Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 3

The Emperor's Fear

They had their backs pressed against the wall, cool stone seeping through their clothes. The Celzex palace didn't have any obvious sources of illumination, but the further they went up, the brighter the rooms became illuminated by a sort of ambient glow that might have emanated from the very stone itself, though it was impossible to tell. Even as that glow grew brighter, their likelihood of running into palace guards increased as well, roving patrols of Celzex going in clusters up and down the hallway.

They didn't seem to be carrying any weapons, but with the celzex you could never know.

If it had been any other species, he might have risked getting caught. He was a human after all and he had no doubt that he could take out almost any other alien species in the galaxy, aside from maybe a Drev, with near impunity , and the Celzex just so happened to be punting size, however there were two things that stopped him, one: infamous Celzex pride, if he were to actually punt one, he would probably make an enemy for life that would include all of the Celzex's distant family members. Generally speaking, pissing off a group of people who have access to weapons of mass destruction was ill advised . Second of all, just because the LOOKED unarmed didn't mean a damn thing. If world destroying missiles or death rays or whatever, was a think that they were capable of making, he had no doubt that personal protection technology was well within their reach.

As he stood there with his back against the wall it occurred to him that he knew even less about the Celzex than he had originally thought. They didn't obviously avoid handing out information, but it was clear that Celzex ambassadors, and the members of his own crew kept Celzex information close to the chest.

Amelia stood beside him, still pouting rom their earlier confrontation. She didn't seem to understand how Adam wouldn't be interested in her, and she had tried, at all the inopportune moments, to change his mind on the subject. The fact that she would behave in such a way really got under his skin, and he couldn't understand how her credentials were so impressive, when her performance had been less than stellar.

She had really been more of a hinderance to the operation than she had been a help, and he planned on letting her office know about it when he got back to his ship. He was an admiral after all, and he doubted his word would be taken so lightly. Not even considering the fact that he was almost positive her behavior fell under the blanket of 'harassment' and or physical misconduct of some sort.

The Celzex patrol passed, but he didn't bother to move.

Lord Avex had said they should wait here until he and Sunny arrived, and so they would wait.

Behind him he could hear Amelia gearing up for another question, sucking in a long deep breath.

He felt sorry for whatever air she was going to waste, and conveniently stepped back just in time to trod on her foot.

It was clearly intentional enough that she shut up and went back to pouting, leaving him happily in silence as he peered around the doorway and into the hall. With his head tilted to one side he could hear the sounds of retreating Celzex feet, and, a new set coming up the hall. The new set of footsteps were clearly not Celzex: too heavy, and he knew who it was almost immediately.

He stayd in his spot to wait though as Sunny and lord Avex came quietly around the corner, Lord Avex sitting on her shoulder as she walked. He frowned as he saw her. Sunny was wearing a tarp, or what appeared to be a tarp covered in crystals, her beak sticking out from under it in a way that probably would have made it hard to see.

Adam waved a hand at them and Lord Avex steered her into the room.

"The hell are you wearing?" He whispered