Lillene

Enjoy!

Once Senkovar was patched up, they got moving. There was a large flyer waiting just outside the space station, with a young man who looked human instead of Suras at the controls. He simply nodded when Senkovar told him to take them to the Et’Tart Clan Hall.

The flyer took off more like a plane than an ordinary flyer, which simply floated up a bit above the ground, usually two to four feet at the highest, then stayed there as they moved. While most flyers stayed close to the ground, this one didn’t. It ascended to a solid thirty feet above the ground, rising as it traveled, then flew around the tall, thin buildings. There were other flyers above and below them; Serenity didn’t want to think about how difficult that made traffic control. He wasn’t even certain there was any.

Senkovar was clearly in a dark mood after his nephew’s attack, so Serenity tried to avoid bothering him. It was a bit of a surprise when Senkovar broke the silence less than a minute after they left the spaceport. “There, ahead of us, you can see it now. All of those buildings are the Clan holdings. The Clan Hall is the building directly in front of us.”

The Clan Hall was the tallest building, easily half again the height of any of the others. It was situated on a sheer rise, clearly on top of what was once a small hill that had been cut away on one side. The other buildings were far wider as well as being shorter, but Serenity could see entrances designed for flyers at multiple levels on all of them.

Each building was covered in greenery; in addition to the green plants, the Clan Hall seemed to have some of the purple plants. They were clearly deliberately planted and anchored there in a pattern. It took Serenity a moment to realize that they formed a symbol on the side of the building that looked a lot like a circle with a pair of horns.

Senkovar gave everyone a little time to take in the spectacle before he spoke again. “We will only be here for a couple of days before we move on to Imperius. I don’t want to change those plans; a couple of days should still work and even if it isn’t, I need to deal with this situation before we spend too long at the Clan Hall. I thought everyone knew better than this, but clearly people have forgotten.”

Senkovar didn’t say anything else before they landed. Serenity had to wonder why he’d said that much and no more. Was it because there was an outsider present?

They landed on the roof of the Clan Hall. After everyone was off the flyer, Senkovar turned to the pilot. “Fetch the Clan Leader and Clan Heir. I need to speak to both of them. I know it’ll take some time for them to be ready; if you need to, find someone else to manage the spaceport.”

The pilot shook his head. “There’s no need. I’ll get them, then head back to the spaceport; there shouldn’t be any more Et’Tart ship landing for the next few hours, and anyone else can wait.”

Serenity sent a glance at Rissa, quietly asking if she knew what was going on.

Rissa shook her head slightly as she sent him a silent reply. :I think he’s trying to give the Clan Leader and Clan Heir some specific information, but he’s not certain if it will get to them or not. He’s not sure about the pilot’s loyalties. Beyond that, I think he’d really prefer to have us not be here while he cleans house. He’s still pissed off, but he also feels embarrassed.:

Once the flyer was gone, Senkovar turned to Lex. “I can’t let you go on the tour I promised; the most I can safely offer is the public areas. I won’t be announcing your heritage, either; I’m sorry.’

Lex chuckled. “I’m not surprised. I told you earlier that I’m not worried about my heritage; I simply want to see the place. Seeing it as an outsider is fine.”

Senkovar shook his head. “That may work for a couple of days, but after that the Clan Leader will know of your heritage, if he still lives.”

Lex gave a shrug with a wide smile. “And we’ll only be here for a couple of days. Why don’t you get Serenity settled first, then we can go over what the rest of us can do.”

Senkovar seemed a little reluctant as he turned to Serenity, but that made some sense. Yes, Senkovar was teaching Serenity how to work with worlds, but he seemed to have connected with Lex on a deeper level; they were actually friends and would get together simply to chat. Serenity wasn’t sure what made the difference; perhaps it was as simple as the fact that Serenity already had friends on the ship. Blaze would show up and drag Serenity away from whatever he was working on to do something fun, even if that was just “you said we’d have dinner together tonight;” Senkovar wouldn’t.

“I want you to meet Suratiz,” Senkovar started. “I know I’ve already told you that much. What I haven’t said is that I want to see how compatible you are. That is, if Suratiz wants to join your Empire.”

Serenity blinked, then objected. “I don’t need another world. Especially not one that’s so close to the Empire.”

Senkovar chuckled. “That, at least, you don’t need to worry about. Most of Suratiz’s population has the Suras bloodline. If an Asura owns the planet, the bloodline will start to express itself. We are barely human enough for the Empire as it is; that’s one of the reasons we’ve managed to stay independent. Well, that and tasks like the one you and I just accomplished. We aren’t quite nonhuman enough for the Coalition, but they’re quite willing to quietly help. It’s a balancing act and one I’ve been doing for years. At the least, we won’t harm you. I think we’ll help; we have several portals directly to Imperial markets and I believe your world may have some products to sell.”

Serenity frowned. He wasn’t certain he wanted to trust his ancestor that far. Serenity knew he wasn’t in the loop for politics, but he wasn’t sure Senkovar knew as much as he thought he did either. “I hope you’re more right about that than you are about the Et’Tart Clan’s internal politics.”

Senkovar winced. “Even if I’m not, Suratiz is wealthy. We’re a major trading hub; people bring goods here to trade with other merchants as well as with our crafters.”

Serenity tilted his head to the side. “Why are you trying so hard to convince me? What do you get out of trying to give your planet away? I know you’ve avoided allowing the Empire to take over, so protection can’t be the answer. The Empire can have a light hand if you’re a long way from the center.”

“Lighter for humans than others,” Senkovar responded, “but it’s not protection we need, no. What I want is you. I could elevate you to Clan Leader, but then it would only matter for the Clan. If you’re the Planetary Sovereign, it will affect everyone.”

“It?” Serenity still wasn’t certain what Senkovar was after. “I’m not about to move here. Earth is my home.”

Senkovar blinked. He looked a little confused. “Move here? That’s not necessary; you only need to be here when it’s time to open the Asura’s Trial.”

“I think you forgot to mention the Trial to him,” Lex contributed with a wide grin. “At least, I can’t think of any other reason Serenity would look so confused.” 

“I didn’t?” Senkovar sounded surprised. 

“No,” Lex confirmed. “You told me, but Serenity wasn’t there. I don’t think he’s developed precognition yet; that’s Rissa’s thing.”

Serenity shook his fist at his father, who was clearly enjoying the misunderstanding. He couldn’t help the grin that formed on his own face; despite everything, it was good to share a joke with his father. It would have been better if the joke wasn’t “you forgot to tell Serenity,” but it was still a little funny.

“The Trial was brought to Suratiz when we fled the old world,” Senkovar informed Serenity. “We don’t know a lot about it, but what we do know is important. It was the way to awaken the Suras bloodline, to allow us to be everything we can be. Legend says it could allow us to fly, but I don’t think I believe that; I think that requires Asura blood, not Suras. There’s a reason the angels were always called the birds-that-speak.”

That wasn’t exactly a complimentary term for angels. It also didn’t match the idea of angels being the messengers of a deity. Admittedly, if they were an entire species on the Suras’ original world, they probably weren’t all heavenly messengers. That wouldn’t make sense. No, it was far more likely that some angels were the messengers of a god, possibly more than one. If the only angels on Earth were the messengers for gods, that would be enough to fix them in the popular consciousness as heavenly messengers.

Of course, it was also possible that Serenity was simply mistranslating the word. He was good at Bridge, but that didn’t mean he always found the best English translation. Even when he did, it wasn’t always perfect. Bridge didn’t have as many words as English.

The description did seem closer to some of the older descriptions of angels, the ones that weren’t simply a perfect human with wings. Serenity was fairly certain if those angels showed up in modern times, the word “angel” wouldn’t be what most people used. No, the word would be “eldritch,” at least for people who knew the word and didn’t recognize exactly what the “angel” was. There was a reason the first words out of an angel’s mouth were supposed to be “Fear Not;” those angels were supposed to be terrifying.

“Why do you think it requires Asura blood to fly?” Serenity didn’t quite get the connection.

Senkovar shrugged. “Because an Asura is an Angel-Suras and Suras don’t have wings? Unless the Trial can grant wings, we’ll just have to go without them. The important thing is what we know it can grant: it can help those who haven’t awakened their heritage grow into it. Suras who have awakened their bloodline are stronger and sturdier, as well as more in tune with the ancient Affinities or our people, the Affinities of the planet. We are anchored and grounded, for all that we long to fly.”

“I can see why you want to open the Trial,” Serenity admitted, “but what does that have to do with trying to talk me into ruling the planet?”

“The Trial is only open to people ruled over by the Asura who opens it.” Senkovar said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “To enter, you must swear fealty; anything you gain will be lost if you turn against your Lord. It is a way for Asuras to reward their faithful.”

“And bind those who may be less faithful to service,” Lex noted. The grin had faded and he looked serious. “Is it more than that? If it’s a choice to give up benefits, that’s one thing, but if it does more than that…”

Senkovar shrugged. “I do not know. I know the few Asuras we had when we settled here used it, until they died, and no new Asuras were born. The blessings were not stripped when the Lords died. That is another reason I want Serenity as Planetary Sovereign. He would be Lord of all, and that’s not like being Lord of only a few. The weight on each person is light.”

“It would prevent anyone other than Serenity trying to give Suratiz to the Empire, but not much else, correct?” Rissa nodded slightly at Serenity as she spoke. Serenity knew she didn’t hear much from Senkovar, but that sounded like she thought she’d figured out his true goal. 

“It would,” Senkovar agreed. “I believe your requirements will be less than theirs, especially on our Suras population.”

Lillene

No, Lord Cymryn isn’t present. Senkovar didn’t bring this up while he was around, for some reason.