Chapter 294

Red Sands Desert, Archduchy of Rebirth

Dungeon Factory, Workshop

"Ah, our empress returns." Said Ghost over her shoulder as Alexandra entered the Workshop.

The dungeon core took a second to look at the little assembly. Ghost was standing before one of the workshop table, which Emilia was sitting on its end, while Subtlety and Sarah simply observed from the side.

"Mmmhhh, yes, you may bow." Alexandra chuckled as Subtlety obeyed. "Alright, relax. What are you girls doing?"

Ghost shrugged.

"Emilia here." She nodded towards the vampire advisor, who was perusing a tome, and hadn't even looked up when Alexandra entered, which was...setting off all sorts of alarm bells in the Earth-born's mind. "Was trying to teach me and Subtlety how to enchant things."

"Emphasis on the trying." Mumbled Sarah under her breath, before coughing as Ghost glared at her. "I mean, a valiant effort!"

"Thank you." Said the apparition.

"You can enchant?" Asked Alexandra curiously.

"Apparently so. I'm just having a bit of trouble. It's a lot harder than it looks."

"Tell me about it. And Subtlety?"

The AI shrugged.

"I am capable, but it is highly complicated, and outside of my programmed parameters."

Alexandra winced. That was an AI's way of saying 'it's not my fucking job, leave me alone'.

"Alright. Well, at least it does open a lot of possibilities."

"It's why we're doing it." Said Ghost.

"How were the ceremonies?" Alexandra shivered as Emilia spoke up and looked at her. The vampire wasn't mad. Okay, she sounded a bit mad, but not mad mad. In fact it seemed more like she was plotting something. "Enjoyed yourself?"

"It was stiff, a lot of grand oaths, and a royal pain in the ass, pun intended."

"Well, you did convince the baroness there should be as much pomp as possible."

"Archduchess now."

"Yes, yes, and soon to be Empress of Arkhan." Alexandra's eyebrows rose, and the vampire sighed. "I'm not criticizing your plans, just...just..."

"Your cousin is dead, his dungeon with it, and I'm running off to set the stage for a new war." Said Alexandra, softly.

"...Yes." The vampire advisor crossed her arms, hugging herself, and Alexandra stepped forward, embracing her girlfriend. "...Thank you."

"No problem."

The advisor took a step back, and sighed.

"But yeah, I've been trying to teach your other self how to enchant, but she's having some trouble."

"To be fair, it was horrendous to learn for me as well."

"Yes, but look at you now! A mistress of enchanting."

Sarah mumbled something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like 'the only time she's the mistress here', but wisely decided that a nearby spider tank prototype was extremely interesting after both Alexandra and Emilia glared at her.

"Don't you have something to do?" Said Alexandra. "Like helping with Kara's new armor?"

Sarah nodded.

"Of course, of course! Come on Sub, you can give me a hand."

"My designation is Subtlety. I am neither a submarine, a sandwich, nor lady Alexandra."

Complete and utter silence descended upon the room, the maid trying her damnedest to keep her face straight. Alexandra just stared at the AI. How the fuck-

Stolen novel; please report.

Sandwich. Subs didn't exist on Alcheryos, the name hadn't carried over from Earth.

She rounded on Ghost, but the apparition was already sprinting for the exit. Even without using her anti-gravity trick, she was deceptively fast.

"GET BACK HERE!" Shouted Alexandra as she took off after her other self, Emilia and Sarah exploding into laughter behind her.

*****

"Command, this is Echo Three. Targets sighted, positive ID on primary. Status?"

"Status nominal. Green light to engage."

The Seraphim nodded and gestured.

A split second later, five particle rifles spoke as one, and guild representative Toryva Silgenveld was no more, her soul screaming into oblivion, alongside that of her mythril ranked bodyguards.

"Targets terminated, pulling back."

The Seraphims were gone before the bodies had even hit the floor.

And any who cared to look would find traces of weapons the Order was known to deploy, as well as an ambush tailor made for their modus operandi.

*****

"So, Archduchess, huh?" Said Pyn as she brushed her fiancée's hair.

"Yeeep." Allay closed her eyes, humming.

"What does that make me then? Archduchess too? Co-archduchess?"

"Technically, archduchess consort. But everyone will just say consort."

"Awww, I don't get the big title?"

Allya chuckled.

"You do. It's just a bit complicated. But first, you have to wed me."

Pyn stopped, and the archduchess opened her eyes.

"Finally settled on a date?"

"Not yet. But I'm getting on it as soon as we get back."

"Will there be cake?"

"If there isn't a cake big enough to fit half the council inside of it, then something will have gone terribly wrong. And I will have someone's head for dinner."

"You could ask Alex."

"If I ask her, the cake will be large enough to hide a spider tank. That is if she doesn't put it on top of one for presentation."

Pyn laughed.

"Yes, that does sound like something she'd do." She picked up brushing the archduchess' hair. "Got some new messages?"

"I've had to order them stockpiled. I've received...a lot."

Pyn tilted her head as she heard her fiancée's tone.

"What is it?"

"Not...not all of them were from the Kingdom. I've received congratulations from...well, you name it. The New Republic, obviously. Tark. Gorromar. From the merchants guild, the dark elf syndicate. And the Empire."

"Old friends?"

Allya winced.

"Something like that."

"...But not your family."

Allya took in a deep, shuddering breath.

"They're not my family anymore. They haven't been for a long time. They disowned me, but they couldn't take my name away, because it was tied to my title of Knight-Valiant. Once it is granted, the only way to have it taken away is to execute the owner for high treason. That's why I chose Nouvelle-Aurore. Allya Aubétoile is now but a footnote in the Empire's hall of valor. A ghost vanished in the fogs of history."

"I see." Said the elf, softly. "And how long do you think that separation will last?"

The archduchess closed her eyes once more.

They both knew why she was asking.

After all, Alexandra wasn't making much of a secret of her plans at this point. To her inner circle, at least. It was becoming clear that if she wanted to take out the Order...the Arkhan continent wouldn't be enough.

Besides, she knew of her contact with Cassissa, the letters exchanged with the princess.

"We'll have to see."

"Do you think she can take on the Empire?"

"I'm not worried about whether she can take on the Empire." The archduchess opened her eyes, and met Pyn's gaze. "I'm worried if she can take on the Church."

The silence that followed was deafening.

*****

"Two guildmasters, and a dungeon core." Oris Lumière, sister to Cassissa Lumière and Empress of the Eris Empire, turned away from the window to look at the kneeling man clad in armor that seemed to be forged out of shadows. "You better have some good news, commander."

Katarak Margrave, commander of her Imperial Majesty's Order of the Black Hand, bowed his head.

"I'm afraid not. My enquiries so far have dug up...conflicting evidence."

"Evidence of what?"

The commander looked up, and met his liege's gaze.

"That the deeds were perpetrated with the help of the Order and the Church."

The Empress gazed at him in silence.

She didn't bother asking him if he was sure. Or if he was serious.

He wouldn't have brought it up if he wasn't. The Empire might endure by the strength of its armies, but the Lumière dynasty did by the competence of the Imperial Guard and the Black Hand. They had been the First Empress' shadow operatives, her hand in the darkness, moving unseen behind the curtain...and her insurance policy against the Order.

"So either they have allied, which is impossible..."

"Or they are attempting to sabotage one another in some way."

The Empress nodded.

"One of the purges is at hand." She whispered. "And if it is...we are the target."

She turned towards the commander.

"Eriksen visited my sister, didn't he?" She asked.

"He did, though he did take great pains to avoid making it widely known."

"I can guess why he came. He feels guilty. But my dear sister, blessed be her innocence, has no idea of who he truly is."

"What shall we do?"

She closed her eyes.

"The Order may be grooming her to take the throne, or try and pull the Empire after they've collapsed it. Eriksen would not be enthused by it, but he would do anything to restore Humanity. We cannot take the risk. Kill him. Use whatever means are necessary. That should buy us some time."

"And what of the rest of the Order?"

"If they have betrayed the oaths they took when my ancestor pulled them out of the mire and brought them back to the light, then they can all die. If the Church knows...they cannot win. We just need to make sure we stay alive until their downfall, and pick back up from there."

"What of Cassissa?"

The Empress chuckled.

"What of her? She may be blissful in her innocence, but she's no one's fool, and she's no traitor. Keep her confined. Tighten down the guard. And interrogate that mage she's so fond of."

"Your Imperial majesty, he..."

"Is an up and coming member of the World Mage Court and a scion of house Valtran, I am aware. Be gentle, and be subtle, don't drug him and throw him in a black site. I'm sure you can find a way."

"And Armik?"

The Empress grimaced.

"I cannot pursue an Archduke, even for treason. Not right now." The Black Hand had learned what had happened, what Armik had attempted to do to Allya to avenge the death of his daughter. She had no sympathy for him. The girl had already paid for her mistakes. Besides which, it was his daughter that had issued the challenge, the one who had demanded a duel. If you came down to it, his daughter was responsible for the start of the vendetta he was so keen on continuing.

It had been a harsh wakeup call for the Black Hand, that they had missed something like that for so long. And a good reminder to her that there were betrayers and weasels even amongst her most elite agencies.

Which was why the ATRB, the agency the archduke had subverted for his own goals, was being...cleaned up.

"What then?"

"Keep an eye on what is happening. The admiral we sent to Arkhan is level headed, she won't fall for his crap."

"And Allya?"

"She managed to drag herself out of the dirt I threw her in. We took everything but her title from her, and she still picked herself back up."

Actually, that was a considerable understatement, and they both knew it. The first Asarian archduchy in three hundred years...and an archduchess that was well on her way to devouring half the Kingdom and overthrowing the Republic.

What could she have accomplished, had Cassissa been a bit less blind and taken her as a consort instead of trying her mad attempt at matchmaking two lovesick idiots? With nothing but a bit of assassin gear and some help from a renegade elf, she had managed to enroll the most dangerous dungeon in fifty generations and was building a pocket empire to rival the First Empress' initial efforts.

"So we leave her be." Said the commander.

"Yes. We do."

"And what if she unifies the continent?"

"She won't. The UDC will collapse before long. I am amazed it has not already. And once it does..."

"The isolationists will try everything to stop her."

"Yes. Even making deals with the devil to do it if they have to." The Empress looked at the one way, heavily armored and shielded window, whose view showed the palace grounds. "Allya's armies are marching North, correct?"

"Yes, your Imperial Majesty."

"Then the isolationists may move fast. If she crushes Sunrise, they may run out of allies quickly. Few will be willing to stand against her then. Not openly at any rate." She turned back towards the commander. "You are dismissed."

The commander bowed, and left, passing through the veritable gauntlet of death and destruction that guarded the way to the office of the most powerful person in the world.

A gauntlet he was worried might not be enough.