Alessandra Drakkon
Queen of the Drakkon Empire
With Yanu's help, I strip off that horrid wedding dress and throw it in the fire. "Was stabbing and insulting him a smart choice, your majesty?" Her words are quiet and not exactly one hundred percent welcome, but I know that she is right.
"Insulting him was probably too much, and stabbing him even when he tried to manhandle me was probably a mistake, but it sure felt good to do in the moment." Smirking Tanza walks back into the room with a new outfit for me to change into. I watch as the purple flames eat at the fabric, though I frown in dissatisfaction as I watch the female Arachne silk resist the flames, I bet if I pulled it out right now, it would be perfectly intact.
"He deserved it, don't feel bad for doing that your majesty, if not for you stabbing him, I would have sliced his throat, and Raywin was aiming an arrow at his throat as well," Talon speaks from the shadows, but I don't jump in surprise, knowing he has been there the whole time. I change into the simple black dress Tanza picked out, knowing my other guards feel similar but choose not to say so, Yanu helps me pull my hair up into a neat bun.
I wait for everyone to come to tell me what a huge mistake I've made. It doesn't take them long, both Damien and Titus come rushing in after me minutes later, I raise a hand to silence them before they can even begin to lecture me. "I know I made a rash decision, I apologize." Titus's mouth falls open in surprise as if he cannot believe what I am saying.
"Apologize! You stabbed the ruler of another High House, this could mean war! Apologies will not satisfy Cedric's rage." I chuckle at his words, rushing to cover my mouth before anything else slips out.
"I'm sorry, I think you've misunderstood me. I was apologizing to both of you for the mess I will have caused by stabbing Cedric, I will not be apologizing for stabbing him." Titus sputters at my words, utterly appalled by my apparent carefree attitude regarding the situation.
"I've never met a ruler so disregarding of their Empire. You could have started a war over something such as not wanting to marry him?" My carefree attitude abruptly disappears as I glare at Titus.
"Disregarding of my Empire? I was prepared to sacrifice one thousand years of happiness for this Empire, I was prepared to marry someone who was actively plotting to kill me after our marriage for this Empire. You know nothing of sacrifice Titus, after meeting Isbeth could you force yourself to love another? I very much doubt it, I may not have met my soul mate like you Titus, but I do know that the dark twisted bastard that is the ruler of House Trennix is not him. Besides does my father still being alive mean nothing to you, before you were so eager at the thought of him being alive, are you so disloyal that you don't care?" I was furious with his attitude, none of the other royals were expected to hold up the stupid betrothal so why was I expected to?
"Of course, your father being alive is a good thing, but unless you can find him in two and a half months, he will have no claim remaining on the throne and thus unable to dispute the betrothal agreement, you've made a grave mistake slighting your future husband." I appreciated that he wasn't afraid to disagree with my opinions, but he was stepping over the line.
"What does it matter if I slighted him or not, marrying me is raising him two steps above his current station, even if I've made him hate me, he won't refuse marriage now, even if I asked him to. Besides, currently, there is no lasting effect from my refusal, if I were to separate from him after we were married, he would get a portion of Drakkon industries." Damien whistles loudly making me wince, he glares at the both of us, obviously having tried to speak before but was unable to get a word out amongst our bickering.
"Did you not hear her say that Cedric was actively planning to kill her after their marriage? Planning to make it look like a suicide no doubt so that he would be able to inherit her shares in Drakkon industries." Titus pales as if he had indeed not heard me mention that he looks at me worriedly as if now concerned for my health.
"Are you alright your majesty? How did you discover his plans?" I wave off his concern not interested in it right now.
"Yes, I am fine, and I received a voice recording of his conversation with his mistress from the twins in the server room, they felt it important that I listen to it before my marriage. Speaking of the twins, they also discovered a corrupt video file of someone speaking to my father before blowing up his ship and destroying the planet the Solveig's were on." Titus pales even further, showing me that at least he hadn't known anything about that.
"Is that why Gem and Mina are informing me that you hired an additional six personnel for the server room, all of whom may I mention have previous history of hacking, espionage, and theft." I nod, knowing he would not allow them into the server room if I didn't give him my express permission.
"Yes, Gem and Mina, those are their names, interesting, anyways, they have informed me that they trust them to be down there and I, in turn, told them that if one of them turns out not to be trustworthy then they will also be punished, they need the help and right now with all the possible threats coming at me, we need all the information we can get." Titus's mouth forms a firm line, but he reluctantly nods in agreement. "Excellent now that that is out of the way, prepare a ship immediately, we will be heading for the location my father's ship was last seen immediately." Titus nods, beginning to type on his sheeve as he makes the preparations.
"It will take a day or two to be completely ready." I frown at him, not understanding why it would take so long.
"Did I not already tell you to have a ship ready for travel to the Solveig planet after the wedding, did you not prepare anything?" Titus pauses in his typing, hearing from my words that I've misunderstood him.
"No, your Highness. Everything is prepared for you to leave, but it will take me a day or two to settle this mess down enough for me to leave." I shake my head immediately knowing he too did not understand what I was saying.
"You will not be coming with me, Titus. Damien, my guards, and the crew of the ship will be coming and possibly others, but you will not be among them." Titus looks at me with a hurt expression as if not understanding why I would leave him behind.
"I know that my comments were over the line, but I have not upset you so much that you would fire me have I, your majesty?" I shake my head again, he had assumed the worst possible thing I could do for him.
"No, no, nothing like that. You are correct that some of your comments were over the line, but that is not the reason you are staying behind, you are staying behind, because I need someone to govern in my place while I am away, and I can think of no one better suited for the job than you Titus. After all, you kept this Empire together for the six months my father was missing and I was not here, with Taarique trying to override your authority the entire time." Titus blushes upon hearing my words, showing that I do not thank him enough for all the work he does.
"Of course, your majesty. Thank you for the honour. I will inform the crew that they will be leaving in an hour, which should allow me to finish the final preparations, now if you would excuse me, your majesty, so that I can get to work." I wave him off, knowing that he won't start until I dismiss him.
"I am sorry to interrupt your majesty." I give Damien a raised eyebrow, wondering why he was acting so formal. "But have you tried the obvious thing yet?" I wait for him to continue, curious as to what he will say. "The locket? Have you tried finding out what your father remembers yet?" I blink in surprise upon hearing his words, having completely forgotten about the locket's existence.
I had learned much about the planets and systems under my rule from conversations with my father, but after he had betrayed me by releasing the betrothal document, I had thrown the locket across the room and not looked for it since. "I'm not exactly sure where it is, I threw it across the room when I found out about the betrothal documents being released and haven't looked for it since." Tanza clears her throat lightly and I turn my head to look at her.
She holds the locket in the palm of her hand. "I saw it on the ground and put it away with the rest of your jewelry I did not realize its significance." In other words, she didn't realize that it wasn't just a normal locket, but a locket that held the mind and memories of my father.
"My father, Aldrich Drakkon." I say the words, but the locket does not open, my father's form does not appear beside me. I frown before sagging my head forward. "It's dead, it charges through contact with the signet ring, since I haven't been wearing it, it hasn't been charging, that message the locket sent at the wedding must have taken all the juice it had." I put the locket around my neck, mentally hitting myself for being so foolish.
"How long does it take to charge?" I shrug my shoulders as I look out the window, not sure how to answer Damien's question.
"I don't know, it has never been dead before, I don't even know if it will work still. Some machines only work as long as there is always a little bit of juice in them but once they're completely dead, they just won't charge. Let's hope this locket isn't one of those things, even though it is probably old tech compared to newer versions of this, it is after all over twenty years old." I look towards my guards knowing that this is the correct next step.
"If you do not wish to risk your life on this possibly dangerous mission, I will understand." They shake their heads silently baring their now brand-free wrists to me in a show of solitude. "Alright, please ensure that you are packed for a trip that could possibly take months, hopefully not more than two and a half though because I'd really rather not marry Cedric." The last part of the comment is mostly a sarcastic comment to myself, but they hear me nonetheless and offer me vicious grins, a reminder that they've each volunteered to kill him for me if I requested it of them.
"We're already packed, your majesty. Just leaving a day earlier than expected, though I for one am looking forward to not wearing a dress all the time." Tanza's words were expected, I knew how much she hated dressing presentably but that was her part as one of my ladies in waiting. I nod in acknowledgement and we leave my room in preparation for heading towards the ship.
We are immediately assaulted by Cedric as soon as we leave my room, still dressed in his wedding attire, his hand still stained with his greenish blood, though the wound I gave him has healed.
"We're not done yet, bitch! You promised to marry me, and you will, or you will cause a war!" I clench my fists in annoyance, not knowing how he can be possibly so foolish.
"We are done, for two and a half months, I am free of you Cedric, if I don't find my father before then I will have no choice but to return and marry you, so halt the war drums alright, you have no choice but to wait, you are too greedy of a bastard to possibly pass up on the chance of elevating your position so much." He snarls looking nothing like the shy historian he had presented to me before.
"You owe me blood, and I choose to accept it in you drinking our mixed blood and accepting our union." He storms right up to me, I twitch my hand in response to my guards moving to block him, he stands right in front of me, huffing loudly in my face.
I raise my hand and shove the butt of my palm into his nose, breaking it and causing more of his disgusting blood to run down his face. "Looks like I owe you some more now too, you should really clean up, you're extremely unpresentable right now, it sends the wrong message to our people. We can meet after you wash off all that blood." Of course, I would be long gone by then and he would not be able to follow after me.
He stumbles away from me and into the wall clutching at his face in pain, he glares at me as he spits some of his blood off his mouth and onto my nice floors. "You're not going anywhere!" I bare my teeth at him, waving my hand, Talon reveals himself from beside Cedric, his knife already pressed to his throat.
"You have no command over me, and as you can see if you try to follow or stop me, there will be severe consequences, for you, not me. If you want a war Cedric, I will give you one, but we both know that you will not be the one who wins. House Drakkon is the Leading House for a reason. My Empire is larger than yours and as such my army is larger than yours, do not push me. You were going to force me into this situation and then kill me after we married, I do not take death threats lightly, you should watch your words, you never know who is listening." He pales upon hearing my words and feeling the cold blade against his throat. "Goodbye, Cedric." I walk away from him, unafraid to turn my back on him because I know my guards are protecting my back.
The next person who tries to stop me is another head of a High House, though this one is from House Morgase instead of House Trennix. "You can't do this, Alessandra." I glare at him, he wasn't supposed to be informal in public, I was still above him in title.
"Do what? Make my own choices? You can't stop me, Kalo. Besides, I thought you didn't want me to marry him in the first place, this is the only way that it may not happen, why would you not want me to go?" He was confusing me, what was so wrong with getting my father so that he could abolish the stupid betrothal document.
"It's too dangerous, you don't know what enemies are waiting for you there, you don't even know if he might be dead right now, that locket tells you nothing." I pause my stride to stare at him.
"Kalo, how did you know about the locket?" He shakes his head waving away my words like they don't matter.
"Never mind that, if you are so set on going then at least take me with you so that I can protect you." Before I most likely would have said yes, but with his accidental slip about the knowledge he shouldn't have, I didn't trust him, I may feel some attraction towards him, but I wasn't so foolish as to let it blind me to the obvious, he had been spying on me, he must have planted some sort of listening device in my room.
"You know what? No, I don't think you'll be coming with me, in fact, I think that after I leave, you, and every other head of House here, will be asked to leave my territory." He stumbles away from me as if I've delivered a blow, he stares at me with shock and hurt but right now I didn't care about his wounded feelings, I had more important things to sort out than his hurt ego. "Hope you have a nice trip home, Kalo." With those last words, I leave him shocked and staring at me in disbelief.
I stumble onto Daxton next, and I want to scream, "Come on! What is happening here, am I going to be seeing Asriel next?" Daxton gazes at me in confusion, his long white hair swirling in the breeze, with us having just left the castle and entered the courtyard.
"Um, no, I think he left as soon as everyone realized that the wedding was cancelled, something about urgent business back home, I'm not really sure, the other Heads of Houses don't really talk to me that much, considering." Considering that he used to be heir to his mother's throne until I stripped him of all his titles and forced him to become one of my citizens for ten years.
"Considering that now you are no longer on their purview. I'm sorry, I am being rude, what do you need Daxton?" If he protests me from going on this trip, I might hit him. He would be the fifth male to do so after all, the males around me needed to stop trying to control me or someone was going to get stabbed.... Again. I suddenly feel much more relaxed after relieving the moment of stabbing Cedric's hand to that stupid wedding altar.
"I'm not sure what everyone else has been saying, but I'd like to go with you on your trip." I blink in surprise, that was not what I expected, he was the first one to ask to come with me first instead of protesting before realizing it was useless and then deciding to come.
"Why would you like to come?" I was suddenly suspicious of his motives, after all, he probably still has a lot of loyalty to House Aurelie, my beating him in a fight does not win me his loyalty.
"Not many people know this, but my mother is not a kind woman. She is a ruthless leader and holds little mercy, that fight was not the first time she made me foolishly risk my life or the first time someone punished me with burns." His words make me blink in surprise, his face was still marred by the burn mark I had given him, but I had been under the assumption that he was an arrogant child who believed he was better than everyone else, my choice to keep him here for ten years was in an effort to give him a lesson in humility but maybe I gave him a way out of his cruel mother's grasp instead.
"Alright, you can come, but I will only grant you my trust once Daxton, do not break it." He falls to one knee before me and bows his head.
"I won't your Highness, you honour me with your trust." I tilt his head up, gazing down at him with a kind smile.
"I am not your mother, Daxton, you don't have to give me such blatant words of loyalty. Do not get me wrong if you do something stupid, you will be punished, but I do not give out torture as a punishment, contrary to our last fight, where I admit I did get rather out of hand, I don't relish the thought of intentionally causing someone, who has not betrayed me, pain." I wave my hand and he stands up and moves behind me into my retinue. "Are you all packed for a long trip or do you need me to summon someone to get your things?" I wanted to leave as quickly as possible, and I didn't want him getting his stuff to be the thing delaying us.
"My baggage is already on the ship, I was rather hoping you would allow me to accompany you." I nod, surprised at the gall of him.
"What would have happened if I had said no, and left with your stuff aboard?" Because honestly, that could have happened, we were almost at the ship now and I could see no one else waiting to persuade me off from this trip.
"Then I would have requested new items from Titus, and worked off their debt." Speaking of money, I needed to arrange some type of salary for him unless he still had access to his accounts.
"Could you not just buy new things?" I didn't want to offer to pay him if he still had access to money, but I wouldn't make him work for nothing either, even if I was forcing him to stay here for ten years.
"No, my mother has cut me off from the family accounts until I am no longer in your service." Well, that settled it then, I would have to tell Titus to work out a modest salary for him.
The ship is large, though smaller than I thought it would be, it is resting on a metal landing pad extended out over the cliff, with the waterfall rushing underneath it. "It's smaller than I thought it would be." We are ten feet away from the loading ramp when Octavian and Caius step out of the ship, great.
"That's because this is the transport shuttle, while the cruiser can enter planetary atmosphere it is often too big to risk it, this ship is much smaller and can usually safely land on any planet." Octavian was quick to inform me of why this was indeed not the ship we could be spending months on.
"Why are the two of you here? If you are here to protest about me going on this trip you might as well leave now." Caius raises his hands in surrender as I step threateningly towards them.
"Woah, woah, woah. We aren't here to protest, we would like to come with you. You don't know your father as we do, he can be difficult at times." I frown at them, what were they talking about. I clutch the locket in my fist, not sure how to take his words.
"I'm not sure what you mean, Caius. I know perfectly well who my father is." If all they wanted to do was protect me from my father, then they could leave.
"That's a mind locket, right? Your father cast his memories into it, that's how he appeared at the wedding correct?" Maybe my father was right about Octavian being inquisitive, he sure seemed to know a lot, unless he found all that out by spying on me. "Don't glare at me like that, I didn't spy on you, it is merely the only possible explanation, nothing else could result in him appearing holographically like that before everyone." Well, alright then, at least that answered that question.
"So, you understand how I do know him right?" Octavian shakes his head lighting in refusal of my words.
"Respectfully, those lockets are untrustworthy, the mind and memories of your father may be stored on there, but it is ultimately up to the A.I. to choose what to do with them, it merely reacts how it thinks your father would, so he is your father and you are his daughter, the A.I. would choose to act fatherly towards you because that is what it expects your father would do, and I am sure he would act similar but the lockets are notorious for softening a person's behaviour towards loved ones because that's what it expects everyone to do, but that isn't what your father would do." I look at him with confusion, I was never once given the impression that it wasn't actually my father but an A.I. with his memories.
"Aldrich Drakkon was many things, a great leader, a smart businessman, he was also cold, quick to anger, and most often without mercy. He may very well be softer towards your mother and you, but in my experience, love does not change someone that much." Caius was agreeing with Octavian based on his words, and if I am to believe them, my father is not a man I know, this locket version of him was a partial version of what he is, but without the proper man himself, I have no idea what he will be like.
"Very well, you may both join me, I expect that since the both of you were waiting here, that you are already packed, and your luggage is aboard?" They both nod and I continue onto the ship where Titus is directing members of the crew to put some boxes of unknown objects.
"Titus are we ready to leave?" Titus looks up at me, before glancing down at his open sheeve.
"Yes, this is the last of your things. Is there anything else you need of me, your majesty?" I glance around at the people surrounding me.
"Go settle in, I'll be there in a minute." They immediately leave Titus and me alone, granting me the opportunity to discuss some things with him. "I'd like you to work out a modest salary for Daxton, Gem and Mina should give me daily updates on the information they were tasked to gather for me, and you will notify me of any serious issues while I am gone." He nods, making sure to type out my requests on his sheeve.
"Consider it done your Highness. Is that everything?" I nod and he begins to leave the ship. "Have a nice trip, your Majesty." I head over to the control room, where the seats are.
Strapping in like the others, I ensure my straps are secure before giving the captain the go-ahead. "Start launching preparations." It takes us a mere minute before the shuttle is off the ground and heading off the planet, leaving behind my new home as I go in search of my previously assumed dead father.