Val's father swallowed, squeezing his eyes shut with remembered regret.
She reached out and squeezed his hand. "I swear to you, Johnathan, I had no idea Solena's operation had advanced to the degree it had. She had completely masked herself from me and perhaps every other Highlord she thought was competition for her status. But her enmity for my own clan is well known. As panicked as I was, I still suspected Solena was simply trying to goad me into acting rashly, and Val's investigation would let us rule ESI out. I had hoped Julia had simply given in to mad impulse, the way teenagers sometimes did, eloping with a boy she liked, or perhaps a plant of Solena's. I know how tired she would get of constant lessons at her mother's side, when formal schooling came so easy to her."
Julia flashed her mother a sad smile. "Those charts were so damn hard to learn, and yeah, I absolutely hated them when I was younger. But the medical diagrams you had me master, when it finally clicked, it was like... wow. I could visualize how to treat almost any emergent crisis as it manifested!"
Christine smiled. "And how did you feel, when you finally mastered your first diagram?"
"Incredible," she whispered. "It was such an electric jolt, and I could visualize it perfectly in my head, this massive geometric proof that finally made sense and could answer a thousand questions, just by knowing where to look for the answer!"
Val felt a sudden chill racing down his spine. "You can read," he whispered. "You can read those charts?"
Julia frowned. "They're just advanced studies, what doctorates learn to master. Right, Mother?"
Julia paled, seeing her mother's smile. "No, my daughter. They require a certain spacial linguistic synergization, a visual application of mathematics and fluid proofs that few Terrans, save perhaps Einstein, could have handled." She sighed. "Had I arrived even a few decades earlier, I would have dearly loved to take that boy on as a student."
Julia swallowed. "What are you saying, mom? I'm not that brilliant. My mind was damaged, remember?"
Her mother gave a sad nod. "A portion of your hippocampus was, yes. Your ability to memorize was impaired. You would have found it more difficult to study the charts than you had prior, but your ability to master them, the cognitive nodules absent from most humans, are still fully intact." Her gaze became one of fierce pride. "And as difficult as memorizing even high school history assignments became for you, between your injury and the withdrawal you felt, you still blazed through the mathematical proofs on the cutting edge of calculus as well as you ever had, as simple for you as reading English is to Val. And I've been Psionically examining you when you sleep, dearest. I am both chilled and amazed by how you've blossomed, actualizing yourself into your higher form, feeding upon the limitless potential of all your fallen foes and claiming it for your own. You are now far more than you were, even before your injury. And it has been centuries since one of our clan was so talented in the Arcane Arts. Well done!"
Julia blinked. "Goddamn. I don't know whether I'm more shocked to find out I'm some alien hybrid with secret powers, or that my mom's peering at my dreams, assuring zero privacy!"
Christine grinned. "It's alright, my daughter. I couldn't cherish your mate any more than I already do. Were we back home, I would handfast the pair of you the moment you were welcomed as one of our clan."
Julia blinked. "Handfast?"
Her mother's grin widened. "Well, you certainly can't get married unless you're with child already? You are considered a minor under Jordian law, until you reach your majority."
Julia swallowed, flushing brightly, somehow sitting beside Val, his now unarmored hand tightly held by her own. "First of all, I'm not pregnant... that's not possible." She swallowed. "But never mind that. I'm nineteen, mom!"
Christine nodded. "Now ask your boyfriend how old do you look?"
Val blinked, suppressing the flush in his cheeks, gazing into Julia's eyes, feeling like he could drown in them. He turned to Christine, unable to deny the truth of what he saw. "Sixteen at most. She looked a bit older with the shadows under her eyes and the demeanor of someone going through withdrawal, but that's all healed. Completely. She now looks just like she did with the cosplay pictures she used to send me." He flashed a rueful grin. "Sixteen at most, and far too young for me."
"Shut up, Val, you don't look any older," she whispered.
Christine's gaze turned sad. "No, he doesn't. And he did look his age before he jumped to Jordia." She sighed. "Few hybrids age as slowly as their parents. And though I made sure the combinations were healthy, Valor was the one child of Hanna's I couldn't reverse that trait from, not without destroying the fetus, and Hanna made it quite clear that such was absolutely unacceptable to her. And I will tell you all now that I quite agreed with that sentiment, as difficult as it is for our kind to conceive."
Val swallowed. "I'm not the same Val that I was before I jumped. Even my father saw that."
His father patted his shoulder. "And I was a fool to doubt or judge for even a second."
Christine nodded. "I can only gather that it was a very rough transition, and only the quantized fields of Jordia and your unbreakable spirit allowed you to catalyze your own existence in the first place, and I won't even begin to tell you how rare that is, having occurred perhaps twice in recorded Jordian history, both of those men becoming Highlords in their own right. And that was centuries ago, when the technology was a lot less perfect than it is now." She smiled. "Among other changes, both Highlords took on the best traits of their respective clans, and they did not age a day from the moment they emerged, no rejuvenation vat ever needed again."
Val blinked. "In other words..."
"You took on many of your mother's traits, more than you had before, and I doubt you'll ever die of natural causes. But make no mistake, you are still you. And under Jordian law, you both are minors under your parents' supervision until you reach..."
"Thirty," Val said.
Christine blinked. "That is correct."
Val smiled. "My friends said the same thing when I first came to. And what an interesting experience that was." Val's bemused gaze hardened. "But you had mentioned my mother. You were friends long before either of you had either of us. What can you tell me about her?"
Val's father nodded. "Exactly what I'd like to know."
Christine's features turned solemn. She formally bowed before them both. "And here is where I will confess that which I swore to keep secret, unless events necessitate otherwise. And now, I think, they do." She solemnly clasped Val's hand. "I can only hope you and your father will forgive me, and find hope where before you felt sorrow."
Val felt his heart start to race.
"Your mother and siblings did not die in that car accident, Val."
Jonathan hissed, grabbing her arm. "What the hell are you saying, Christine?"
Christine glared at his hand until he pulled away, her nod then one of apology. "You have every right to be angry, of course. Please understand, I had to keep this secret. Your mind is so fragile, Johnathon. Any Inquisitor who approached you could read you like a book."
"Impossible. I'm not as weak as that, Christine!"
Val gazed sadly into his father's eyes. "Actually, you are, dad. I hate to say it, but this isn't the first time we ran into Felix Mordare."
His father's eyes widened. "Explain. Now."
"He stopped by our house once before with a bodyguard. He was interrogating you." Val swallowed. "I could sense him plucking thoughts directly from your head. Only because he found nothing of note was he content to leave, finding you unworthy of his time."
Val's father oscillated between outrage and perhaps relief. "Well, good then." He blinked. "But how the hell do you know that? I might not have put all the pieces together, but even I can tell that your memories only clicked into place since you slept in the car ride over here. How the hell were you able to avoid his interrogating you, and why did you never tell me any of this?"
Val shrugged. "I just hid in the hallway. There isn't much lig
ht. It's just a trick of blending into the shadows."
His father frowned. "The hallway outside my office is not the woods at night. What you're saying makes no sense."
"It makes perfect sense," Christine said. "Don't you get it, Johnathan? Your wife, who loved you quite dearly, fled with her two gifted children, equally vulnerable to what was coming. Val alone, a sweet, mild-mannered, very human looking boy, she left behind, though it broke her heart. It was the only piece of you she thought she could safely leave behind."
Johnathan swallowed. "You're saying there was no accident. That Hanna took my oldest son and daughter and left."
Christine nodded. "They were already developing powers, and the Inquisitors had already infiltrated numerous governments. Remember, Johnathon, most Highlords can flow seamlessly between worlds, their status known, potency measured, appropriate rank assigned, and everyone knows their place. Orderly ranks where upward mobility is determined by outstanding accomplishment, or mastery of Psionics and Psiblades. There is only one clan that cannot mesh with that framework. Too potent, too vulnerable, to safely contain."
Her gaze turned sad. "Had Hanna not fled with her children, they would have been taken soon enough, and Hanna pressed back into service, knowing it was the only way she could maintain any sort of guiding influence over her children's lives. Fleeing was the only way to keep them and herself entirely safe, free of the vicious games her clan favors like no other."
Val's father clenched his fists and sighed. "I'm not going to like what you're about to say, am I?"
She shook her head. "You will not. And if you're ever exposed to another Highlord without one of us near, we are all at risk. But too much has already played out for it to be otherwise, so you might as well know the truth."
Julia's hand tightly clasped Val's own. "Mother... you're not saying..."
Val swallowed, cheeks burning hot, heart roaring in his ears. He knew what she was going to say. It was so damned obvious.
He had always been good at sneaking, even as a child, practicing a certain stillness of mind and body that encouraged other people's eyes to glaze right over him.
As if he weren't even there.
And after jumping to Jordia, embracing his mother's essence all the more, it seemed, childhood skills that had served him so well in the arena of war had blazed to hot life like never before.
Not even spirits or eldritch horrors could sense him when he embraced the darkness completely.
Even an Overlord's hideous potency had washed over and through Val when he had been just feet away from the pristine darkness of the void itself.
He knew exactly what she was going to say.
"Hanna is of Clan Dauda. One of the best assassins Overlord Tytus ever had. Until she left him, refusing to take out her final target."
"Who?" Julia's voice was a mere whisper, her compassionate stare the only thing keeping Val from slipping into darkest shadow.
"Clan Highblood in its entirety. Every man, woman, and child. And yes, Julia, that meant me as well. Her lover in secret, since we had first shared drinks together, years ago."
Julia blinked, speechless.
"Relax, my peach. Tytus gave the orders to consolidate his power. My lover gave me the tools needed to rescue my family. I presented before the Overlord himself the life extending research I had dedicated myself to pursuing for years, understanding instantly who I needed to appease. The enticement of Earth-based logic matrices was the key that assured my asylum here, and the bastard was impressed that I dared to seek an audience with him, the woman assigned to kill me by my side. That earned his respect as much as anything else. And I gave him no cause to regret his clemency, his entire council's private restoration vats programmed to rejuvenate with near zero risk of malignancies, half the cause of the hot death everyone fears." Her gaze turned sad.
"But that still didn't forgive Hanna, and Tytus is no fool. With the promise of improved rejuvenation, he allowed me to bribe my way to mercy. But not without taking my first daughter as hostage and making it clear to Hanna's clan that she had failed him, after swearing service. Only her working and living beside me afforded her any kind of sanctuary, and only while she was here on Earth, hiding in plain sight. But once her children began manifesting the talents of her clan, she knew that sanctuary would soon come to an end."
Julia blinked. "I have a sister?"
Christine flashed a sad smile, tears running freely down her cheeks. "You did. She was brilliant, beautiful, and had dreamed of becoming a physicist, a subject of far more complexity in our universe than this one." She sighed. "Then she blossomed as a Psionicist, bold and beautiful as a mother could want, taking to her training with gusto. Then my dearest lover came to me in the dead of night, and my joyous life was plagued by horror and fear. And for all that I was able to forge salvation for my clan, my daughter was not so lucky."
She clenched her fists tight with suppressed fury. "I dared nothing. Not even a stray thought. But I cannot imagine that her training was other than brutal and savage, and I wept every night I thought of my poor girl, holding you being my only comfort, Julia, for so many years."
Julia's eyes filled with tears. She got up to hold her mother tight. "I remember," she softly said. "You were so bright and cheerful during the day, but at night you'd always cry, once dad was asleep. I remember feeling your tears in my head and searching the house for you, trying to hug your sadness away."
Christine held Julia close. "And you did, my girl, more than you will ever know."
Val gazed silently, for the moment dumbstruck by the almost cruel symmetry of the universe. Cruel and serendipitous and beautiful all at once.
He understood then why Christine looked so familiar. He thought he understood even why he had spontaneously catalyzed himself into existence in that particular Silbion-filled sarcophagus on that particular day. Even now, Val could recall trying desperately to hold on to Julia and failing.
Maybe he hadn't completely failed, after all.
"Christine?"
Christine instantly stilled, golden eyes peering into Val's own. She paled and trembled, already sensing what Val was going to say.
Val steeled himself and did not look away.
"Is your daughter's name Elise Highblood?"
Val felt his heart start to race as a low thrum began to vibrate through the house, television screens and monitors suddenly blazing to life, showing strange men in odd uniforms speaking in a language he could almost understand even without sensing the mind of the speaker.
Then the screens panned to a massive figure seated at the head of a conference table of polished chrome and glass, wearing the most magnificently tailored suit Val had ever seen. Flanking him to either side were several dozen world leaders, and not one of them looked at all fazed to be on the bridge of a starship, the starless night sky and a brilliant moon plainly visible on the wall to wall screen behind them.
Val blinked at the surreal image, noting the multitude of scantily clad male and female servants serving refreshments even as presidents and prime ministers were busily signing papers, all of them beaming uniform smiles at the imposing figure nodding back at them with warm approval.
The giant then turned to the camera, his brilliant red eyes blazing with fearsome intensity as he flashed a smile that was almost genial for his audience.
"People of Earth. Greetings. My name is Caesar Trueblood, and I serve as the head of acquisitions and retention for this sector. On behalf of Dominion Enterprises, I welcome you all into the fold. Though there may be a brief period of transition with our merger, I am certain that the majority of you will be quite pleased with the myriad career paths that our strategic positioning will make available to you. Indeed, you will find that the opportunities for personal growth and advancement are almost endless under our benevolent administration."
He raised his glass to the world leaders, and every last one of those distinguished figures laughed and toasted Caesar with a flood of cheerful praise befo
re guzzling down champaign from glasses the servitors always kept full.
The giant turned to the camera once more. "Our corporate officers will do everything they can to assure that each local chapter experiences a smooth and painless transition. Furthermore, every new employee will be sent notification of testing centers soon to be put in place worldwide, where those found to possess the unique traits and characteristics we are looking for will be permitted to join our elite divisions as prized employees; savoring profit, privilege, and prestige beyond their wildest dreams."
Overlord Caesar flashed a brilliant smile, raising his glass in toast.
"People of Earth, welcome to the Dominion."
--- End of Book 3 ---
The adventure continues in Endless Online - Oblivion’s Peril, coming soon!
I hope you’ll leave a review before you go. It really helps!
If you would like to sign up for my mailing list, I will be happy to let you know when my newest books are released.
And if you like the idea of entrepreneurial young dragons hungry for gold and adventure, check out Dragonsign: Gold & Glory. - Four young dragons embracing the world of trade. What could possibly go wrong?
Thank You
Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed the story! I know finding the next great novel is a passion for many of us, and I thought I’d share a couple of authors I really like.
If the idea of battling foul wizards and overthrowing demon kings with a sensual succubus by your side appeals to your inner gamer, then I’d recommend Succubus: A LitRPG Series by A.J. Markam. Some surprising twists made it a lot of fun to read!
Endless Online: Oblivion's Price: A LitRPG Adventure - Book 3 Page 42
