“As you wish, my empress. Also, I’ve brought you the weapon you asked for.” He stood up straight, and reached into the billowing arm of his black cloak and withdrew a set of violet gauntlets. Each was slender and looked as if it would come up to my elbows. The metal was etched in a way that reminded me of shimmering scales. But the most mesmerizing part was that the fingers tapered into long, delicate claws that looked as deadly as they did graceful

I reached out without a word and took the two gauntlets from him. Surprisingly, they were not heavy. Instead, they felt like they weighed almost nothing. The metal was cool to the touch and felt painstakingly familiar. Without a second thought, I pushed my hand into the first one. The fit was perfect, and much to my shock, the inside was padded with something fuzzy that rested against my flesh.

My arm pushed in and I squirmed my fingers into place and the entire gauntlet seemed to fit into place. I shifted my fingers, and the sound of metal moving filled the room. The gauntlets were beautiful, and each piece moved so smoothly, I couldn’t believe any of it was metal, or hand crafted for that matter.

“Kharon, what is the name of this weapon?” I asked as I gripped the other gauntlet and pushed my hand inside.

“The Gauntlets of Alatorre. They were handcrafted by a master blacksmith at your order many years ago. Though this is one of many when you were testing out various weapons.” He ground his teeth together in a chuckle.

“That sounds odd. How many weapons did I have created?” I marveled at the gloves as I clenched my fist and saw the fingers easily folded in on themselves allowing me to make a true fist. They were beautiful and a perfect fit for me.

“Enough to fill an entire wall of the reliquary. Most of which could be national treasures with how powerful they are. Though thankfully you were at least somewhat conscious of the treasury when you did it.” He nodded his head and crossed his arms. His voice carried a hint of jesting, and it brought a smile to my face.

“Ah, well, I’m glad I could put them to use again.” I brought my right hand into my field of view and gazed down at the palm. The black metal that adorned the inside hardly reflected any light. “Anyway, Kharon, you are dismissed for now.” I waved at him and put my hands back in my lap. I had a few things I wanted to work on for a bit.

“As you wish, my empress. I’ll return as soon as possible.” With another flourish, the darkness consumed his form, leaving me in the meditation chamber by myself once more.

A pent-up sigh escaped from my throat, and I laid back on my hands. This was all so stressful, and honestly, too much. I was pretending to be their empress, but I had no clue what I was doing. I was going to have to fake it till I make it. Though I’m sure if I wanted to try, I could talk to my divine self. Not to mention the memories would be a boon in that department.

At least no one could say I lacked confidence. But my confidence stemmed more from defiance than anything else. I was no one’s pawn. Anything that would happen would be on my own terms. Heaven and Hell be damned. For now, though, I will reclaim the palace and then figure out my next path.

I pushed off my hands, crossed my legs once more and closed my eyes. It felt like it was still a touch too soon to work on ki cultivation, so instead, I would work on absorbing some of the martial essence from my gauntlets. From the rudimentary understanding, each weapon or magical element generated essence that would help you align with it. In doing so, you could become one with the weapon, or even mana. At least in my case, mana meant little to me, since I couldn’t use it. Now, the first step was bringing myself into alignment with my gauntlets.

With a deep breath, I focused my thoughts on the energy in the air. I felt another set of eyes open in my mind, and I could see ambient energy rising like wisps of smoke in the air. Instantly, I jumped to the orange fumes that radiated from the gauntlets. This was the essence of the fist, and it was something I was going to need to push my Asterian Dragon path forward a bit. Not to mention it would be the first of many steps for the Path of the Forgotten warrior.

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I gripped the wisps of orange smoke and pulled them towards me. Carefully, I pushed and pulled it, careful to not let it slip through my fingertips. The energy didn’t burn like Ki did. Instead, it felt like heavy blows that slammed into my mental grasp like hammers.

A steady wave of beating drums drove into my mental hand as I gently tugged it. Each impact brought a headache, but I ignored the best I could. The effects grew in intensity as they broke through the first lair of my skin and slammed into my inner body.

It felt like years had passed. My mental body was beat up, and my soul cried out for relief. But it had only been a few hours. The essence of the fist had left my soul bruised and battered as it raged against me. Thankfully, I had accepted it just past the first layer of my flesh. But any more than that, it would take me a few weeks. If not months to keep progressing further with it.

Now the only other thing I had to do was practice with them. To walk this path, I needed to understand it, or something like that. The philosophy behind it didn’t exactly sit well with me. They were just fist at the end of the day. I opened my eyes and stared out across the meditation room, and focused on the door.

My training was successful so far. I’ve broken through two meridian locks and taken on the first level of martial cultivation with my gauntlets. It made me slightly stronger than many base line people, but if the reports on the imps were accurate, I was still really far behind. Damn fate, and damn myself for bringing me into all of this.

I pushed myself off of the ground and dusted off my pants. I should have Kharon gather me some clothing. At least that way, I would still have the link to my old life. Maybe I tried I could even meditate on it and find some answers. But that can be done later. For now though, it was time for me to focus on something else. As I took my time to ponder my next course of actions, I ended up grabbing my dagger off the floor, and stared at its surface for a moment. It was truly a beautiful blade. One that filled me with as much awe as it did revulsion. What was the story behind this blade?

As soon as the thought crossed my mind, a curt knock sounded from the door. My senses went on high alert as I brought my knife up and clenched my fist. That wasn’t kharon. I only knew that because in the time I’ve been back, that man..skeleton hasn’t had the courtesy to knock. The next thing is that whoever knocked knows that I’m in here, but the question is, are they friend or foe?

I briefly toyed with the idea for a few seconds before I relented. If they were a foe, they would have torn down the door. “Enter.” I called out and prepared myself for whatever came through. The door lit up for a few heartbeats and swung on its hidden hinges.

Not even a split second after it had opened. Four warriors entered the room. Each wore a set of beautiful golden armor that clung to their forms. Matched with that was viridescent green trim, and various gemstones that studded their chest, arms and braces. It was gaudy, bright, and radiated a sense of power and regality.

However, that is where the similarity ended. Each wore a helmet that was crafted in the visage of a powerful creature. The first on the left wore a golden helm that was crafted in the visage of a bird, with vaguely feline features to it, and on the top was a plume of red and gold feathers. The next was crafted in the visage of a large feline with large protruding canines. A set of black eyes peered at me, filled not with malice, but relief, and a sense of purpose.

The third wore a helmet crafted in the visage of an enormous snake. A beast of prey that even I knew what it was. I shuddered slightly as I tore my attention away from the basilisk, and towards the last member, who had stepped ahead of the others.

This one was the mask of what I knew to be a demon. A large central eye sat in the middle of its forehead and was slightly smaller than the set of blue and red eyes that blazed with both sadness and hatred. The rest of the face was locked in a rictus of terror, exposing a pair of large, extended teeth that curled like that of a troll. A part of me knew what kind of demon this was, but I couldn’t seem to put my finger on it.

“Your majesty. The lord regent informed us of your return. We are ready to serve as soon as you demand it.” A soft male voice came from the mouth of the demon. He fell to one knee and crossed his arm over his chest.

The sounds of metal clanging into stone filled the room as each of the warriors fell to their knees in front of me. My confusion quickly gave way as I realized who I was staring at. These were the Athanatoi. The last of my personal guard. The Golden Host of Asteria. But above all else, my companions, sworn to fight and die with me.