The moment I stepped into the corridor, the noise died.

  Not abruptly. Not dramatically. Voices thinned first, conversations losing momentum as people noticed me. Humans, mostly. Some tried not to stare. Others failed outright. A few bowed their heads too quickly, as if the act itself might offend me.

  I kept my expression blank and my pace even.

  Fear invited mistakes. Mistakes invited blood.

  I had no intention of spilling any today.

  Not unless I had to.

  At the end of the corridor stood the hall assigned to Clan Voss.

  I paused at the threshold.

  Inside, voices clashed in argument. Military tones, clipped authority, irritation sharpened by urgency all combined to make a din of incomprehensible noise.

  The Emperor did not have palaces. Palaces were meant for kings and queens. To show their riches, their colorful liveries, and their greatness. The Emperor didn’t see a point in all that. He just wanted to do his work and let the governance be handled by his chancellors, regents, and administrators. They had created the Emperor Larden Palace City.

  The inner city was itself larger than any city in the world. Built to accommodate the Emperor's fifteen-foot frame, it stood head and shoulders above both the middle ring and the outer rings. It also housed over one hundred embassies. From allied kingdoms and imperial duchies to the smallest districts, the city palace assigned everyone an embassy. And each embassy came with houses, flats, offices, and halls.

  Keeping them all in check should have been hard for the imperial administrators. However, no one wanted to annoy the Emperor. Not in his own city. Anyone with a lick of sense knew angering a man who was one step away from being a god was a bad move. And for those who insisted on causing trouble, they did it outside the city. Just the sense of pressure Father gave off when he was nearby made people understand the kind of danger they were inviting.

  I was not the Emperor. I didn’t give off any aura.

  Still, silence followed me like a shadow.

  Dozens of heads turned. Some eyes widened. Others hardened. A few flicked toward the chair at the far end of the hall, the one built for my kind.

  I had a role to play here. I raised my head with a confused look and blank eyes. For a long, awkward minute, I stood in the door and looked at the chair at the end of the hall. With a halting step, I began walking to it.

  Someone in the center of the hall cleared their throat and continued, “Gentlemen, and my lady Saha.” The hunter bowed to the princess. “As I was saying, these goats are not normal. These are called ember-horned goats. A kind of mana-mutated creature found in the Tyrant Hills.”

  Folders were opened and the rustle of papers told me that information was being passed around. No one bothered me and that was good.

  “Tyrant Hills. Isn’t that Tyran Truechild’s domain?” a military man asked.

  His question was followed by silence.

  The hunter gave me a sidelong glance and, noting my lost expression, continued. “We can’t be sure but we believe they are the same creatures. What we know is that there are hordes of them coming down the mountains. And to the valley city.”

  Another long silence followed his pronouncement and I stopped listening. I was flabbergasted. Not by the news that my lands were about to get overrun by goats, but by what I saw in front of me. And honestly, it helped with the image of a senseless fool I was trying to cultivate. I looked up at the clan leader’s throne and just stood there. Looking at the large chair in front of me, I finally understood why normal humans didn’t interact with Truechildren when they had reduced their size.

  Even standing eight feet tall as I was, I could see that the chair was huge. The sheer scale of the furniture sent a shiver down my spine. It was a stark reminder that in my true form, I could punt my current, shrunken self across the room with casual ease. I had to remind myself that this chair was mine and I was the being. Truthfully, it didn’t work. Why was that?

  I pretended to look blankly ahead while I thought. I had seen enough horrors to not be afraid of something beyond my size. I had hunted those horrors and consumed them. Some may even consider me a horror. I shouldn’t be afraid of size. Or was I afraid of myself? That was strange. Why would I be afraid of myself?

  Usually, I thought these thoughts in the Dark Waters. Letting useless conflicting emotions, thoughts, and memories go in the numbing cold. I couldn’t do that right now. The predator was stalking. It considered me easy prey. A snack before it pounced on its true prey: Sage Truechild.

  While I thought, my eyes traced the motifs on the throne. The throne was adorned with a background of picturesque mountains. In front of those mountains were reliefs of an ice-furred bear fighting a snow wolf.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  These were the two mutated beasts the Voss mountains were most famous for. The hunters in the region hunted these beasts for everything from their fur and meat to the ice mana stones they produced in their bodies. One of these mana stones, one from a bear, had been donated by the Voss clan to give me my ice abilities. However, that had just been the first one. Father had used four more when he had found my body’s affinity to cold and ice. And I knew, deep inside, that I could improve that affinity even further.

  “My lord. May I help you?” A soft and cultured voice pulled me from my thoughts.

  A woman stood next to me. She had a distant, impatient look in her eyes that she visibly crushed as she looked up at me. Her long midnight-black hair fell down to the small of her back and her blue eyes looked into mine questioningly.

  Saha Voss was beautiful. That wasn’t a surprise. The blessing of mana helped optimize the biology of a human or animal and clear any imperfections in fur or skin. The surprising fact was that Saha, like the rest of the Vosses, had her mana attuned to cold, but when I looked at her, I felt warm. Usually, at this moment I would retreat to the Dark Waters. But once again, I couldn’t.

  The former princess of the Voss clan reached out a hand and asked, “May I, Lord Truechild?”

  I hesitated. This was dangerous. Emotions were dangerous. Not that I could deny the fact that I liked Saha. I liked her eyes. I liked her spirit. I liked the way she looked. And my body’s instant reaction to Saha was sudden and prominent.

  I needed to be an idiot. A simple idiot. I repeated to myself. I controlled myself and nodded slightly.

  Saha stepped onto the stair in front and reached out for my torc. My eyes drifted down to her ivory white skin, a narrow face, small nose, and high cheekbones. She leaned closer to me to unclasp the torc and my eyes drifted lower for a second to her bosom. I quickly looked away and took in a breath to calm myself. That was a mistake. Her scent drifted to me. Wildflowers and a cold breeze. Her mana was as beautiful as she was. And something inside me wanted to claim every inch of her and then die protecting her.

  She unclasped my torc and took two quick steps away. My eyes didn’t leave her as I grew in size. A rosy blush covered her face. Apparently, she understood the effect she was having on me. By the place she was looking at, well, there was no hiding that now. How was I supposed to be a senseless fool when my body was betraying me?

  I looked down at Saha Voss with a warning in my gaze. The distant look in her eyes was gone. Now she had a twinkle in her eyes. She looked at me with both understanding and curiosity.

  A sense of triumph and happiness rolled off her in waves. The tightness in her neck loosened and her shoulders stopped slumping. With a straight back, she waved for her court to continue. I walked past it all and took a seat on the clan leader's chair. With a blank look on my face, I looked ahead.

  The court restarted its discussions and I glanced at Saha Voss from the side of my vision. She had taken off her coat. And now as she faced away from me, I couldn’t keep my eyes off her neck and back. I mentally shook my head and tried to think about something else.

  Saha’s situation was complicated. Her father had died when she was young and her uncle had ruled her clan for the last two decades. The Voss clan leader by all reports was not a very strong mana-blessed. He had tried to keep his lands in check using hunters and adventurers. It hadn’t worked.

  The former Lord Voss was known for many things. His taste in wine, food, and sports. But not for his fighting capability or military tactics. He left his duchy's protection to the imperial army, and the culling of mana-mutated monsters to adventurers and hunters.

  Half a year ago Lord Voss had been notified that his lands had started attracting new wildlife. Noting that they were just goats, he had gone past the mountains to check on the new beasts. He had disappeared with a handful of his men. Five days later his body had been discovered on a hard-to-reach trail. Skewered by a goat's horn. The man had doomed himself and left his clan in debt.

  A debt the Emperor had picked up and paid for. He needed to give one of his Truechildren a home in the empire. And to fulfill that task he had bought out seventy percent of the Voss duchy's mountains. Leaving the last thirty percent for the old Voss clan members and others who called the duchy home. He had also appointed an imperial governor to run the government in the lands for the next decade. After all, Father hadn’t known that I would pick the ice stone and take up the mantle of Lord Voss. All of that left Saha in a very difficult place, if not completely displaced.

  Speaking of which, Saha had stepped in front of me. A series of complicated emotions flashed on her face. Awe, frustration, a hint of disappointment, and a lot of attraction. The awe and attraction were understandable. Father had created his children to be as perfect as he could make them. We stood head and shoulders above humans. And we all looked like sculpted masterpieces. The rest was more complicated.

  I looked past her to the emptying hall. Damn it. I was supposed to think about something else. But I couldn’t focus when she was nearby. I looked at her. She looked at me back. We stayed like that for a handful of seconds.

  Saha finally broke the silence and asked, “Lord Truechild, would you like to dine with me?”

  I wanted to run away. To bury my head in a hole and hide. But at the same time, I didn’t want to take my eyes off this beautiful creature. My emotions were all over the place and I needed to get to the bottom of this.

  I waited for everyone to leave, keeping my eyes locked on to Saha. I kept her in place with my eyes until all but three people were left. Apart from Saha, there was an old man and a woman in full plate metal armor. Saha’s advisor and bodyguard, respectively. When everyone was gone, I finally spoke.

  “We need to speak with my father.” My clear diction and deep voice took the three by surprise.

  They blinked and looked at each other.

  The old man stepped in front. “My Lord Truechild. What reason should I give to gain the Emperor’s audience?”

  I kept my gaze on Saha but thought about the question. Questions. There was the reason.

  “You may tell my father’s men that the Voss clan needs some questions answered urgently,” I replied calmly.

  The old man bowed and closed his eyes. He opened them back again and started to speak. “I have sent the message, my lord and…” The advisor stopped and with surprise in his voice began speaking again. “Your request for audience has been approved by the Emperor personally. He is sending a portal to us right now.”

  I nodded and waited. The chair I was sitting on swiveled to face the right. Two purple beams shot out of the chair’s arms and hit the wall. On the wall, a picture began to take shape. A picture of men working the sea. Guards and men looking into the portal appraised me and bowed. I took a breath and began to walk into it. Behind me, Saha and two of her trusted officers followed.