Chapter Text
The dead were easier to trust than the living.
They did not bow with hate behind their eyes,They did not smile while waiting for weakness. They did not question you at every possible turn.
They only stayed silent.
Argall had been dead for years, but I still came to him to talk to his tomb.
It was a habit I hated. A weakness, maybe.
Or maybe it was the last honest thing I had left.
The hall was large enough to hold a full war council, but today it was empty...
At the far end of the hall stood Argall's statue.
It was not as large as some monuments on Viltrum, but it did not need to be. The statue had weight. The shoulders were broad. The back was straight. The face was hard and calm. It looked forward, not down, as if even death had not given Argall a reason to lower his gaze.
The sculptor understood him.
Argall was not carved to look just great.
He was carved to look necessary.
I stared at the statue for a long time.
Behind the walls, the empire still moved. I could hear it if I listened closely enough. Ships passing above the capital. Distant engines. Guards changing posts. Orders being given in the lower halls. Viltrum did not sleep. It endured. It expanded. It obeyed.
For now.
I close my eyes.
"I kept it standing.." I said.
My voice moved through the hall and came back smaller.
Argall said nothing.
Of course he did not. Dead men don't say anything.
That was part of why I came here. In this hall, no one praised me. No one lied because they wanted favor. No one bowed while planning to disobey the moment I turned away.
The dead did not flatter.
They only listened.
I looked away from the statue and toward the banners. Each one was a reminder of what Viltrum had been built on. Strength. Conquest. Survival. No weakness. No excuses. No pity for worlds that chose the wrong side.
I believed in that.
I still believed in that.
A weak empire died. A slow empire was carved apart by faster enemies. A merciful empire invited rebellion from those it beat.
That was the simple truth.
But ruling was not always simple.
I had killed traitors. I had ended rebellions. I had punished worlds that broke their terms. If a planet chose war, I gave it war until it had no choice left.
But I had also accepted surrender when it was offered.
I had protected worlds that kept their oaths.
I had removed governors who destroyed cities after the fighting was already over.
The Old Blood called that mercy.
I did not.
Mercy sounded weak. It sounded like hesitation dressed up as virtue. It sounded like something a lesser ruler said when he was afraid to finish what he started.
I called it control.
A dead city produced nothing. A dead worker built nothing. A dead soldier could not serve later. A ruler who destroyed everything he conquered was not strong. He was wasteful.
That was the part the Old Blood refused to understand.
To them, restraint looked like softness. To me, restraint was knowing when violence had stopped serving the empire and started serving only the man using it.
Still, the word followed me.
Mercy.
Disgusting.
I hated how often I heard it.
I looked back at Argall's statue.
Some days, I wondered if I had preserved his empire or changed it into something he would not recognize.
The doors opened behind me.
I did not turn.
Someone entered alone.
His steps were even and quiet. He wore white council robes. His hair was pale, and the lines on his face were deep, but his eyes were still sharp. He always looked tired, but never weak. There was a difference.
He stopped a few steps behind me.
"You come here when the Old Blood are loud," he said.
"They are always loud."
"Louder, then."
I turned my head slightly.
"What changed?"
Thaedus looked at Argall's statue before he answered.
"It is getting worse."
I faced him fully.
"The council?"
"Yes."
"Speak."
"They are delaying more orders. The two governors marked for removal were warned before your officers arrived. Several older military families have also started meeting without official notice."
I waited.
Thaedus continued.
"They are calling your reforms temporary."
That word stayed in the air longer than the rest.
"Temporary," I said.
"Yes."
"They are careful with it?"
"Very."
Of course they were.
The Old Blood were not stupid enough to call it rebellion. Not yet. They would not speak of removing me. They would not speak of undoing my rule. They would only use clean words and wait for clean words to become action.
Temporary.
Return.
Tradition.
Words like that always came after change.
"They will still obey," I said.
"For now."
I turn and give him a dark look.
"Are you questioning my rule?" I ask
Thaedus did not flinch or look away.
That was why I kept him close. Many men told me what they thought I wanted to hear when they fear me. Thaedus told me what would become dangerous if ignored.
He shook his head. "I am not questioning your rule Grand Regent, I just fully believe a problem must be addressed."
I gave him an impatient look waiting for him to elaborate.
He continues.
"The council, They obey because you are stronger than them," he said. "That keeps them quiet. It does not make them loyal by heart."
I feel an unpleasant feeling rise up in me. My teeth slightly gnashing.
"I know what loyalty is." I growl.
"Then you know this is not it." He said simply.
The hall went quiet.
Outside, a ship passed low over the capital. The sound was faint, but the stone under my boots carried the vibration.
Thaedus reached into his robe and removed a thin report slate. He did not hand it to me. He knew better than to turn this hall into an office.
"Before your surrender laws, forty-three percent of occupied worlds rebelled within ten years," he said. "Now it is twelve. Tribute is higher. Garrison deaths are lower. Seven worlds surrendered this cycle before orbital attacks were needed."
"I know the reports."
"Yes," Thaedus said. "But you keep speaking about your own policy like it is something shameful."
"It is not mercy."
"Then stop caring when they call it that."
I said nothing.
He lowered the slate.
"The Old Blood hate your restraint because it works. They wanted proof that softer rule makes a weaker empire. Instead, your rule made the empire easier to hold."
"Fear holds the empire together and always has."
"Yes, but fear starts obedience," Thaedus said. "Your word keeps it from turning into another rebellion."
I looked back toward the statue.
The words were simple. That made them hard to dismiss.
I did not want conquered worlds to love me. Love was useless in rule. Love bent. Love begged. Love turned to hate when it did not get what it wanted.
Fear was cleaner.
But fear alone made people wait for a chance.
My rule had given them fewer reasons to take one.
Thaedus looked at Argall's statue again.
"Argall built an empire," he said. "The Old Blood only remember the destruction, not the society he built."
My voice lowered.
"Do not make him softer to defend me."
"I am not."
"You are close."
"No," Thaedus said. "I am saying none of us know what he would think of you. Not me. Not them. Not you."
I did not answer.
That was the part I hated.
The dead could not correct you.
They could only leave you guessing.
Thaedus knew when to stop. He did not press the point.
Instead, he said, "If you vanished, the people loyal to your rule would be attacked first."
I turned back to him.
"The officers who follow your terms. The governors who enforce your laws. The worlds that surrendered because they trusted your word. The Old Blood would call it correction."
His expression stayed calm.
"They would use Argall's name while doing it."
I pictured it too easily.
The council meeting without me.
Old generals speaking in calm voices.
Governors asking to restore harsher punishments.
Officers being blamed for weakness.
Thaedus standing alone in a room full of men who had wanted him gone for years.
Worlds that had surrendered under my terms learning those terms no longer mattered.
My hands tightened behind my back.
"I will never vanish" I said.
Thaedus watched me for a moment.
Then he bowed.
"Thank you, Subaru"
He left after that.
The doors closed behind him.
The hall became quiet again.
He dared to use my name...
I stayed in front of Argall's statue.
Thaedus had not told me anything new. The council had always resisted. The Old Blood had always hated restraint. But there was a difference between anger and preparation.
Now they were preparing.
I thought of the officers who had followed my orders because they believed discipline was not weakness. I thought of the worlds that had surrendered because my word meant something. I thought of Thaedus, old and sharp and surrounded by men who would smile while cutting his throat if my protection vanished.
If I disappeared, Viltrum would not wait.
It would move.
Some would move against my rule. Some would move to defend it.
Either way, the empire would bleed.
Bad.
I closed my eyes.
Then I will not disap-
A voice spoke inside my head cutting of my thoughts"
"I love you."
My eyes snapped opened
The voice was soft.
Female.
Close.
Too close.
Then I was somewhere else.
Water splashed behind me.
I stood beside a fountain in the middle of a crowded.... square?
For one second, I did not move.
I needed to understand what had happened before I acted.
The memorial hall was gone. Argall was gone. The black floor, the banners, the silver lights, the cold air of Viltrum — all gone.
Around me, people moved through a busy market.
A cart rolled over the stone street, wooden wheels clicking against the ground. A woman at a stall argued over prices. Children ran near the fountain and almost crashed into a man carrying a sack. Somewhere behind me, an animal snorted and stamped its feet.
The air smelled bad.
Fruit. Smoke. Sweat. Wet stone. Old food. Animals.
Too many smells.
Too many voices.
Too much movement.
Annoying.
I checked myself first.
No injury.
No restraints.
No pressure on my body.
Gravity felt close to normal. The air was breathable. My strength was still there. My hearing, sight, and balance had not changed.
That made it more strange.
If I had been weakened, there would have been something to measure. Instead, I had been moved without feeling it.
I listened to the crowd.
The language was not Viltrumite.
I understood it anyway.
Another problem.
I did not turn quickly. I let my eyes move first.
Market stalls surrounded the fountain. Cloth roofs hung over wooden frames. Red fruit sat in baskets. Guards stood near the road with spears and swords. Their armor was metal and leather, useful but primitive.
Most people looked what appeared to be human.
Not all of them however.
A man with animal ears carried crates across the street. A woman with a tail argued with a merchant. A boy with small horns sat on the fountain edge. Farther away, a broad man with tusk-like teeth laughed with two ordinary humans.
No one recognized me.
If this was a planned capture, the crowd did not know. If this was an enemy city, it did not act like one. No soldiers surrounded me. No alarms sounded. No weapons were aimed at my throat.
People glanced at me because I looked out of place.
Then they kept walking.
A large man behind a fruit stall stared longer than the others.
His stall was a few steps away from the fountain. Red fruit sat in baskets around him, round and shiny. The man himself had thick arms, a scarred face, and the stance of someone who had been in fights before. He wore simple clothes and stood with his arms crossed.
He frowned at me.
"Oi. You alright there?"
I looked at him.
He pointed vaguely at the fountain.
"You were standing there like you forgot how to walk. You lost?"
"Name this place," I said instantly.
He blinked.
"This place?"
"Yes."
"Well.. it's The capital?"
"Of what?"
Now he looked more confused.
"Lugunica."
I waited.
He scratched his cheek.
"The Royal Capital of Lugunica. You really don't know?"
"Lugunica is a kingdom?"
"Yeah." His eyes narrowed. "Where are you from?"
I ignored the question.
"Name this world."
The man stared at me.
"The.. world?"
"Yes."
"You mean the whole world?"
"Yes."
He looked around like he expected someone else to step in and deal with me.
"Look, friend, I sell appas. I don't teach geography."
"The name."
He sighed.
"There's Lugunica. Vollachia. Kararagi. Gusteko. Other places too. But if you're asking what the world is called, it's just the world."
No planetary name.
Or none he knew.
That was useful.
"What lies beyond these nations?" I asked.
"Uninhibated stuff Roads. Forests. Mountains. The Great Waterfall if you go far enough." He frowned again. "Why?"
Great Waterfall.
I kept that.
"How do people travel between nations?"
"Carriage. Dragon carriage if you have coin. Walking if you don't. Ships on rivers sometimes."
"Aircraft?"
"A what?"
"Machines that fly."
He stared at me like I had asked if his fruit had teeth.
"Uh... can't say we do.."
"Communication towers? Long-range signal systems?"
"Signal what?"
"Can this city speak to another city instantly?"
His face changed a little.
"Well... nobles might have magic tools. Metias, mirrors, things like that. Not for people like me."
Magic tools.
So magic existed here.
Things made slightly more sense now.
I kept my face still.
"Has anyone left the sky?"
The fruit seller went blinked.
Then he laughed.
"Left the sky? What does that even mean?"
"Gone above it."
"No. People don't go above the sky." He leaned forward slightly. "Did you hit your head?"
"No."
"You sure? Because you're asking questions like a man who got kicked by a ground dragon."
Ground dragon.
Local animal, probably.
I looked up.
Blue sky. White clouds. Birds.
It looked normal.
But a normal world did not move a man from Viltrum without warning. A normal world did not place foreign words into my mind and make them understandable.
The fruit seller was still watching me.
"What's your name?" he asked.
I looked back at him.
Hm... the weak human was useful so why not.
"Subaru." I said.
"Kadomon," he said back, pointing to himself. "And these are appas. Since you apparently don't know that either."
He sounded irritated now.
I looked at the sky again.
The ground had given me nothing.
So I went up.
I bent my knees and launched.
I controlled the force, but the cobblestone still cracked under my boots. Water jumped from the fountain as stand fabric flew. Several appas rolled from their baskets. People shouted and stumbled back.
Kadomon's voice followed me.
"W-Wha! My appas!"
The square dropped below me.
I rose over the rooftops and slowed enough to study the city.
It was large by local standards. Stone walls circled major districts. Some roads were wide and busy. Others twisted between narrow buildings. Smoke rose from chimneys. Carts moved through the streets. Animals pulled loads. People pointed up at me, but I was already too high for their panic to matter.
No aircraft.
No factories worth noting.
No spaceports.
No defense systems.
No sign this city had ever touched anything beyond its own sky.
I kept climbing.
Clouds passed around me. Cold mist touched my face and clothes. Then I broke above them.
The air thinned.
The sky darkened.
The world opened beneath me.
At first, I only saw land.
Fields. Forests. Rivers. Mountains. Roads. Cities too small to name from this height.
Then I noticed the problem.
The world did not curve.
I flew higher.
It still did not curve.
The land spread out like a massive flat surface. The horizon stayed wrong. It did not bend away like a planet should. There was no globe, no ocean wrapping around it, no far side hidden by distance.
I had seen strange worlds before.
Dead moons.
Gas giants with stations floating in their storms.
Colonies built under ice.
Planets cracked open by war.
This was different.
This was not only strange.
This was wrong.
I looked farther out and saw the edge.
The land ended.
Beyond it, water poured down in a huge white wall.
The man- Kadomon had mentioned the Great Waterfall.
He had said it like it was a place on a map.
I flew toward it.
The waterfall was farther than it first seemed, but distance meant little to me. The closer I came, the louder it became. Wind hit me first. Then mist. Then the deep roar of endless water.
I stopped near the edge of the world.
The land simply stopped beneath me.
Water rushed over the side in a thick white wall and fell into mist so deep I could not see through it.
I looked down.
No bottom.
No rocks.
No sea.
No stars beneath the world.
Only mist and falling water.
I descended beside it.
At first, it felt real. The air was wet. The water was cold. The sound filled my ears. I reached out and put my hand into the falling wall. It struck my skin hard enough to shove against my arm.
Real water.
Real force.
But the longer I flew down, the less sense it made.
The light did not fade correctly.
The sound did not change.
I flew faster.
Still no bottom.
Lower.
Still nothing.
The world above should have grown distant. It did not feel distant enough. The mist should have changed. It did not. The water should have reached something.
It never did.
I stopped beside the fall and stared into the white dark below.
This was not just geography.
Someone had shaped this.
Magic was the only word that fit.
Viltrum did not use magic. We did not need it. Strength, speed, discipline, and rule had carried us across worlds. Most enemies died whether their weapons were metal, energy, or prayer.
But magic was still out there.
I had seen enough of the universe to know that. Rare, but real. A powerful magic user could be dangerous because magic did not always follow the rules strength expected.
And this was not a small spell.
Not at all.
This was a world held together by something too large to ignore.
I thought of the person who could have made it.
A magic user strong enough to shape a world.
Strong enough to move me without warning.
Strong enough to put words inside my head.
"I love you."
The voice came again.
My body shivered before I could stop it.
I clenched my teeth hard enough to hurt.
I hated that reaction more than the voice.
The waterfall roared beside me.
The mist soaked my clothes.
I looked into the white below and forced my hands open.
Whoever had done this was not just strong.
They were dangerous in a way most enemies were not. They did not need to stand in front of me. They did not need to fight me. They could touch the rules around me.
That made them a problem.
I turned away from the waterfall.
I would find them.
I flew upward again, faster this time.
The edge of the world dropped behind me. The flat land spread beneath the sky. I kept going until the air thinned and the stars became clear.
Then I searched.
I started with familiar constellations.
Nothing.
I checked for Viltrumite beacon patterns.
Nothing.
I searched for transmissions, fleet traffic, colony marks, route paths, anything that could point me back to imperial space.
Nothing.
The stars were bright.
They were also useless.
I moved farther out.
Still nothing.
No familiar sky.
No known route.
No sign that Viltrum existed anywhere beyond this place.
I stayed above the world for a while and kept searching. I changed position. I compared star groups. I looked for patterns that might only seem unfamiliar from this angle.
Nothing changed.
The sky remained wrong.
Time became the next problem.
I did not know if time moved the same here. One minute here could be one minute on Viltrum. Or one hour here could be a year there.
Thaedus could already be alone.
The council could already be moving.
The Old Blood could already be preparing their correction.
The worlds that trusted my word could already be learning what my absence meant.
I needed information.
Immediately.
I turned back toward the world and descended.
I did not go straight to the square. Too many people had seen me leave. Returning there would create uneeded noise before I understood the rules of this city.
Instead, I circled above the capital.
From the air, the city was easier to read. The market square sat near several main roads. Richer districts had cleaner streets and larger buildings. Poorer areas were packed tighter, with roofs close together and alleys cutting between them. Guards moved in pairs on some roads. In others, there were none.
The city had order, but not enough.
I watched for a few more minutes.
The guards were not disciplined soldiers. Their patrols were loose. Their spacing was poor. Some were alert. Others were bored. The city had walls, but they were meant to stop armies on roads, not enemies from above. Most people moved without looking up.
This world did not expect threats from the sky I suppose.
That made sense.
Kadomon had reacted to the idea of flying machines like it was nonsense.
I needed someone who knew more than a fruit seller, but I did not need a public scene. A guard would bring attention. A noble might know more, but reaching one would take time and likely threatening.
I decided to land and organize my thoughts.
I chose a narrow alley near the market.
I dropped carefully.
The cobblestone cracked under my boots when I landed, but only a little. Dust shook from the walls. A loose shutter rattled above me.
I waited.
No alarm.
No guards rushing in.
Only distant voices from the street.
Not that it would be a problem. If the pathetically weak guards wanted to try and capture me they can. I would welcome the stress relief.
The alley smelled worse than the square. Damp stone. Trash. Old food. Sweat. A broken crate leaned against one wall. Laundry hung between two buildings overhead. A cat-like animal watched me from a windowsill, then ran when I looked at it.
I took in the surroundings.
Two exits. One ahead to a wider street. One behind me to a smaller lane.
I started walking toward the wider street.
I needed to see how people moved here from the ground, not above it. I needed names, power groups, laws, rulers, churches, magic users, and anything tied to the voice. If this world had nobles with magic tools, then it had people who understood more than the man at the stand.
The street beyond the alley was busy. Not as crowded as the square, but close. People carried baskets, argued over coins, pulled carts, and pushed past each other without apology. I watched their clothes, their weapons, their posture. Workers moved differently from merchants. Guards moved differently from both. A few men near corners watched pockets more than faces.
Criminal habits were the same on most worlds.
Before I chose a person to question, footsteps hit the stone nearby.
Fast.
A girl ran past the alley entrance.
Small. Blonde. Fast.
She held something tight against her chest. Metal flashed between her fingers. A metal tablet?Dragon-like design. Expensive, probably.
She moved well for a human child. Light steps. Good balance. She knew the street and trusted her turns.
A thief.
Every primitive kingdom had them.
I could have caught the rat before she reached the next corner.
I did not.
A child with quick feet and stolen metal was not my concern.
The problems of minuscule kingdoms were not mine.
A few seconds later, three men entered the alley after her.
The first was large, with thick arms and heavy shoulders. He looked strong by local standards. The kind of man who expected size to win arguments for him.
The second was tall and thin. His eyes moved too much. His hands stayed loose near his sides. He was the knife risk.
The third was short and sharp-faced. He smiled before anyone spoke. Too much confidence. Too little sense.
They stopped when they saw me.
They looked at my clothing.
I watched them make the decision.
The large one stepped closer.
"You lost, friend?"
I said nothing just staring at him.
The thin one shifted to my side. The short one stayed near the alley mouth, blocking the way like that mattered.
The large one came close enough that I could smell sweat and cheap food on him.
Then he put a hand on my shoulder.
I looked down at his fingers.
The waterfall had given me no exit.
The stars had given me no route.
The voice still had no face.
The man squeezed my shoulder.
For the first time since arriving in this world, I had something I could reach.