Year 1023 of the new calendar, Month of the Sun, 11th day

I picked up Jacob and tied him back to the chair, showing the picture to him, he was still reeling from the shock of it all. Blood spurted out from his mouth, slowly dripping down onto his shirt, and then onto the floor. He looked up at me, the first time I saw him hold a genuine expression of anger since I saw him. “Why?”, he asked me, I kicked him in his stomach once again, “The ‘why’ doesn't matter, tell me. Who is it?” Jacob nodded a bit and started to talk, “He's-He's my… He's my father, he helps us a bit.” Unexpected, guess his father will be a bit of a thorn in my side, time to take care of him. “Now, what was your plan, what did you want to do?”, I asked him. He said, “We, we wanted to blow the roads to the coal mine on the island.”, Jacob was wincing and grimacing at the same time. “We only wanted what was best for our country.”, I kneeled down and looked him in the eye, “Jacob, tell me, is there anyone else that helped you?”, he shook his head and stayed silent. The room was now cloaked in silence, I waited for a few seconds, and Jacob didn't seem like he was going to speak anytime soon. I suppose I got all the answers that I could from him.

Once I was back in my office, I called up Laizi and waited for her to show. She came over quickly enough, “Laizi, you're going to get a new assignment. Bring Ts’yevlir over, and let him try to get the answer to who helped the three get explosives that potent. Before that, get me 2,000,000 pounds in gold right now.”, for the first time Laizi asked me a question, “Your Grace, you only have 2,500,000 pounds left to use on any of your projects, any more money would have to be requested from your other family members. Are you sure you want to get 2,000,000 pounds in gold?” I smiled a bit, Laizi was truly a lifesaver. “No, get me 1,000,000 pounds in gold, then.” She nodded and swiftly left the room, I really need more money. The Lendenburg Cartel — based in the city of Lendenburg — should start to branch from smaller countries to medium-sized countries. Laizi can go handle that business for me, Lendenburg itself is a very large city, with a lot of areas for the Cartel to hide, but they were pretty easy to force around with my power. Laizi came back, and so did Reginald, the two walked through the door at the same time.

Laizi was carrying a case of gold, and I could faintly sense Ts’yvelir inside the shadow of Laizi. The scared and intimidated look on Reginald's face when he peered at the shadow also alerted me to him being inside it. Laizi came up and put the case of gold on the floor, Ts’yvelir jumped from shadow to shadow and landed in mine. I could feel a small breath creeping down my neck, I waved Laizi off and stared at Reginald. “Reginald, you're free to leave until I call you back, you're my guest today, so ask Laizi for anything, within reason, and she will provide it to you.”, he shakily nodded and left the room, huh, was Ts’yvelir that scary? Or was it something else?

I made my way with Ts’yvelir back to Javier's room, he wasn't going to give up the answer quickly, and that was what Ts’yvelir was for. His powers over shadows have evolved to the point that he could make some very sophisticated illusions, and that was perfect. I walked into the room and stood in the corner, Ts’yvelir manifested into a small black ball, and a gigantic wave of mana pulsed in the room. Javier’s eyes turned blurry, and glazed over, I touched the small black ball that was Ts’yvelir, and I was ‘transported’ to a small village in the middle of the jungle. I smiled the most I have had in a while, it was an ultra-realistic illusion made by Ts’yvelir. Everything here was simply in the torture chambers, but to Javier, it felt, smelt, and was practically real. It could only be sustained by Ts’yvelir for a few minutes at a time, so I had to make the most of it.

Javier was always closer with his mother, and he was now laying down on the floor. An older woman walked up to him with a concerned look on her face, she tapped on his shoulder and said, “Javier, wake up.” He shot up and had tears streaming down his face, “NO, NO. THAT DUCHESS.” he yelled out and looked distressed. His mother was looking at him with a gentle look and hugged him warmly, “Shhh, my boy, it's fine. You're fine, I'm right here.” A quiet sob emerged from Javier, as he was crying into the chest of his mother, a battalion of soldiers stormed the village and started to murder everyone there. A bullet went straight into the chest of his mother, her lifeless corpse collapsing on the still quietly sobbing Javier. The shock of the situation wasn't quite grasped by him, he quivered a bit, “Mother?”, he asked in a quiet tone. He stood up shakily, looking down on his now blood-soaked hands, and turned to see the rest of his quiet village. The battalion of soldiers had come through the village in a storm, the houses were burning and corpses were strewn around the entire village. The smell of charred flesh hung in the air, as Javier slowly leaned back down to his mother's corpse and sobbed quietly. Tears streamed down his face that was now covered in blood, this was a simulation of real memories that Javier had. This one, I was extremely satisfied with, “Ts’yvelir, show me some other ones, and then we can go and catch a Basilisk.” A small, black, Griffin manifested on the grassy land next to me and nodded.

The next illusion was Javier walking by himself in a forest, it was a dark and quiet night. He noticed some light in the distance and slowly approached it, the fire burning becoming ever brighter as he came closer to it. Javier came to the clearing where the fire was burning ablaze and hid inside a bush. There he saw a forest of corpses that had gigantic wooden stakes stuck inside them, each one having a fire burned under them. His eyes widened in shock and horror, as he noticed a few familiar people being set ablaze on the stakes. His father, who was working that day and avoided the fate of the village, had a stake through him. The lifeless eyes of his father looked directly at Javier, miraculously, and Javier had a stream of tears dripping down his face. Good, this was perfect, I signaled to Ts’yvelir to change the scene. It changed to a beach, oho, this was quite the old memory, before my birth even. This was when Iabrun first came to this colonial holding, a fleet of battleships was on the horizon and the people of the island were in a panic. Javier was but a child this time, and he was with a friend running around on the beach. A battleship fired from the coast, its shell striking a coastal village, flattening most of its houses and killing the people inside them.

Javier's eyes widened to moons, he tried to run as fast as his child's body could. He reached a jungle off the coast and hid in the trees, looking at the bombardment of shells the battleships were spewing on the coast. He searched around for his friend, only to see a mangled corpse lying dead on the beach. The sound of the Battleship artillery rang in his ear, as he slowly walked up to see his friend's corpse. A booming voice was heard, “Surrender now to our forces, or you shall die.”, yelled the officer. The remaining people slowly shambled their way to the beach, as waves and waves of mages and people flew onto the beach. The people left surrendered, and so did Javier, as he knelt to one knee, still staring at the corpse of his friend. The village was small, and Javier knew everyone there, a family friend tried to resist, only for a strong mage to fling the body up into the air. A still-ready battery for the Battleship fired upon the flying man, a shell hitting him directly and vaporizing the man into a mist of blood. “Obey, or we shall use you as target practice.”, said the same officer as earlier, the other people obeyed and started to follow the soldiers to a different area.

After that, the illusion melted, and we were back in the torture chamber. Javier looked down on the floor, defeated and with tears streaming down his face, there was more I could show him, but those three illusions are enough for now. I smiled at Ts’yvelir, “Come on, let's go get that Basilisk now.”, he nodded and slinked back into my shadow, as I walked out of the room and into an elevator. We made our way to the roof level, and Ts’yvelir manifested himself back into a gigantic Griffin, he landed on the roof and I walked up there. “Good, good, Ts’yvelir. You did an amazing job, let's go get a Basilisk, right, you want to hunt one, or just kill a farmed one?”, Ts’yvelir was intelligent and could understand everything I was saying, he made a small cry to indicate that a farmed one would do, I carefully climbed upon his back and he swiftly took off into the air. Ts’yevlir knew the way and quickly flew off to the pens where we keep our Basilisks. It was a short flight, only ten minutes for Ts’yvelir, but it would be much longer without him.

We got there quickly, Ts’yvelir readied his claws and scooped up a gigantic Basilisk on the ground. It was a large, four-legged lizard that was slowly eating the meal we had provided it, Ts’yvelir's attack wasn't something it expected. Inside its claws, Ts’yvelir slowly, in the air, dug into the Basilisk's heart with his claws and killed the lizard. We made our way down to the field, and I got off the back of him. This area was dark, with almost no lights around, and the stars in the sky shined spectacularly. Ts’yvelir dug his beak deep into the Basilisk, as I walked around and laid down upon the grassy ground. The stars were beautiful, and the more I looked at them, the more they were mesmerizing. I heard squelching sounds coming from Ts’yvelir as he dug into the dead Basilisk, normally it would have put up a bit of a fight, but it was already a bit docile during nighttime, and the surprise killed it effectively.

I started to walk away from Ts’yvelir, but before I could take a few steps, someone called my phone. I looked down on the glowing screen, my sister? Interesting, she was younger than me and should have been on that tropical island off the coast right about now. I picked it up, she started to talk straight away, “Ari, Ari, you have to hear this.”, I smiled a bit at her calling me Ari, it had been a while, “Ok, so, you know how we have this island? Well, guess what?”, I shook my head and told her that I didn't know anything. She said, “Oh come on! Just guess.”, I sighed a bit, “What did you get this time? A new house?”, she squealed a bit over her phone, “Ok, ok, so, we got a new baby Griffin, her names Ts'yser, AND SHE IS SUCH A CUTIE.”, I choked a bit, “How did you get the money for that? And where did you get that?”, I asked her. She said, “Oh come ON! That doesn't matter, IT'S SO CUTE.”, well, she was quite defensive, “Tell me where you got the money.”, I told her. She sighed, “Father gave it to me, it was only 100,000,000 pounds. Lighten up now.” I felt a bit dizzy, and sat back down, “100-100,000,000?”, I could feel her nod, and she replied, “Yeah, only 100,000,000 pounds. Can you believe it?” I did a short goodbye, and hung up, 100,000,000 pounds? My God, that was a damn lot of money for a single Griffin, it hurt me a bit. I'm working that Griffin to the bone once it grew up, that was for damn sure.

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I looked at Ts’yvelir again, he finished eating and was now curled up and laying down. He was so large that his entire body covered me and protected me from anything, I smiled a bit and stood up. Patting his extremely comfortable feathers, I slowly climbed back on his back. He looked at me weirdly, as if he knew what I planned to do with a Griffin, hehe. Once I was on his back, I signaled to him to go to a secluded area. He obliged and led me to a part of my estate that no one frequented, it was a dark forest that occupied a small part of my land. I smiled and hopped down, going into the forest as Ts’yvelir once again slinked into my shadow. After a few minutes of walking silently, I reached an open area that was large enough for Ts’yvelir to manifest in, and so he did, the gigantic Griffin occupied most of it.

Just like before, he curled himself, reminiscent of a dog near a fireplace. I slowly made my way to his comfortable back and laid down upon it, the comfortable feathers engulfed me. I planned to sleep here for the night, anything dangerous would have long died, and if they haven't, that was what Ts’yvelir was for. A yawn came over me, the activities of the day caught up with me, and started to fall asleep. Only for me to jolt awake a moment later because my phone rang, I looked down at the glowing screen and saw that it was Laizi, “What is it?”, I answered, she said, “Your Grace, it is advised for you to come back here.” I sighed, Ts’yvelir awoke and slowly lifted himself in the air. I could hear a quiet yawn from him, as he stretched a bit and flew off to the building. When we landed, I said to Ts’yvelir, “You know the illusions you showed that guy earlier? Keep doing those for as long as you can, and you'll get another Basilisk.” Ts’yvelir nodded and slinked into the building as a shadow while I made my way to the office.

When I got there, Laizi was waiting for me as I sat down. Before she could talk, my little sister called me again, I sighed and waved Laizi off as I took the call, “You know that boy you love?”, I choked a bit on my spit and said, “How do you know?”, she giggled a bit, “It's obvious, now, I just found out his mother lives in a small town on the border of Gawain, you should go there.” I sighed and hung up, calling Laizi back in. Instead of her usually professional demeanor, and poker face that rivaled champions, she looked a bit scared. She was shaking, and jittery, as she gulped down a lump in her throat and said, “Yo-Your Grace, you're scheduled for an interview tomorrow afternoon.” I looked her in the eye and then back down to the office desk, then back to her eyes. She was now shaking considerably more, “I-I wanted to s-”, she started trying to give me an excuse, but stuttered along the way. I looked at her, she shut her mouth and stared at me back. Leave.”, I commanded to her, she obliged quickly and left the room instantly.

I started to slowly breathe, calming myself down a bit, and called Laizi back. She still looked scared of me, “Why did you not tell me earlier?”, I asked her. She noticed that my voice held barely concealed poison and disdain, she gulped a bit, and started to talk, “I di-didn't.”, the more I heard her talk, the more I disliked the sound of her voice. “Never mind, just give me the list of questions and the time.”, she nodded and sprang into action, handing me a sheet of all the questions, before going back to her usual position in the office near the door. I quickly read through the questions, they were all pretty easy, “Laizi…, this was your first offense. Make sure it doesn't happen again, we sure don't want another Ilvis situation again, now, do we?” Just by the mere mention of the name Ilvis, her eyes widened and the fear she held inside her was palpable. The name Ilvis hung in the air, as Laizi took in the mention of his name, she nodded and tried to stamp down the fear inside her. I could still see the very definite terror she held within her by the mention of the name Ilvis. I smiled at her, “Laizi, tomorrow at 8:00 am, would you please go to the Lendenburg Cartel and work out a deal for them to start moving towards the larger companies? After that, rise the payment we get from 20% up to 35%, and make sure we get it by the 15th.” She nodded, I looked at her and then waved at her to leave. She left immediately, and I looked back at the questions, they were easy to answer. Should I sleep, or do something else for the night?

An involuntary yawn came over me, I suppose it was about time to sleep. I'll just sleep in my bedroom then, I made my way quickly to it and my mind wandered off to how Ts’yvelir was doing. He should be handling it, I trusted him in doing this job, and if a Basilisk was his reward, then he would do it effectively until the end. Another yawn came over me as I laid down in bed, tomorrow would be the 12th, and only three days until the negotiations.

Year 1023 of the new calendar, Month of the Sun, 12th day

I awoke slowly, the grogginess of sleep didn't go away the moment I got out of bed. The smell of breakfast flooded into my nose, Laizi had left a small tray of eggs, toast, butter, and some cheese for me, I liked a simple breakfast on most days, and she would only change it if explicitly asked. Another yawn came over me, I walked over to the tray and started to slowly eat. That interview was going to be later this day, and I had some free time until then. Maybe I should go check up on Javier? That thought ran across my mind as I took a bite of the toast and cheese, after I was finished with my small breakfast, I made my way down to the chambers where I was keeping Javier. He looked defeated, “Where is your hideout? Where are the other people you worked with?”, Javier looked up at me and didn’t say anything. Well, I suppose there was something else I could do, Ts’yvelir in the room went out with me and grabbed the three up into a small pouch of pure darkness.

We went to the roof quickly, and Ts’yvelir turned back to what he was, a Griffin. The three were dropped next to me, and before they could get their bearings, Ts’yvelir picked Yave up in his beak and devoured the upper half of him immediately. The remaining half of Yave dropped to the floor with a gruesome squelch, his intestines, and stomach lying down on the roof. That action awoke both Javier and Jacob, their eyes widened in horror, as blood poured out from the lower half of the body. Ts’yvelir looked down at the two of them, with the blood of Yave pouring down from his beak. Next, he took apart the legs and slurped them down, finally eating the entirety of the body next. Jacob was already vomiting all over the place, Javier simply looked blankly at the scene. “Tell me.”, I demanded of them, but Jacob was too busy puking and Javier shook his head, resilient sons of bitches aren’t they.

One last thing I could pull, I called up the Admiral responsible for a small detachment from the main fleet, he was ranked right below the Fleet Admiral, who himself was ranked below the commander for all the fleets, the Navy Admiral. That person answered directly to the Emperor when it came to terms for ocean warfare, but that was a bit too much for simple target practice. Omar answered, “What can I do for you?”, we were pretty lax when it came to personal communication. “Want some target practice with your Battleships? I got the perfect thing.”, he chuckled a bit and obliged, “Meet me near the coast of Lendenburg, I will be there with my team. It will be only one Battleship, got it?”, I thanked him and called up Laizi, my estate near Augustus was far away from Lendenburg, but thankfully, she could teleport us. We reached the Lendenburg port effortlessly, the Griffin attracted the view of many people around us. Laizi and I quickly climbed upon Ts’yvelir.

He picked up the lifeless husks that were Jacob and Javier, they were barely responding to any stimuli. The two were about the same as a dead man, we quickly came upon the HES Hueser, a capital ship near the coast of Lendenburg. Its batteries were primed and ready, we landed on its main deck, and Omar came up to us with open arms. He was a giant of a man, standing well over three meters tall. His gigantic horns went up into the sky, wrapped around themselves, and then extended down to the base of his neck, a vibrant yellow color radiated from them. He wore the blue uniform fit for an Admiral, four stars were showed off openly. An equally gigantic cap was on his head, specially made to fit his special horns, we came off Ts’yvelir.

Omar looked at the two people that were more corpses than alive, he asked, “What’d they do?”, I smiled a bit and said, “Conspiracy on a colony, they planned to sink some ships there.”, his smile instantly turned to a deep frown. Omar was many things, and a ship fanatic was one of them, he definitely held ships in high regard. “I see…, well then. Let's get to this, shall we? I don’t have much time, we have to get to a war game soon enough.” I nodded, and looked at Ts’yvelir, he knew what I wanted and picked up Jacob. Before he could toss Jacob in the air, I walked up to Javier and put a hand on his shoulder, “Obey, or we shall use you as target practice.” Javier’s eyes widened even more, he seemed to regain some life in him and tried to resist. He didn’t even move a centimeter when Omar rushed him, he was so fast that I couldn’t see him tackle down Javier onto the deck of the ship.

“Why, WHY!.”, Javier yelled out. Jacob looked at him, and I could see the same eyes that Javier had when he first saw his childhood friend die. It was one of defeat, misery, sadness, acceptance, and above all, hatred. Ts’yvelir flew up with Jacob in his hand, as Omar made Javier look, as the batteries of the Battleship aimed in the air. A tear fell out of the older Javier’s eyes, it dripped down onto the deck of the ship. At the same time, the shell hit Jacob in the air, vaporizing him into a fine, bloody mist. I knelt down and looked him in the eye, “Tell me now.”, he was still staring at the deck. A minute later, he looked up at me and said in a hatred-filled voice, “Fuck. You.” A frown came over me, I signaled to Omar to do it, and Ts’yvelir tossed Javier into the air. Another shell fired off from the Battleship battery, giving the same treatment to Javier as it did to Jacob. All it did was leave a bloody mist in the sky, I felt unsatisfied, but I suppose I have to leave now. I have to go and get ready for the interview, and it was a good as time as any now. I said goodbye to Omar, he also held a frown, maybe I should raze that island to the ground as retaliation.