of the robe with relative ease. “Not even dinner and a date first?”
“Very original, my Lord,” Jada replied, numbly unimpressed. Her head darted between him and her clothes rack, mumbling, “Green and black, green and black, green and black…”
“Average sizing, Jada,” Alex relayed to her superior. “Bit narrow though.”
“Ya’ll don’t happen to have like, ya know, some plate armor or something like that do ya?” Axis ventured.
“Do you?” Alex asked, to which Axis tried to work his mouth into a snappier reply only to end up rolling his eyes with a defeated sigh. “There’s your answer,” Alex said.
“AHA!” Jada exclaimed before beckoning her slaves. “Start sorting through the boxes for the smallest implements in pearl black please.” The slaves nodded and did as asked, while Jada flicked a vest from her rack and held it up to Axis’s chest. It was a high collared piece made of a deep purple suede velvet, embroidered with curling silver vines.
“No, absolutely not,” Axis shook his head.
“It is not your decision,” Jada retorted, as if to dress him in it.
“Like hell it is!” Axis said, batting her talon away and earning a severe scowl for it.
“It is not,” Jada repeated more emphatically. “It is ours and that of the Master Seamstress Silvie of House Nieves.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“But why purple?” Axis groaned. “And that fluffy bullshit. Like, look at me. Do I look fluffy?”
“You certainly don’t act like it, my Lord,” Jada said with a grunt, expertly dodging his protestations and slipping the vest onto him. “And it’s violet, for your information.”
“Same difference,” Axis said, Jada tugging the vest into place a little more aggressively than she needed to.
“Hold still while we switch these snaps and claps, m’lord,” Alex told him from his other side, her talons already deftly working to remove the silver metal bits that would hold the outfit together. A slave joined her shortly thereafter, carrying a smaller box that jangled with similar gloss black accoutrements. While Alex worked diligently to replace the non-fabric elements, Jada added a matching purple fauld over his lower half, this too being accented by elegant silver arborist embroidery. It was modestly long and wide, completely covering his thighs with what draped over his sides and extending to easily over a third of his tail. Axis restrained a wriggling shake of his whole body, finding the surprising weight of both pieces and its fiber construction uncomfortable never mind the fabric itself seeming to catch on the gaps in his scales.
“I’d rather be drenched in blood and baking in a desert heat…” Axis said, tugging at the high collar while Jada fitted this forelegs with chain joined velvet sleeves. She said nothing as she continued to work, having evidently determined he was not worth arguing with. “Oh you have got to be joking,” Axis added as Alex rounded his front and affixed an elaborate brooch of black fabric and silver. “Oi, you guys mind helping me out here?” he asked the slaves in Common. They started at a dragon speaking a language they understood so fluently but dared not respond with a firm glare from Jada. Alex stepped back to admire him with a satisfied nod, and so focused on glowering at her to no effect was Axis that he nearly barked and jumped away when he felt Jada’s talon feeling around in the feathers in his wing. He instead merely yanked it out of her grip and rounded his eyes on her.
“Please heed the Master Seamstress’s words and stop being difficult,” Jada sighed, reaching for his wing again. “I need to attach the full cape.”
“Uh… no you don’t,” Axis replied, backing away from her. “No cape. You’ve already gone and made me look like enough of a primped up socialite. I would know, I have one for a sister.”
“It is part of the outfit,” Jada insisted, hiding her revulsion at his language in impatient indignance.
“And I said no cape,” Axis sing-songed after her. “Duke’s order,” he added as an afterthought.
Jada stared him down before huffing and flinging the cape back up onto her clothing rack. “Fine,” she said. “Fine. Be that way. The wrath of Matriarch Nieves be on your own head.”
“He looks nice enough I’d say,” Alex tried to console her.
“Debatable,” Axis inserted. Jada was uninterested in either of them, sliding open the washroom door enough to stick her head through. She and Silvie exchanged something unintelligible and Jada pulled herself back.
“Let me see your claws, my lord,” she said, already anticipating his resistance.
“Taken care of,” Axis smirked, unsheathing one set with a flick of his wrist and allowing their metal coated sheen to gleam in the washroom’s artificial light.
“Bless the Progeny,” Jada breathed gratefully. “You’re free to go. The Master Seamstress has instructions for both you and the Duchess.” Axis nodded and flung open the door, already speaking before he’d fully exited.
“Katya, I tried tellin’ ‘em in there that I look like an ass-kissing schmuck in this shit but they… wouldn’t… … listen…” he trailed off, locked in place and nothing short of stunned on seeing Katya. Silvie had done quite the number on her, so much so that Axis hardly recognized her as the same dragon. Katya had been dressed in a silky, scale tight vest in a red so brilliant it seemed to have its own glow. Abstractions of soaring snow white swallows danced across both the vest and the fauld, making her that much more mesmerizing. The cape linked to her wing bones was of the same sharp white and otherwise unadorned, but it was formed with a sharp V-seam at the center such that the full fauld could be seen beneath it. She had no sleeves on her forelegs and her horns had been covered with white gold etched bracers to match all of the clasps and adjoining rings of the rest of her clothes. She was nothing short of stunningly gorgeous. “Well…” Axis said, gathering back his composure, “you, ah… you’re… you look good.”
“Thanks,” she said with a hint of a shy grin. “You don’t look so bad yourself.”
“I look like a douche-canoe,” Axis corrected with a raised eyebrow.
“You both look respectable and proper,” Silvie interjected with settled finality. “Now you must act the part to match. Come closer, Duke Mortimer. I will not yell or repeat myself.” Axis sidled to Katya’s side and tore his glances away from her at Silvie’s rather loud clearing of her throat. “The two of you will now be presented to Her Majesty the Empress Cellinni to be confirmed in your new status. Two members of our House are waiting just outside to take you to the Throne Chamber of Rebirth. During the course of this ceremony, neither of you will speak unless spoken to. Is that clear?”
“Transparently,” Katya answered for them both, as she jabbed a wing into Axis’s own to insist he keep quiet.
“Very good, then I and mine take our leave,” Silvie inclined her head respectfully. “Do not dally.” She didn’t need to command her slaves or Jada and Alex, all of them dutifully following her out of the room in orderly fashion.
“You do look beautiful,” Axis stated once they had gone, and nearly gagged at the words having so easily slipped out so plainly.
Katya looked up at him curiously, but only allowed herself a few titters before saying, “C’mon douche-canoe. You can keep your mouth shut for this right?”
“I make no promises,” Axis grumbled, and followed her lead out the door. There were indeed two members of House Nieves flanking the entrance to the room, and they were dressed far more extravagantly than Axis and Katya combined. True to Silvie’s words, neither spoke; acknowledging them only with inspecting looks before striding off with clear intent that the new Duke and Duchess should follow. The path out of Nieves Tower was, as all paths in the tower likely were, largely straightforward. It was made all the more hastened by the fact that dragons and slaves alike parted to the walls as the four dragons passed. Axis reckoned that their escorts carried some kind of signifier to the importance of the business at hand, though he also knew that he would have given a dragon dressed like he was at the moment quite the large berth circumstances be damned.
Even in the tram station all the bustling ceased at their approach, though surrounded by less well-to-do types, many whispered and pointed at Katya in particular. To her credit she was unfazed, keeping her neck upright and her head straight through it all. Their party ascended to the upper levels of the station where the crowds thinned out significantly and more than a few dragons appeared just as well groomed. The tram they were to board was only a single car long, its side emblazoned with the Imperial planetary gear crest and actually manned by an operator. A harness and wing blade armed Duke stood guard at the platform, each piece of his uniform and gear also adorned with the sigil. He scrutinized the four of them with silent stoicism, and after what Axis thought was an overly long pause for failed dramatic effect, allowed them into the tram car. He signaled to the operator with a single talon, and the tram hummed to life, easing out of the station into the open air of the Palace. It notably made no stops, merely jostling as its guide cables junctioned to others. The quiet among the passengers Axis found to be eerily formal. He wasn’t necessarily against protocol and procedure, especially aboard a military vessel, but this exuded the sensation of being led to a funeral. Or a death sentence. Axis wanted to lay a good portion of the discomfort at the feet of his ridiculous and scratchy outfit, but experience said no inanimate object could breed this much gloom. The circumstances of his and Katya’s ascendence to the Duchery must have traveled quickly, as that was the only thing he could think of capable of putting such a foul mood in the three escorts. And judging by how the operator of the tram made not a few glances back at his passengers, he could feel it too.
The tram slowed as it crossed over into a significantly smaller station near the upper reaches of the Loft of the Eternal Phoenix. No other trams were present in the station just as were no other dragons. The place was empty, devoid of energy. The Duke opened the car’s door for them once it had stopped and remained as a guard once they had exited. Entering into the Loft of the Eternal Phoenix was like being transported into a completely different world and time. Neither Axis nor Katya could stop their heads from swiveling and arching around, trying to take in the glory surrounding them. Much like the construction of Loftus Tower, the place had been built as a completely open circular expanse, the ceiling only barely visible above them. The floors were made of checkered onyx and mother-of-pearl laced with sapphire veins. The walls behind them were made of marble flecked with pure gold, and exquisite paintings had been hung depicting Empresses of countless generations past. Grand expanses of stained glass wrapped around the full diameter of the tower, dioramas of historic moments and titanic battles each bleeding into one another. The circular balcony they occupied was not a single floor either, as on the opposite side it snaked both up and down, forming a continuous twisting spiral of stairs and balconies from top to bottom.
At the tower’s center was a gaping void, broken only by a platform which repeated itself at each level. Made of hewn jasper, each platform formed the crest of the Imperia Machina. The outer ring of the planetary gears remained static, and was inlaid with onyx Drael letters, which read, As she is given, so may she be taken. For this Phoenix is eternal in many forms. The three pinions inside the outer ring turned agonizingly slowly, their structure also made of jasper with four steel cables at their edges joining them to their synchronous brethren above and below. Their centers were platforms large enough for a dragon to stand on, and were each of a different, massive single gemstone: a sapphire, a ruby, and a diamond. They turned about a far larger central dias. This too had been made of jasper, but its center had been set with citrines and topazes which had been cut and arranged to form the visage of a curled, burning phoenix.
Waiting on this central dias was Chloe Nieves, flanked by Dukes Holland and Rothbard, all of them garbed in their finest vestments. Axis and Katya were led to the edge of the balcony where it met the outer ring, and their House Nieves escorts stood aside. “Come forth!” Holland bellowed, his voice echoing through the spacious expanse of the cathedral. Katya took the lead, hurriedly stepping onto the sapphire gear as it passed and just as quickly stepping off onto the sun gear, tail sweeping around to gather up her clothes so as to not catch them in gear teeth. Axis was left to wait for the diamond set platform to grind around before following her to the center, whereupon the three waiting dragons offered a ceremonial prostration of their necks.
“Welcome to the Loft of the Eternal Phoenix, O Duke and Duchess mine,” Chloe rasped, the words somehow still carrying their poetic intent.
“You will shortly ascend to the Empress’s Throne Chamber of Rebirth,” Holland said rotely. “There, she shall anoint you Duke and Duchess, giving her full blessing for you to receive entrance into Imperial royalty and binding you to her as extensions of her will. This is an honor reserved for the chosen few. Bear this audience with all due deference she commands.”
“Under normal circumstances,” Rothbard added, “your selector would join you. But since there are two of you to send up, only Pillar Nieves will accompany you.”
“Indeed,” Chloe said. “Duke Mortimer, you will take the sapphire. Duchess Truminoff, the ruby. When we enter Her Majesty’s presence, follow my lead. Go.” The three of them split off, taking position on each of the three orbiting gears, and once settled but with no apparent command from anyone present, the gemstones themselves shook and with mechanical clicks and grinding from a far older era, began to rise along the steel cables. They gathered some speed, but were laborious in the ascent, Axis gazing up to see where exactly the end would be. There appeared to be none, the ceiling a reflection of the gear sigil below. Furthermore, the rising gem platforms seemed to have no regard for this barrier, not slowing in the least as the ceiling began to rush to meet them. Axis let out a barking shout and his wings nearly unfurled to send him hurtling off the side, but at the last possible second, the matching precious stones above slid to the side. The elevators slipped neatly into the openings and clanked to a bouncing halt, Katya eyeing Axis’s tensed body with a sheepish look.
The chamber they had entered was, by comparison to the tower below, rather barren. The floor was still checkered and the ceiling vaulted by aging pillars of lapis lazuli, but it was an otherwise modest, if impressively large, amphitheater. The only element of note was that the far curvature of the dome was a single, glorious pane of glass through which the sun illuminated the whole space. And before it was the Empress herself, seated on the Phoenix Throne upon a raised dias. As Chloe led them closer to the steps, Axis was able to discern more details of the throne and the Empress herself. Wrought of solid gold and onyx and augmented with brilliant red and orange enamel, rubies, and topaz, the Phoenix Throne’s back was in the image of a highly detailed phoenix erupting in flame and flight. The talons of the bird were rendered such that they wrapped around a plush cushion upon which Empress Cellinni sat. She was a dark gray in hue, darker even than soot, and her canary yellow feathers only seemed to accentuate this fact. Her eyes, a lustrous orange like the sun, bled well into the layered garment of reds and oranges that seemed to perfectly match the rays of light bending around her throne. Whether by virtue of her throne room or via the wisened simmer of her eyes, a mystique surrounded her which hushed the air.
“Your Majesty, Empress Cellinni,” Chloe bowed low, Axis mimicking the motion hurriedly when Katya followed her cue. “These are the two recognized as worthy of the Duchery. I have brought them before you as is proper, to seek for them your infinite blessing.” The Empress made no response, instead choosing to stand and begin waking down the steps to her throne. Every step she made was trained, deliberate, and magnified her presence. Age, though rendered in her less than smooth talons and wider gaps in her scales, seemed to hold no sway on her; and likewise indecision and the troubles of the world submitted to her footfalls. She stood before the three of them, scanning each carefully before speaking.
“Chloe,” she addressed the Matriarch first, only to loose a loud, exasperated sigh. “I thought I told you this entire affair was rather pointless with how atypical a situation in which we have found ourselves.” The demure which had swirled around her shattered like a thin veil of glass. Her voice and words were not stiff, nor her tone lofty and commanding. Rather, she expressed a more casual energy and sincerity completely incongruous with her status. Axis couldn’t help but raise his head back up to examine her curiously. This he had not expected, especially with the strict adherence to procedure he had endured from the others up to this point. “Up, up!” the Empress said to Chloe and Katya. “We are alone here. Save all this bowing and prostration for when it is more useful.”
“Your Majesty?” Katya asked, bewildered, though she obeyed nonetheless.
“Am I not also allowed to be a dragoness?” she answered with a pointed but not unkind question of her own. “It surprises many but believe it or not, I am not just the Empress of the Imperia Machina.”
“Your Majesty…” Chloe echoed Katya, though it was with a definitive note of disapproval.
“Oh pish posh Chloe,” the Empress reprimanded her with a wave of her wing. “We both well know this is merely a ceremony with little bearing. If it would make you feel better, yes, Duke and Duchess you have my blessing.” She nodded firmly to Axis and Katya as if that settled the matter.
“I like her,” Axis said to Katya.
“That’s encouraging,” Katya rolled her eyes knowingly.
“I would certainly hope so,” Empress Cellinni said. “We would all be in a right bind if you didn’t wouldn’t we? Now go ahead and sit. We have much to discuss.” Axis wasn’t exactly sure why he was surprised she had them, but the Empress lit her lenses and the checkered floor responded by opening and raising up a circular bench with enough cushions for many, many more dragons than were present. Each cushion was itself a unique color and the bench was constructed entirely of solid white marble. The Empress took her place first, and while Axis and Katya positioned themselves directly opposite her, Chloe took her seat distant from either of them at an oddly cock-eyed angle. “It is her normal place,” the Empress explained to Axis, who had tilted his head in Chloe’s direction. “This bench is where myself and the Sisterhood take court.” Katya nearly extricated herself from her cushion but the Empress waved her back saying, “No no no, please. You have as much a right to sit here as they do Duchess.”
“My apologies, Your Majesty,” Katya said, repositioning herself.
“It is quite alright,” she said with a smile. “You are not the first new Duchess to not so quickly adapt to your new royal status. But, now to business. The two of you have made quite the stir from what I have been told.”
“Him more than her,” Chloe grated after coughing profusely.
“The effects on you have colored your perception, Chloe,” Cellinni corrected her. “Were it not for Duchess Truminoff, I’ve been told Duke Mortimer would have been shot and she alone would have been brought before me. This is true, am I right, Duchess?”
“It is,” Katya acknowledged. “No one asked me to shield Axis, Your Majesty.”
“Duchess, you misunderstand my question,” the Empress said. “I am well aware of Celeste Aiza tasking you with protecting him to subsequently ensure the safety of Princess DelRose. You needn’t hide it from me. What I am asking is whether that duty is what compelled you?” Katya’s eyes went wide at her relaxed revelation of this knowledge, as though it bore no consequence, whilst Chloe’s reaction was nearly the complete opposite. The Matriarch’s eyes narrowed to near slits, and Axis could see from his peripheral that her upper lip curled ever so slightly. This was something she had not known, and it clearly threw a wrench in whatever machinations she may have had in mind.
“Your Majesty,” Katya answered with a deep breath, “it didn’t matter to me at the time. Axis was supposed to kill me as a rite of passage and he refused. That’s why I stood between him and Duke Holland.”
The Empress seemed satisfied with the answer and turned her attention to Axis. “Duke Mortimer, you had every intention of murdering Duke Rothbard to my knowledge. Had Duke Holland not intervened, would you have?”
“Yes, I would,” Axis answered without hesitation.
“Why?” Cellinni pressured.
“Why shouldn’t I have?” Axis spat. “He wanted me to kill an innocent. The Watcher code is pretty damn clear about that. And about what to do with anyone who does.”
“You are neither a Watcher nor do I believe any of us here, including the Duchess herself, would claim she is an innocent,” the Empress pointed out with a sageness in her tone.
“If you’re talking about being an assassin, if she were so bad, she would have let me pull the trigger on Marley then bagged me for a reward,” Axis replied. “She didn’t and that’s all I needed to know… Even if she was a major pain in the neck about it.” Empress Cellinni smiled and nodded, seemingly pleased with the answers she had been given.
“Chloe,” she said finally, “What was it you said to me about these two? It was colorful I remember. You were quite upset.”
“The exact words, Your Majesty?” Chloe asked, unwilling.
“Please.”
“I said you had gained to your service an insipid pair of politically moronic, useless heart bleeders,” Chloe drolled.
“Well, well!” Axis exclaimed, impressed.
“Poetic,” Katya agreed with a grin.
“I was shocked myself,” the Empress said. “She is rarely so worked up. And I do think she has misjudged you.”
“Where is the error?” Chloe leapt to her own defense. “Your Majesty, even my own House assumes collusion of some kind! Any usefulness they may have had will be dogged by every House with the assets to do so! Disregarding their fealty to me, any move they make for you will be seen as a strongarm maneuver to circumvent House circles of information!”
“Chloe you are clever beyond your years,” the Empress said heavily, “but no situation is inescapable. Duke Mortimer, Duchess Truminoff, I admire dragons of conscious, and in my theater they are all too rare. To accomplish anything, I must prey on the ambitions of all those around me and such a system seems to only ever create more problems than it solves. I would be a fool to not utilize two dragons so disconnected from the Sisterhood Court and its vices.”
“And what if the other Houses tie your talons into not being able to use us?” Katya asked.
“She’s right,” Axis said. “If what Chloe thinks is gonna happen happens, we end up just being dead weight.”
“Insightful,” Empress Cellinni said, “and that is why it is important to demonstrate yourselves to be well beyond the bounds of House influence. I will make you into manifestations of my wroth and if we make this plain quickly, the Houses will be averse to interfering lest I set you upon them on charges of treason.”
“I’m on board but… ah… it’s pretty obvious this could blow up in everyone’s face just as fast,” Axis said.
“Yes, it is a risk,” the Empress agreed. “But I also trust Chloe’s ability to keep us all apprised of any developments in that direction.”
“If that is your wish, Your Majesty,” Chloe inclined her neck.
“She’s going to need protection of some kind once we start working,” Katya noted. “Your Majesty won’t be at any physical risk, and Axis and I will be able to handle ourselves but…”
“Don’t worry your pretty little head, Duchess,” Chloe said scathingly. “I will have left the Loft well before the sun sets. I’m not so naive as to stay here and make myself an easy target.”
“If we are agreed then,” the Empress said, eyes drifting between the three of them, “I have your first assignment.”
“Go ahead,” Axis said whilst the two dragonesses nodded.
“This is the planet Chestria II,” the Empress explained, her lenses commanding a viewjector buried in the bench’s center. It brightened and expanded into a full map of the Empire before zooming in to a star system very near the border. “It is a stronghold of House Rach and, naturally, of the Auction as well. You will go there and you will find me answers.”
“Answers to?” Katya queried.
“Where their funds and mine are disappearing,” Chloe elaborated. “The Code of Scholars has delivered research funding to that Auction to apparently ‘study the effects of less restricted living spaces on slaves’ but they have never had anything to show for the money.”
“I am sending you to the planet because Chloe’s issue is a compounding one,” the Empress continued. “Princess DelRose brought to my attention through an anonymous source that the Auction had been reporting a mismatch of incoming and outgoing slaves for years. I ordered Ava, House Rach’s Matriarch, to conduct a thorough investigation, and she reported to me nothing harmful save erroneous bookkeeping.”
“But you don’t believe that,” Axis guessed.
“No, I do not,” the Empress said. “The apparent disappearance of Code of Scholars funds only furthers my suspicion that the Auction is hiding something. And I could not send any Dukes to investigate for fear of Ava’s involvement. If word of my deployment of Dukes reached her ears through those she had sponsored, they too would likely find no actionable evidence of foul play.”
“And if we do find something?” Katya asked. “What do you want us to do?”
“I said I valued dragons of conscious and that you would be my wroth,” the Empress repeated with a touch of menace in her voice. “Do what must be done to make it plain that I do not tolerate deception and vice within Imperial institutions.”
“Well… that’s a can do from me,” Axis stretched his wings eagerly. “What ship are we taking command of and when?”
“You will not be taking a command,” Empress Cellinni checked him to a disappointed frown. “Not yet. Until the dangers of political repercussions pass, your deployments must be done with the utmost secrecy. As luck would have it, we both know a dragon with such discretion, and she has already brought her ship here to the Palace, albeit for unconnected reasons.”
“Who?” Axis asked, perplexed. So far as he could remember, none of the ship captains who had ever hosted him for spec ops had ever had a fondness for him.
“I have already made the arrangements with Princess DelRose,” the Empress stated. “You will leave in twenty-four hours aboard the ICS Helios, your sister’s ship.”
“Fuck…” Axis replied flatly. “I mean it, … it makes sense, but just… fuck…”
“Speak your mind Duke Mortimer,” Empress Cellini said with a mildly amused smile.
“I’ll handle it,” Axis reassured her though he swore under his breath.
“In that case, you are both dismissed,” the Empress said. “I must confer with Chloe our next move in the world of the Palace. Her independent channels will pass along the information we have on the Auction to your sister, Duke Mortimer. In the meantime, do what you must to prepare to leave.”
“Thank you, your Majesty,” Katya said for them both, standing and offering a bow. “We’ll prove you were right to place your confidence in us.”
“That is my hope,” she acknowledged.
Axis followed Katya to the two platforms that had brought them up, and added with no small amount of cheekiness as the elevators engaged to lower, “For the record Empress, I’m Axis. Just Axis.” And then the two royal dragonesses were gone, Axis and Katya being carried back down into the vast expanse of the Loft of the Eternal Phoenix, their path set and their mission clear. They were to fulfill the role of Duke and Duchess in its purest form as few before them had. For his part, Axis basked in the unexpected radiance that now illuminated his future. This is what he had been made to do, and he relished the simple fact that the Empress had the wherewithal to see as much. There was only one thing he had to make sure he did before this new chapter opened, and it was not something he would compromise on. It was a visit long overdue anyhow.