Chapter 16
Once everybody had returned to the castle, Rys left Grigor in charge of the infernals. The Lilim could take care of any injured demons and devils.
In turn, Alsia ushered her bodyguards away. Soon, Rys found himself in the company of only her and Fara. The two of them followed him as he entered the castle control room. He carried both of the recovered power slates in his hands, and his strength Gift granted him the necessary strength to carry the massive objects.
“Of course this is your first stop,” Fara muttered.
“I have heard a little of this process. Is this stone slate really the source of power of Castle Aion?” Alsia asked, eyes wide as she looked around the room.
“I’m told that they’re conduits, rather than generators,” he explained. His eyes ran over the various holes in the floor and walls.
Each of these holes was a slot for a power slate. They were separated into four groupings, each of which powered a different module of the castle.
In the center was a cylindrical dais, and four hollows surrounded it—one was already occupied. The other three modules surrounded this one.
The central module powered the entire castle and was the source of Rys’s connection and power over it. Another module granted him larger construction capability, allowing him to maintain a larger, more complicated castle.
Both of these modules were intrinsically tied together. The central module controlled the total construction radius of the castle, and the construction module allowed him to build more complex creations within that radius. Right now, Rys had spare capacity in his construction capacity, but little room to expand his estate.
The other two modules were more complicated. The Labyrinth module connected to its namesake, but Rys didn’t fully understand how it operated. One day, he would activate it and see what resulted. But today was not that day.
Finally, there was his summoning module. This processed the castle’s power for Rys’s direct use. Initially, he had only used it for summoning infernals, as the power was orders of magnitude higher in density than Rys was used to. A single mistake while channeling it would vaporize him instantly.
But he had gotten over his fear and now used this power to maintain his existence outside the castle itself. Before, he had been unable to leave, but now he had a time limit directly connected to how much reserve power the castle had.
“Conduits…” Alsia said. “You mean, like the one you destroyed below?”
Fara gave her a look, but it was ignored.
“Presumably. According to Orthrus, they share a similar design,” he answered.
Both women grimaced.
“So the power source of this castle and the Labyrinth are the same?” Alsia asked.
“Presumably. Orthrus was cagey on that topic. But the Labyrinth isn’t as reliant on conduits, for whatever reason, and it can break rules that the castle can’t. Anything I create here can’t leave the archipelago, but the Labyrinth’s creations are permanent.” He sighed. “This is a mystery that I will need to unravel, eventually. But it’s also a dangerous one. The castle and Labyrinth both possess power on the level of an archangel.”
“You don’t plan on obliterating any continents, do you?” Fara asked drily.
“Maybe northern Gauron, given its current state,” he mused.
“I don’t think anybody would complain about that. But if an archangel could have destroyed the shadowbeasts invading Gauron like that, why didn’t they? There were three of them active at the time.”
Rys remained silent.
His encounter with Sirion had reminded him that the archangels were out there, and that something was currently very wrong. Sirion had regretted the path that the future took.
And more importantly, she had asked him to take care of Azrael. How the Hell was he supposed to do that? He was certain that if he attracted the attention of the Archangel of Vengeance, he’d be dead within a few minutes.
Seconds, really, but Azrael seemed the sort to have a cup of tea before teleporting across the world to murder someone. Not to mention any possible monologues.
“You’re thinking about that angel, aren’t you?” Fara said, her eyes narrowing. “She was important to you.”
Rys laughed. Both Fara and Alsia pouted at him, and he waved an apology at them.
“I told you before. She was somebody that I worked with, and we had our disagreements,” he said. “But at the same time, the encounter was a slap in the face. It’s easy to dismiss the thousand-plus years that I’ve missed while sealed away. Many of the infernals I was closest to are still around, and I’m never going to meet those who died. It’s easy to think that they’re just hanging out in Hell, and I won’t ever see them again.”
He shrugged, gaze distant. “But Sirion is dead—or gone, or whatever happened to the angels—and that was a farewell that I haven’t had the chance to give anyone else. I’ve said goodbye to a lot of people in my life, and she reminded me that there are many I don’t even think of. Not to mention how weary she was.”
The moment that Sirion had almost physically aged upon connecting to the Angelic Library ate away at Rys’s thoughts.
For the length of his life, Rys had always pushed against the rules of the world. Humans couldn’t be powerful in the Empire, but he had attained power. Angels couldn’t be trusted, but he had forged a connection with Sirion. Infernals were capricious and ruthless, but he considered infernals like Grigor and Duar to be some of his closest friends.
Was the reason that he didn’t grow tired of the world because it had always been terrible to him? Or did he see something in it that others didn’t?
“I don’t believe I’ve ever seen you so thoughtful before,” Alsia said, eyes wide.
“I’m going to pretend you didn’t call me stupid.” He chuckled at the mortified expression that crossed her face.
“This is different,” she spluttered. “You plan ahead and conspire, but this is…”
“Navel-gazing?” Fara suggested. “She’s right. You rarely look inward. Instead, you push your thoughts and concrete ideals onto others. I feel like I should be offering you advice, but I don’t think I’m the right person to talk to.”
“No, you’re not,” he said gently. “I’ll need to talk about Duar with Grigor at some point. But the person I once used as a confidant is currently indisposed.”
“Is that this Asa I hear about? Grigor has brought her up. She sounds like she has been with you forever,” Fara said, and Alsia nodded in agreement.
He grunted in reply. “Asa was Lacrissa’s right-hand succubus, although she was merely a senior member of her inner circle when I was first… acquired.” He smirked. “Lacrissa sent Asa to spy on me once I became a general, but the results weren’t as she expected. Not that she ever found out. If Asa is good at anything, it’s avoiding trouble.”
“And you trust her? Of all people?” Fara asked incredulously.
“Succubi are easier to handle than they appear. Or some are. If you can give them what they want, they eat out of the palm of your hand.”
“I bet they prefer to eat out of something else.” The fox’s eyes wandered down to his crotch, and Alsia blushed.
“In any case, I might be able to summon Asa now, but I’m not sure.” He clicked his tongue. “She’s more powerful than either Grigor or Fred. If Mina hadn’t fallen into my lap, I probably would see her as a good investment. Somebody who wants to avoid work or getting in trouble tends to be fairly good at doing a job right the first time.”
“But summoning her will prevent you from summoning others,” Fara said.
“And she might push against Mina,” Alsia added. “I cannot imagine that two spymasters could work well together.”
“Mina needs more experience before I bring Asa into the picture,” he agreed. “My intention right now is to summon devils who can assist Mina, given she’s struggling due to a lack of experienced agents. Weaker succubi and other infernals skilled in intelligence activities.”
“You want Mina to boss around succubi? She’s a minx already. I can’t imagine that ends well.” Fara’s eyes were as wide as plates.
“I’ll need to keep the succubi in check, so that they don’t mess with anybody working for me. But Mina needs to learn how to handle difficult subordinates. Her agents will be talented, but not the sort I personally trust as a spymaster. The fact she’ll be less experienced than them won’t matter, because I need her to learn how to command others, not become a spy,” Rys explained.
Both women nodded in response. He suspected that Alsia understood better than Fara, given she was a ruler. Fara likely didn’t want to disagree with something that benefited her niece.
Rys felt that he had come to a decision regarding the slates. He slotted one into the summoning module and felt a huge well of power open up in his connection to the castle. Then he shoved the other into a hollow near the dais. He felt the castle’s power expand as it washed over him.
That would allow him to summon more infernals and expand the borders of his palace.
A defensive wall might be nice. He started construction of a simple one while he was down here. Anything was better than nothing.
With the slates dealt with, and his thoughts churning from the implications of what he saw in the Labyrinth, Rys left the control room. For now, he turned his attention away from the mysteries that lay beneath the archipelago and the millennia of history he had missed.
He had a kingdom to expand.