The first was the Valkyrie Armor – the Valkyrie Maiden type Hildr.
Not a Fragment, but a true, completely unlocked Artifact. It took me a year to get past the obstacles and challenges the Fragment presented, and to remove the locks that bound its Core Awareness. My masters congratulated me, citing I was one of the rare few to unlock my Artifact in as little time.
After I finished my training as an Artemis, I joined as a probationary member of Public Security Section Three, and spent a year as a member of Silia’s Kill Crew, otherwise known as The Coven.
The following year, the Sanctum scouted me and I joined their organization, one with ties to the Primogen Council, the rulers of the Prides of Pharos, and possessing an authority that superseded that of Public Security.
The Sanctum’s many squads fell into a number of categories, and I was assigned to an Interdictor squad. Later, I was given command of my own squad, composed almost entirely of Familiars bonded to Valkyrie Armors.
For years, I served the Sanctum like a loyal dog.
I served them because they served my interests.
I had a long-term plan and was on my way to the top…when it all fell apart.
The Sanctum initiated the Purge, and any Familiar belonging to the Artemis and Paladin ranks who was suspected of ties to Crimson Crescent, or of questionable allegiance to the Prides, was detained, interrogated, and judged. Many were incarcerated while others were executed.
It couldn’t have happened at a worse time.
I had just returned with my Interdictor squad on a mission to recover stolen Artifacts from Crimson Crescent, and that included the Warlord, the Black Camellia. The Sanctum considered relieving the enemy of their prized possessions a form of interdiction, though I suspected my superiors had other reasons for sending us.
The details of the mission came under question, as did our escape from Crimson Crescent.
However, I was judged harshly for choosing to bond with the Black Camellia’s Regalia.
I was instructed to place the Warlord in the Vault, and then relinquish my command, and face a Sanctum trial.
But my trial became an execution, and I ran.
Together with the girls of my squad – my fellow Valkyries – who had been incarcerated as well, we broke out of the Sanctum’s detainment facility on an asteroid Island some distance from Pharos. To Pharos we fled, and within Pharos we hid from the Sanctum’s Judgment Squads while we tried to find passage out of the nebula.
It was on Pharos that Silia came for us, and to my horror, she did so under temporary reassignment to the Sanctum.
Perhaps it was fitting the Sanctum sent her after me.
Silia knew me best. Silia had trained me, mentored me, and made me the lethal hunting dog I became.
Unfortunately, Silia trained me too well, and I surpassed her. This was something she was well aware of, which was why the Judgment Squad she commanded was an elite unit known as the Sirens of the Slaughter – female Familiars that possessed the vaunted Siren Armors.
It was my Valkyrie Maiden Armor, Hildr, that kept me alive those days on the run. Though I had the Regalia inside my body, I couldn’t get back into the Vault under the Academy. As such, I couldn’t retrieve the Black Camellia I had placed inside on orders from the Primogen Council. With the Warlord at my disposal, I could have kept my girls alive. I could have saved them all. But with just Hildr, and the abilities of the Regalia, it wasn’t enough.
They fell to the Sirens, and in the end I was the last to remain standing.
So it was I chose to take my revenge upon them.
I slaughtered the Sirens, though it was easier said than done.
I drew them out to Island Six where the first of its habitats was under construction, and used its unfinished interior to my advantage. It was a hollow victory, and as I stood over the last Siren, a broken young woman who regarded me fearfully, I realized I’d had my fill of killing, and I spared her life.
Silia had once told me never to leave an enemy standing. However, the woman I spared was no longer an enemy I had to fear. I had broken her mind, and crushed her body. Her Siren Sisters had killed my girls, and so I had paid them in kind, and slain them by my hand. I wanted her to live with that failure and to understand that she would never beat me. I also wanted her to live with the memory of her dead comrades, just as I would carry the memory of fallen Valkyrie sisters for the rest of my days.
To my disbelief, I was rescued by Crimson Crescent.
They had need for me, for a talented Familiar, and I had no one else to turn to.
With nowhere left to run, I accepted their offer and joined them, departing Island Six aboard their newly acquired starship, the Induran, and I began life as a member of their organization.
I took the Valkyrie Maiden Hildr with me, the first of my two Artifacts.
The second Artifact I possessed was the Regalia that resided within my body.
On its own, it cannot be considered a full Artifact. Like the bracelet I wore which linked me to the Valkyrie Maiden and its Sarcophagus, the Regalia connected me to the Warlord, the Black Camellia. However, the Camellia was inside the Vault, and not inside a Pocket Space of its making. Even with the Regalia’s link to it, the Vault prevented me from summoning it.
The Vault was itself another Artifact recovered decades ago. It could manifest a visible and tangible Pocket Space that resembled a large black sphere dozens of meters across, and served as a means of storing items both large and small. But in order to retrieve an item, there had to be a connection to it in the outside world.
The Primogen Council had ordered me to store the Warlord inside the Vault. I didn’t know if this was on the advice of the Sanctum, but I did know they were frightened of its power. However, the Regalia remained inside my body and the Primogens knew they could not remove it without killing me. It was a lifetime bonding to the Regalia.
I had used the Black Camellia to save my Interdictor squad, and to return safely to Pharos.
Yet the Sanctum had decreed it an act of treason and stripped me of my command, and then issued a termination order.
Was my bonding to the Black Camellia truly deserving of execution? Why had they chosen to include my fellow Valkyrie sisters in the death order?
Why was the Sanctum lenient on Kaleb Deneve and the few others that accompanied me on that mission?
Regardless of the answer, the Vault kept me from calling upon the Warlord. If I wanted the Black Camellia, I would need to make contact with the Vault and pull out the Warlord’s Sarcophagus.
To do so, I had to return to Pharos.
I needed to enter into the vipers pit, and hedge my chances on the assumption the Sanctum wouldn’t move against me until I’d drawn out the Black Camellia from the Vault. I had to assume they wanted the Camellia out of there, and were willing to allow me to get to it first, before moving in to secure me. I had to hope they had no means to oppose me once I got the Warlord out of the Vault.
It was a monumental gamble…and it had paid off handsomely.
Standing in Induran’s belly hangar, I concentrated on summoning the Black Camellia’s Sarcophagus. The Sarcophagus that resided within Pocket Space opened a breach into real-space, and partially emerged to recover the Warlord. The Sarcophagus also recovered the Khan-skin that had overlaid itself over Hildr’s Valkyrie-skin.
I waited until the breach had sealed, then gave a mental command to Hildr’s bracelet which was protected under the Valkyrie-skin. A second breach occurred, and the Valkyrie-skin separated from my body as it was retrieved by the smaller Sarcophagus it belonged to. This time I was chilled to the bone as the black mist surrounded me.
When the breach sealed shut, and the mist faded away, I looked down at myself and was pleased to see I was dressed in the casual wear I’d chosen for myself in the morning as I prepared to leave the cheap hotel room I’d rented in Island Four. While wearing the Valkyrie-skin, my clothes were stored away inside the Sarcophagus. As a result, I had to endure
the chilling cold within the mist, while the Sarcophagus dressed me again in my casual attire – the details of which I will not divulge.
Now both Artifacts – the Valkyrie Maiden and the Warlord – would remain in their respective bubbles of Pocket Space until I called for them again.
I found it amazing that even while Induran travelled through trans-space, the workings of Pocket Space remained unchanged. Even after all these years using a handful of Fragments, then being bonded to the Valkyrie Maiden Hildr before gaining the Regalia that allowed me to operate the Black Camellia, I had never grown fully accustomed to their amazing abilities.
Their designers were truly scientific gods to have created such marvels.
Perhaps they were the true gods of our reality.
Perhaps they were gods that belonged to another reality.
I looked down at the bracelet on my left wrist, then brought my wrist up to my chest.
With the Warlord in my possession, the next round of my plans could finally be put into effect. It was time to make the Sanctum, and Silia, pay for what they did to me and to my Valkyrie sisters.
The cold chill inside the belly hangar was biting into me. My casual clothes weren’t the best for shipboard activities. Quickly, I walked out of the hangar and down the surprisingly spacious corridors of the starship.
I stopped by my quarters and changed into a shipboard uniform.
Then I made my way toward the infirmary, to look in upon Capella.
The doctor there greeted me, and summarized the girl’s injuries.
Capella had lost her left eye, and suffered severe burns when her Fragment’s effect-field weakened, allowing quantum reaction energy to strike her body.
She would live, and with the Symbiote’s accelerated help, her recovery was expected within a week. While the organism didn’t live long inside a Familiar’s body, only a matter of days, it worked faster inside my kind than within an Aventis. Not even a Pureblood could hope to match our rate of recovery.
Meanwhile, an artificial eye would be implanted into Capella’s left eye socket. I asked the doctor to grow a new organic eye for her as soon as possible, and I was assured it would be ready in a few weeks.
I stepped up to the medical capsule with Capella lying inside.
She was awake. At sight of me I saw a tear trickle down her right cheek.
I heard her voice through the capsule’s speaker. “Mistress…I’m so sorry…I failed you….”
I touched the capsule’s transparent skin. “You didn’t fail me. We achieved everything we wanted, and all of us are alive and aboard ship.”
“…but I let that girl do this to me….”
I smiled down at her. “Then Drake and I will retrain you once you are better. We’ll make you better than before, and in the future you’ll have your revenge. How does that sound?”
She reached up and touched the inside of the capsule. I placed my fingers over hers, separated by the layer of transparent alloy.
“Mistress, he didn’t come with us….”
I shook my head faintly. “No. He has a place where belongs, and he has chosen a side. I must respect that.”
Capella lowered her hand. “I’m so sorry, Mistress.”
I shook my head firmly this time. “No, there is nothing to be sorry over. You did well—all of you did well. If there was any weakness expressed, it was mine and only mine.” I leaned over the curved capsule. “Sleep now. You need to rest. While it lives inside you, the Symbiote will heal your wounds, and when you wake up you’ll have a new eye.”
She gave me weak smile. “Thank you, Mistress.”
Capella settled down to rest, and the doctor nodded at me, indicating the girl had slipped into a slumber aided by the medical devices attached to her skull.
I took a deep breath, and left the infirmary.
I found Rylan, Sunaj and Drake waiting for me outside.
They were my Kill Crew, put together after I joined Crimson Crescent. However, they would never replace the girls of my Interdictor squad – the girls I’d failed to protect from Silia.
“She’ll be fine,” I told them. “Let her rest.” I looked at each of them in turn. “I want your reports on my desk before we dock with the Pantra for supplies. Is that clear?”
They nodded and I started walking toward the bridge.
Drake’s voice followed me. “Celica, after we reload our supplies, are we heading back to the Crimson Star?”
I shook my head. “No, I have nothing to tell Carlisle, so we continue on our own.”
“Then when do we start the next phase?”
I stopped and laughed curtly under my breath. “When I get some sleep. I haven’t slept in days, Drake. At least afford me this one luxury.”
It was Sunaj’s voice that held me back. “Mistress, you know that the Primogens could have changed the password phrases on the seven seals at any time. It would have taken us much, much longer to break them all at once.”
“But they didn’t change them,” I replied.
“No, they did not. Nor did they repair the seals that we broke. Also, without all those clues they left behind, my Artifact wouldn’t have been able to piece the password phrases together.”
“That’s true.” I half turned and faced him. “What’s your point, Sunaj?”
“My point is that the Primogens allowed us to break in.”
I smiled at him. “Sunaj, you waited this long to point that out? You’ve had months to voice your concern. Why are you so troubled now?”
He looked uncomfortable. “Because they allowed us to break in, then did nothing to stop us from getting out.”
He was right, but I wasn’t going to outwardly agree with him.
It had troubled me too, the fact I faced no opposition when I emerged from the underground tunnels. Certainly, the Enforcers offered some token resistance, but that was all it was. The Black Camellia had little trouble warding off their feeble attempts to bring it down.
Why let me steal back the Black Camellia, then do nothing to stop me?
I could only assume something had gone wrong on their end.
Perhaps a breakdown in the Sanctum’s chain of command, or a disagreement between the Primogens.
I didn’t know, but I was inwardly grateful that our escape had been relatively easy to achieve.
Facing Sunaj, I shook my head faintly and continued to smile.
“Relax Sunaj. The Primogens know it’ll take us weeks to figure out if the data we copied is any good. As for the Warlord, it was worthless to them while inside the Vault. Without a link to it they couldn’t hope to retrieve it. I was the only one with that link, and as such the only one who could pull it out of the Vault. Now, they stand a better chance of getting it back. Of course, I have absolutely no intention of letting them steal it from me.”
I turned to face them properly, and looked at all three of my comrades in succession.
“Gentlemen, I can recognize a trap when I see one. They baited me, they thought they could trap us, and they failed. Silia grossly underestimated us. She had three months to prepare and this was all she could achieve. It hardly befits her rank as Field Commander in Public Security.”
Sunaj took a step toward me. “That wasn’t a Public Security Section crew we faced at the Academy. Those were kids still learning how to use their Fragments. You don’t find it odd we didn’t run into Silia’s crew, The Coven?”
I eyed him flatly. “I find it fortunate, and so should you.”
“Mistress, that’s not what I meant.”
I hardened my stare and replied testily, “I don’t care what you meant. With the Black Camellia in my possession, Crimson Crescent is again one step closer to operating the Titan.”
Rylan nodded very, very lightly. “And what about your brother? He has a Kaiser, doesn’t he?”
“And what if he does. He can barely summon both Gauntlets, let alone the rest of the Kaiser.”
Sunaj narrowed his eyes at me. “The records state tha
t those who came to possess Warlords during the War of Supremacy, were once in possession of Kaisers and Valkyries. It said they were the only ones compatible with a Warlord.”
“What’s your point?”
“The Primogens may choose to bond him with a Warlord. What do we do then?”
I shrugged. “My brother is my concern. Not yours. Should he bond with a Warlord, then what could you possibly do about it? What could any of you do?”
I looked at them, waited for answer, and received none, which was to be expected.
I nodded. “Exactly. With the Fragments and Artifacts you have, there is nothing you can do to stop a Warlord. Even the Kaiser’s Blessing would be outmatched. That’s precisely why it’s called a Warlord. It should really be called a War God.” Before turning away, I added, “You’ve trusted me this far. Won’t you trust me a little longer?”
I resumed walking toward Induran’s bridge.
I didn’t wait for their replies.
Words were meaningless. I wanted their answers expressed by actions, and not words.
Show me your trust, and I’ll show you my resolve.
Sleep would come soon enough, but for now there were still matters to address. I needed to be apprised of the ship’s condition. The trans-light drive was sure to have taken a pounding when Induran used trans-space to tunnel through Island Three’s mass shadow and broke into the habitat.
Afterwards, I needed to visit the ship’s Core and spend some time with her.
I needed to thank her for everything she’d done for us.
It wasn’t until much later, when I was alone and lying on my bunk, that I thought of Caelum and considered Sunaj’s opinions.
Caelum had manifested both shield-blades of his Artifact.
How much longer before he fully summoned the Kaiser’s Blessing?
How much longer before he bonded with a Warlord of his own?
When I presented the Black Camellia to the Primogens, some twenty odd months ago, they had expressed fear of the Warlord’s power, and ordered me to put it away. Yet I suspected they already had one in their possession, though I didn’t know if anyone was bonded to it. I had tried to find out if my suspicions were true, and again I feared that maybe my actions had tipped the Sanctum’s hand, already heavy with the responsibility of ordering the purge, and forcing them to accuse me of treason.
Pride X Familiar ReVamp (Pride X ReVamp Book 1) Page 36
