Luthando Moya

‘’I call dibs on this landmass' treasures,’’ Noluvuyo says quickly as we've all gathered back by the portal gate reading the data collected by the array flags firmly imbedded into the rocks about.

It's a relatively big world with vast oceans and large mineral deposites and a lot of mana dense pockets waiting to be claimed. There likely hasn't been a better resource find for the Moya in millennia.

‘’What?! That’s not fair you can’t have the whole continent!’’ Noluntu exclaims power vibrating the air around her.

‘’I called dips! And judging by these initial readings and geometry of this world there is plenty of land to be found so don't worry," She is firm in her claim scattering the power buffeting her before trying to sound reasonable and appease everyone. "Besides, you can’t honestly call this a 'continent',’’ she says as though the matter is settled but nothing this serious is ever that easy and she knows it.

‘’What did you find that has you so possessive cousin, I wonder how you alone would deal with the pressure the factions would put on you as they milk your resources,’’ Lukhanyo says easily whilst studying the rough emerald stone he found somewhere on his excursion.

It's dun and enrefined now, but purified crystals are some of the few things that can hold value to cultivators. Also his point is valid. As the landing point this landmass may end up being a family asset and staging point instead of a personal spoil of conquest.

‘’Fine, we can divide this ‘continent’ amongst ourselves and help each other hold it even against clan pressure. But we keep the parts we explored for ourselves so all the land south of here is mine,’’ Noluvuyo says reasonably.

I almost smile at her obvious manipulation, but I don’t mind with plenty of resources east and I didn’t even reach the coast in the allocated time.

‘’Hey, I didn’t get to explore at all!’’ Luvuyo exclaims getting up from his star gazing.

‘’Well then you’ll be in charge of the portal. You could gain a lot deciding who enters and who doesn’t, maybe charge Gems like a border lord. And of course all you can see from here will be your domain,’’ she adds quickly seeing the scowl not leaving his face. ‘’Plus don’t forget we still have other continents to explore.’’

‘’Fine,’’ he grumbles. ‘’ But I get first pick next time and the first big fight.’’

‘’I’m okay with that,’’ she says quickly. She must have found something really interesting.

‘’I’m not, I mostly flew over the ocean. It’s vast and has a lot of life forms but I wouldn’t know what to do with an ocean, plus the weather was strange there.’’ Luyolo says looking at the 5 of us.

‘’Wanna swap?’’ Luvuyo asks relaxing back on his rock perch.

‘’Listen, as far as I can tell there is no chi in this world thus no cultivation spots that could be of any use to the Clan. But there are a lot of resources here that can be shipped back home to fatten the Clan coffers and the animals here are diverse and may be useful for ingredients. Let’s report, accurately, that this world is a resource mine and not a cultivation mine and few within the Family will try to take it away from us.’’ Noluvuyo adds after a moment of nothing important being said.

‘’So long as the elders get the hydra’s share of all the resources we ship back they won't mind.’’ Luvuyo says still gazing at the strange constellations above.

‘’Even so, but we do not have to ship a lot back to begin with. We can amass resources and send them back piecemeal so as to control their expectations of what is reasonable. Keep in mind how much weaker most of the mortals that have come to Valeria through this Gate in past millennia have been, you’ve all read the report by the mortals we have back home. The Elders do not expect much from this, maybe just a place for their young and some the Faceless to gain more combat experience; which is why we got this mission to begin with instead of 2nd Stage powerhouses like Zwelethu and their ilk."

‘’You are suggesting we do not do all we can for our clan to gain supremacy over the others," Luvuyo asks with a dangerous air and squinting eyes. ‘’I hope you aren’t because I could never agree to cheat the clan.’’

‘’Be reasonable cousin. Even this resource rich stone around us would be stripped bare by the clan for only a 10% increase in the Family’s coffers and they wouldn’t do it gently. They would leave the world bare such that it would take centuries if not millennia for it to recover enough to be useful again. But if we husband the resources, dig slowly and carefully into the land with foresight we could preserve this land and have it feeding our personal needs while supplying the clan and curtailing their expectations," Lukhanyo says a look passing between Noluvuyo and him.

‘’They are right brother, that lizard you killed may have been young and without chi but to all my senses it could have been a powerful elder dragon had it grown up in Omega and you would be dead. What did you do with it after defeating it?’’ Noluntu surprisingly agrees with a point by Noluvuyo for once.

‘’I ate it,’’ he grunts. ‘’It was delicious.’’ His grin is wide, the proud sparkle within his eyes mischevious. I stifle a shiver as his aura passes over me.

‘’Imagine if we could find more such creatures and teach them to cultivate back at home, we could have powerful mounts that rival the Skylark in but a 100 years. That alone would be enough to placate the elders and be a great boon for the clan. No family but ours actually invested into this expedition so no one really has a stake yet anyways.’’ Noluntu adds, something seeming to have suddenly clicked to her.

‘’You forget that such portals can be found all around Valeria, possibly the rest of Omega as well. Even now the other clans could be mining this world dry from other openings while we stand here debating whether to accumulate personal wealth or enrich our clan,’’ Luvuyo says with open contempt for everyone oozing out of his dangerous aura.

Is he stupid or patriotic or just unambitious? I can't read him for sure.

‘’This is not just about wealth! Elder Moyisi has been cultivaying on that mountain of bones trying to find enlightenment for centuries now while the world moves around him and the family has been diminishing because of it. The wolves have been nipping at us for decades now and not one person in the family of our generation has reached Chi Transformation yet. How long until we reach our own bottlenecks and like the elder have to rely on sitting on our asses instead of ingredients and training for growth mhmm...?

‘’Do not think just because we fight side by side when outsiders invade Valerai that the bantu-jin are united?! Do not think because we stand together against other Clans that the Nguni Clan is united either, do not think just because we stand togetherto fight other Families that the Moya family is united.''

Noluvuyo quickly points out shutting Luvuyo down, ''all of us here are talented when compared to our peers but we are not the best nor the most promising in the Clan in our century, not even in the Family in fact. It is not for wealth and comforts that I advise we be frugal but a matter of survival!’’ Noluvuyo is angry now, rocks shaking from her outburst facing Luvuyo. She turns my way.

‘’Matrones Noluthando was killed, supposedly in a raid by a rivalling clan but we all know it was rivals in the Nguni eliminating a promising rival heir and not some outsiders as the story goes.’’

I look up startled hearing my mothers name and I frown with my mind whirling at the implications of her accusation. The manipulative bitch dares utters mother's name?

Even as I know the sligh bitch is playing at my emotion I'm completely blindsided and emotionally destabilised even as quickly removed the shock from my face with practised ease.

‘’She’s right cousin, no one would have ever told you but you are smart enough to have figured it out yourself. The mere fact that you were left crippled instead of outright killed or taken means someone that values your bloodline wanted you alive to father children but not a threat of becoming the family heir.’’ Lukhanyo says with those black unreadable eyes centred on me, my heart is pounding, hands are sweaty, blood in my head makes it difficult to hear but I try to give nothing away.

‘’I have never been a threat,’’ I say slowly. They are trying to use me, they are playing with my emotions to manipulate me into a decision that favours them, yet they speak words I have always had in my mind but never actually voiced to any bantu-jin.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

‘’You were a child that had already finished 2nd stage bone cultivation, of course you would have become a threat. Even now with no Core to hold chi energies you still somehow manage to manipulate it well enough to incorporate it in your mana abilities. You might be the runt you are now Luthando but you have always been a born genius.’’ Lukhanyo says casually, his words stabbing into my heart and playing at my secret frustrations.

‘’And you Luvuyo, your sister sent off to marry into a family in the Nappa Clan to help maintain a trade agreement and Grand Uncle allowed it? The loyal fool that he is, too ashamed to admit that his son lost a drunken bet to a Nappa scum and agreed to give his daughter away when she turned of age or lose all face.’’

‘’That’s not true, mother would never allow such a thing!’’ Luvuyo shouts landing a metre away from her with balled fists. The air is boiling around us, the auras oppressive as they clash. I startle at the rumbling of an avalanche rolling its way from our peak down the mountain side, the sound deafening as the snow picks up momentum. I take a breath trying to cool myself realising my own aura is adding to the shaking of the mountain. Luvuyo and Noluvuyo face each other with sparks flying between them, neither willing to back away.

‘’How do you know all this and why speak it now?’’ Noluntu asks quietly.

‘’I speak it now because you are being foolish and I want you to think long term not be satisfied with the pats on the back we will receive for our loyalty and hard work. Even so I am not asking any of you betray Family or Clan, I am asking you to be loyal to yourselves first and when you've grown strong enough you will see that the Nguni are not what they preach themselves to be to their children.’’ Noluvuyo says turning away from Luvuyo but not fully giving him her back.

‘’Still, how do you know all this?’’ Noluntu ask again, I am eager to know as well. You can't make such bold claims without revealing how you may know them, not if you want to sway any of us.

‘’I have been trained in extracting information from prisoners. I know the things our enemies have done to our clan, I also know the things they haven’t that have been blamed on them.’’

‘’You’re a torturer?’’ I say after swallowing to wet my throat.

‘’We’ve always been ruthless to our enemies it has always been our way and the way of the world. Torture is one of many techniques I have been trained in by the Family. We’ve always been ruthless to ourselves as well and all of you at some point or the other have been affected by that ruthlessness, been at the mercy of those that should protect you whether you know it or not.

"If you do not grab any chance you find to get stronger you will always find yourselves at the ‘tender’ mercy of Nguni rearing.’’ She says with sarcastic venom then phases away before I sense her again 400m in the air flying away.

Everyone is left in their own thoughts paying no attention to their surroundings not noticing the slight shimmer of the portal Gate as the first of Uncle Xolisa's Watchers returns home to make a comprehensive report.

*

Om van Damage

I am in the throne room of the Emperor of Celestia and though I’ve never been in one before today I have no doubt that this one is exceptional. There are thousands of us here all of whom limbering about talking to one another or standing comfortably with natural ease as we are updated and plans are shared and explored for the final preparations of the empire. 16 304 to be exact, there are over 16 000 people here in comfortable respectful discourse, had I been anywhere else I would be surprised by the actionable planning made in this room with so many people with their own egos present.

The room is large but not so large but intimate so that even people seeking a moment of solitude are not too far from others, still it isn’t uncomfortably crowded or stuffy either. I again look at the high ceiling mostly shrouded in shadow with only a hint of white gold accentuations, diamond chandeliers and dark stout wooden beams that looking down on us giving a luxurious intimidating yet homey warmth to the room. The floor is a seamless black marble or a single piece of obsidian that glitters and eccentrically like the walls of most of the buildings in the city do under starlight. The walls are rough stone here, lightwood there and coated oak elsewhere in an interchangeable mix that must have been designed by a rune mage enchanter as the patterns don’t seem to stay on my mind as soon as I turn away from them.

Everywhere I look I know the name and general rank of the person I see as though the knowledge has always been in my mind, somehow the chamber itself seems to give surface insights into the people I speak to or who chose to speak to me. Ministers, kings queens, leaders of the different organisations and some of their foot soldier, agents presently rubbing shoulders opening discussing the future of the empire and in certain cases the world with the elite of Celestia. There are no nobles in Celestia, just people more useful than others but even being a regular citizen here puts you a head above most of the world. The royal family in its own category of course.

I make small talk with some the royal cousins while Mizar makes smiley faces at me with the occasional hand placed on my arm that makes it easy for any blind fool to see the familiarity with each other we share. Traves, the beastman in our ground seemingly the only one sensing my slight discomfort yet looking at me with envy instead of pity at having a celestial royal as a lover, probably a fool then. Still even me with my general social discomforts, generally comfortable in more intimate groups I find myself mostly relaxed here and topics serious and mundane flow through people’s mouths. I excuse myself touching Mizar lightly by reflex before walking down the dais to the main floor.

There are 60 thrones spanning the room each with its own dais elevated a single step from the floor that comfortably stands about 200 people, each with a queen sitting on it that is both a ruler of an Atrian territory and a mother to at least one royal child. Not all the thrones are occupied though as at times one of the queens deigns to leave her place of power to mingle amongst the Celestian ‘masses’ or even visit with other queens or sister wives as groups form discussing specific topics of interest in cliques around the Throne Room.

If it was mind magic that the emperor uses to keep things amicable in this chamber I’d probably understand but as a Barbarian mind magic shouldn’t work on me without forcing me into the Rage so it can’t be that. I walk through the throng casually, giving and receiving few eye contact as I’m generally not know here, which makes me wonder what information does this room reveal about me to all that care to wonder? I have spent many years here now training and doing mission and those amongst my own men and superiors I have found my place I still mostly feel like an outsider 90% of the time. Maybe the emperor uses his crown to subtly manipulate all our moods, I heard everything the man where is not just enchanted but is an ancient artifact or talisman of some sort.

Though to be sure with all my time amongst these powerful people I know I am way out of my depth when it comes to estimating the things Mizar’s great grandfather, the Celestain Emperor is capable of. I reach the circle of the other ‘outsiders’ gathered in Celestia for one reason or another that have found themselves invited here and almost sigh as I comfortably insinuate myself into the group. I again nod at Brand who winks whilst continuing his telling about the odd tribe of people living a primitive existence in the middle of the empire treating the largest deposit of diamonds he’s ever seen as ornamental wall decorations.

‘’That’s what they’re for isn’t it, don’t all humans use them for such trivial things in general?’’ Alexei asks grabbing a bird thigh from the tray of a veiled passing slave.

‘’I’ve also heard that most humans use gems for decorations,’’ the large feline says agreeing with the dwarf.

‘’It’s most civilisations that haven’t learnt about enchanting or that don’t know how to recharge gemstones that wear them mostly as ornaments. But be sure that if you see a human wearing a stone it is likely enchanted and you should tread carefully if you don’t know its use.’’ Rhea says tapping her own red ruby the size of my thumb at the centre of her necklace.

Comotion coming towards us catches my attention as I follow the other gazes centred towards the Throne Room door, we all do. ‘’Not just anyone can enter so casually with the Royal Chamberlain Arthur at the door,’’ I hear Rheagar whisper to his sister for all of us to hear.

A path opens almost spontaneously for a stern faced rogue looking man in dark armour trailing tendrils of black smoke is his wake, two other men are on either size of him keeping close, to close not to impede each other if this leads to a fight. He rushes ahead which likely means to the end of the room where Emperor Draconic sits or the 12 lesser thrones occupied by some of his children said to be heirs to the empire.

As he passes by us I move the minimum distance away fro the one on his right, if no one in the Orion family will stop them then none in this room will dare but I’m annoyed and curious enough to act as a slight impediment. As my shoulder brushes against the small men’s closest to me for a moment my emotions are neutral as the centre man’s aura washes over me.

A moment later my arms are shaking my teeth and fists are clenched with nails digging into my skin as I try to take a deep breath but end up panthing instead. My chest is constricting, I bend trying to control myself so as not to make a scene here and likely get myself killed.

‘’You alright mate?’’ Brand says with a light hand on my back. I turn to look at him ready to tell him I’m fine but whatever he sees has him flinching a step back which probably means I’m not handling myself as well as I think I am.

‘’Get me out of here,’’ I manage to send to him. Without hesitation a hand under my armpit is leading me away from the suddenly oppressive throng of people towards the still open door with no one standing guard.

Almost 30 seconds later we are through the door and I’m running down the royal foyer, Brand hot on my heel as I let loose the Rage within me. Ducking my head into a fountain I Roar pushing it all out, the smouldering anger that has overcome me. I bring it all to the fore in the single ability my throat vibrating as the power in the Roar satisfies something in me that wants to hurt myself. Gaining a semblance of composure I extract my head noticing the large cloud of steam and small shower as the water rains around Brandon and me.

He says nothing, standing a reasonable distance away but he didn’t run and this time even with the Rage clear in my eyes he doesn’t look away but has a question on his face. ‘’That royal, the one that just walked in. His ability negated the emperors control.’’ I say ignoring the dead fish that falls at my fish and the smaller ones flipping around as the last of the water and steam falls away.

‘’What do you mean, what ability?’’ He asks completely serious in a way I haven’t seen in him in a long time.

‘’The emperor is an empathy and he is controlling all our emotions,’’ to think I thought it was mind control but I would have felt that, its too insidious to.

‘’He’s controlling the emotions of everyone in the Throne Room?’’

I laugh, a defeated laugh having realised a semblance of the power a single human can wield. Getting control of myself I again look at Brand, the Rage now cold in me and actually helpful with my intelligence having increased and archaic secrets at the very edge of my perception.

‘’Everyone in the empire.’’