The large insides of the brigade’s vessel had been transformed from its bland militaristic look into a festive setting. Large constructs made of wisps of aura floated around the room, imbued with life bringing powers and revitalization auras as well, they left the occupants of the room in a quiet and relaxed mood. The loud music band made up of multi tentacular creatures that hummed away a melodious tune drowned out the low murmurings of the crowd, and it was into this crowd that Moyo and Ashira had arrived together, Idris behind him and a tall man with black cropped hair with a sheathed glaive at his side,
Raven blackheart, a new master sworn to the recently created fourth organization created under Ashira’s careful gaze, the chimeras. Making up the bulk of her fledgling clan, they were blood and oath sworn to her, much like how clan titan blade was sworn to Moyo. Raven blackheart was her emissary, or at least in words seeing as she hadn’t ascended to the rank of ruler just yet, a brutal fighter, he wielded a glaive and a halberd to devastating degree, the path of the blackheart well versed in picking out the weaknesses of his foes and dealing both physical and soul damage, Moyo had expressed a feeling of satisfaction for the safety of his woman.
However, from the moment he stepped foot into the hall, he knew he’d be in for a long night. Adjusting the collars of his black suit, he ached to be in battle again, all the honeyed lies and fake smiles he was about to bear witness to tonight grated on his nerves, there were enemies to face afterall. Ashira touched him lightly,
“Peace Moyo, it’ll be over soon” she said, already reading the expression on his face,
“This is simply a farce for the noble houses to get to see and gauge me, you know that too” he relied softly,
Ashira nodded, eyes roaming the room,
“Be that as it may, it stands to say that a few of those nobles could even go as far as attempting to assassinate you tonight” she said, sipping from a colourful drink handed to her by a floating construct,
Moyo glanced at her to see if she had been joking, Ashira nodded,
“I know right?, if the mutator couldn’t kill you with all the toxins and viruses in his arsenal, what were mere poisons to you?, but they wouldn’t change unless they test it out and I’m looking for nobles to crush tonight, so be a dear and don’t end it too fast?” she asked as he chuckled,
Idris tapped him,
“Your attention is needed over to the left” he whispered,
Moyo glanced in said direction to see a group of red dressed ascenders, robes adorned with gold and jewels and at their head, a woman he was familiar with, at least, to an extent,
Master Fiona of the blazing phoenix path, the blazing princess stood surrounded by those who he guessed were members of her house. The master locked eye contact with him and inclined her head in greeting, Moyo doing the same as Ashira followed suit, looking around the room to check if Altair and the rest had arrived. Seeing as that wasn’t the case, he made his way towards the princess herself, the nobles chatter coming to a sudden silence as they realized just who was in the room with them.
Arriving at her side, he spoke,
“Lady Fiona, an honour to meet you here” he said,
The princess gave a weak smile, nodding along,
“It is good to gaze upon you again, titan blade, how far you have come from a mere diamond to a full-blown master, the archailect has been kind to you” she replied,
“it’s had its moments, how are master Urush and Ulsa?” he asked,
“The frozen tigers and their clan now rule an entire system, masters Urush and Ulsa both send their regards, they wished they could be here but with most of house Garuda’s forces deployed to the war, we needed a few of our strongests to stay behind and protect the empire” she replied,
Moyo smiled at that, masters, finally, Ulsa had caught up to them, of course, they would soon ascend past that stage, but still, it was a welcomed information. Moyo glanced around the room subtly, aware of Idris's tense posture as the room remained silent,
“I look forward to fighting by your side and that of house Garuda” he said,
“As am I looking forward to fighting by yours and that of your clan lord titan blade” she responded,
Moyo nodded then froze when a message flashed across his Hud, barely keeping his shock in check,
“I carry his child” it wrote,
Making eye contact with Fiona, he saw the barely concealed terror within her eyes and realized with dawning horror what it meant. Turning to Ashira, he smiled as he sent the message to her, watching as she took with stoic coldness and inclined her head to Fiona,
“Lady Fiona, you no doubt know lady Ashira chimera, heir to the Kairos empire and my intended” he said,
“I’d be blind not the know the child of the great Kairos by sight, it does I and my house honour to gaze upon you again, lady chimera” Fiona said,
“As it does me too, perhaps we can discuss how our houses might work together during the last push into the system of the destroyer?” she asked lightly,
Fiona caught the cue, nodding,
“But of course, this way, I have a shrouded room for privacy” she responded,
Moyo nodded and made to move when he sighted Hisada shadow fox at one corner, the tall, lanky man bowing slightly as he noticed the gaze of the titan blade on him,
House shadow fox,
He wondered what they wanted with him, perhaps to forge ties of alliance?. He immediately removed that thought from his mind, despite his fame and growth and resources, it stood to say that a noble house and one as old as house shadow fox stood to have more at their disposal. They ruled an entire galaxy as well and with the amount of resources they gathered on a regular, his growing clan couldn’t hold a candle to them. Whatever it was though, it would have to wait, more pressing issues were at stake, turning to Idris, he spoke,
“Meet the master of house shadow fox, inquire as what they require of me and get back to me as quickly as possible" he murmured,
His champion nodded and with the speed of a master, moved across the room towards Hisada who stood gracefully in the corner, never drawing attention to himself or those around him. Raven blackheart walked ahead of Ashira, his robe of dark green hide of some creature found on a world in the Kairos empire shimmered with every movement he made. Moyo turned and followed Fiona, both walking in tense silence till they arrived at the room, her ascenders parting the large door and letting them through, the sounds of the festivities dying out as the door closed.
Moyo turned to her,
“How long?” he asked, cutting to the main point,
With a flex of his power, he used his aura to cover the entire room, shutting out any form of subtle peeping or listening devices. Fiona shuddered,
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“Still feels wrong for a master to wield such power, but you’re growing into your primordial powers, aren’t you?” she asked,
“And then some, but enough of that, how far along are you?” he asked,
“My body is that of a phoenix, I can have the child whenever I want” she replied,
“oh” Ashira said,
“Then that presents the fact that you’re simply keeping the child hidden to avoid arousing suspicions?” she asked,
The burning princess nodded,
“Should I bear a child now, the noble clans of house Garuda would begin to question the lineage, and soon enough, word would spread. It’ll only be a matter of time before someone realizes who the real father is, and I don’t want to bring shame and possibly ruin to house Garuda” she explained,
Moyo had always known the burning phoenix to be a calm and composed woman, this side of her that he was seeing left him uncomfortable, but he nodded,
“and your mother?, the matriarch?, what’s her stance on this?” he asked,
The phoenix herself wouldn’t just seat by and watch her house insulted no matter the perceived crime, they were one of the great houses of the archailect, even the hidden diamond warrior, the other rule of house Garuda who was reputed to be a battle crazed maniac would jump at the chance to go after those who were foolish enough to come for his house. Fiona gathered herself as she sat on a chair brought by her ascenders, diamonds all, no doubt significant powers of the house itself, they also brought chairs for all three occupants of the room as well.
“My mother cannot and will not jeopardize the reputation of the house by publicly accepting the child, as such, she’s willing to ask for your help, discretely of course” she said,
Moyo glanced at Ashira and then back to Fiona,
“Why not house Kairos?” Ashira asked,
“we’ve been friends, allies, even family for so long, why not come to us?” she asked,
“Because the games of the primordials are too risky to step into, once this child’s father is known, can you really see the harbingers, ancients and primordials willingly letting him live?” Fiona said, her voice cracking,
Ashira paused with hesitation, knowing the answer already,
“They already let the child of the grim live, and now he’s rebelled against them, they wouldn’t make the same mistake twice again” Moyo said softly,
“precisely” Fiona replied,
Moyo crossed his legs,
“You want to have the child in my domain” Moyo said softly again,
Fiona smiled sadly,
“Yes, and by the archailect, I swear, that house Garuda would forever remain in your debt” she said as a loud gong echoed, Moyo wincing,
“That wasn’t necessary, I would do that and more for those who stood by me, but I have to ask, would you be staying to raise the child?” he asked,
Fiona paused,
“Should I become missing from the war front, questions would be asked, it could draw eyes to my movement” she said,
He waved his hands,
“not now, after the war, would you stay to raise this child?, I won’t have this generational curse trailing Ajax to fall on his child as well” he said with conviction,
Fiona smiled,
“If you’d have me in your domain, then I would” she said softly,
Moyo shut his eyes tight for a few seconds, exhaling as he rolled his neck, opening his eyes, he asked,
“Is he aware?”
Fiona stared hard at him, mouths not moving but the response all but said,
“He deserves to know” he murmured,
“Not yet my heart, not like this, and definitely not now when he’s somehow going on insane missions” Ashira said, putting one hand on his,
“All the more reason he should know, to dissuade him from this madness he’s attempting” he argued weakly,
Try as much as he could to convince himself that he was right, deep down, he realized just how risky that was, for what was to stop Ajax from leaving a trail of bodies in his quest to gain access to his child?. Fiona shook her head, pleading,
“Not yet, let this child grow up as a child, I won’t stain his hands with the sins of his father” she said,
Moyo nodded and reclined on the chair,
“Gaia?” he asked Ashira,
The chimera paused, thinking to herself,
“No, your domain” she responded,
He blinked, turning to her,
“you’d have me put the child so close to the warfront?” he asked,
“Ajax can make his way to Gaia, you know this and so do I, your domain though, something tells me it’ll be hard for him to gain access unless you allow him” she replied,
Moyo actually realized just how much sense that made, but still, the urge in him to send the child to the farthest most remote place he could raged within him, no one could know Ajax had a child, no one apart from those he trusted with his very life. He sat up,
“Very well, here’s how we’re going to do this” he started……
******************
A few minutes later, a spider of the Anansi sect moved discretely through the web path leading from the defiance that had moved close to the vessel of the brigade. His grey cloak that hid a void space bearing a live cargo within it, within the defiance, another web path opened up, the almost shimmering and invisible pathway created and perfected by the sect members afforded them a quick and discrete method of phasing away from dangerous situations, or in other cases, situations that require subtlety.
Cargo was delivered into the waiting and capable hands of the spider herself who despite the protection afforded to her by the titan weaved her own strands of obtuse webs around the cargo, true, the titan had the means to block others from scrying into his domain, but what about the strands of faith themselves?.
And so, it was that a child was born, hidden among the numerous ascenders, his name and parentage assigned to a high-ranking member of the storm caller sect and vanishing into the folds of the burgeoning titan blade clan.
****************
Moyo exited the party after a while, not before Ashira’s prediction came through and someone attempted to test out just how resilient he was. His drink had been laced, he knew, and yet he drank it, smacking his lips with a furrowed look on his face as he pointed to the ascender who thought he had blended right into the steel grey walls of the room, Idris grabbing him by the throat and smashing the diamond ranker into the ruler impervious floor of the hall. The diamond had been knocked out immediately,
“Could add a little more taste” he had said as the growing tension in the room broke out into laughs, Moyo wondering just what he had said that was funny,
It had been the only test though, verifying his strength in a room of rulers and near ancients, it had cemented his position as one of the apex monsters once and for all in the eyes of the nobles. With that done, Moyo had found himself aboard the ship of house shadow fox known as the feline, a little bit on the nose he thought as he laughed, but it was a beauty. A beauty he never thought he’d see forged from shadows and darkness, dark metal walls adorned with bits of silver and gold mosaic that lit up the surroundings softly, adding a sombre hue to their surroundings.
He had been greeted by an honour guard of house shadow fox led by Hisada himself, the master bowing rigidly to him. Moyo noted something had changed between the last time he had seen the master to now, the once smiling and easy talking man treating him with respect bordering on light fear, it had made him frown, wondering just what he had done to had warranted such a behaviour. Idris had reported back to him that the matriarch of house shadow fox, an ancient known as Rizuki urgently needed his attention and promised him he wouldn’t want to miss it.
Moyo noted it sounded not like a threat but like the tone of a person unused to pleading, then again, why would an ancient need to plead for anything when to trillions living in her galaxy alone, she was the next thing to the supreme beings in strength?. It left Moyo with a sour taste in his mouth that sooner or later, the milky way would have trillions of souls colonizing them as well, all the worlds terraformed to accommodate life, and then, he’d be the one they looked up to. With the clan though, it would be ruled safely though, that he was sure of.
With Idris behind him, keeping a vigilant eye, Moyo could feel his connection to the battleships of his legion hovering close to the feline, his guard unwilling to leave him without backup despite that fact that Moyo was pretty sure that apart from Rizuki herself, he could tear his way out of the ship like wet tissue. Mere courtesy kept him from unleashing his full strength and with the awkward glances Hisada threw his way, Moyo knew any flexing of his power could throw the man into a state of panic, already, the man was unaware of the gold ranked spider that followed in their wake, flowing like mist around them, ready to strike at a single gesture of the titan blade,
Too much fuss he thought to himself with exasperation,
Over and over, he had reminded them that there were few things or people in the archailect that could genuinely hurt him, and a bunch of master and diamond rankers were far from the list, but they were adamant. They reached a large set of doors where dark metal armoured constructs holding silver spears with crystal blades on them stood sentry, Moyo paused as he felt the aura of masters coming from them,
“beautiful, aren’t they?, a gift from Ernesh himself for our help a few centuries ago, they have stood sentry over our matriarch since then” Hisada said with pride,
Moyo eyed the constructs that turned their gaze to him, assessing him,
“it is said that they would only kneel to the matriarch alone or someone of equal strength, none save the matriarch has caused them to-“Hisada said, choking on his words as Moyo let a bit of his aspect flow through him, taking one step forward,
The constructs crashed to their knees in reverence, helmeted head bowed as Moyo folded his hands behind him, walking close to them and rapping his hand on their skull,
“Thrice forged mithril, impressive” he said before turning to Hisada and his honour guard who couldn’t believe what they were seeing,
“I believe she awaits me?” he said, mischief dancing across his eyes as Idris shook his head with a rueful smile,
Hisada stuttered as the doors opened, admitting Moyo alone into the room and closing behind him.