Duties as a monarch did not leave her with opportunity for past times, yet still in her youth she studied the arts and history was her first love. She had read the accounts, visited the location and even listened to the songs the bards had spun in their taverns. But admittedly no matter how many times she came here, nothing could prepare her for the sheer scale and size of the canvas before her. Each stroke of the brush, carried with it a thousand details. A work for many, done by a single hand. The fiery lifeblood of the canvas came alive as her eyes scanned across it. Harsh red, washed over the canvas threatening to spill out, bathing her in red hot magma. Such a destructive presence captured so carefully with incredible detail. The brilliant green forest scarred black and burning. Across the bottom armored clad men scream in agony as they too are consumed by the flames. Pillars of hellfire stretch up each one painted with a deep red, and bloody saffron. At their peak spewing liquid fire back down to the ground. Such chaos accurately captured on the canvas, the gravity of it all, pulling her in closer. But her eyes move towards the top, to the cause of so much death. And there he stood, scarred and bloody, his blonde hair shining, crowning him champion of all men. Even in a drawing his presence nearly suffocates, the sheer sight of him enough to cause her discomfort.

  But he is but a small fraction of what truly ales her. She had avoided looking at what caused the man to unleash such devastating power. Many times had she walked these halls, each time she struggled to look at him. The air was always different here, colder. A thin smile crawled its way across her lips, she enjoyed the sensation and so she lowered her eyes towards him in anticipation of what she was about to feel. The darkness that enveloped the lower half of the painting became more pronounced as all seemed to center towards him. The magma bent and twisted as though avoiding him. The flames would dare not touch him. His presence alone was enough to withstand all. He was a wild creature in her eyes, untamable by none. She so desperately wished to see his face, but it was obscured, only his back visible through the flames. And on his back covered in scars, a great serpent consuming itself in a perfect circle through the skull of a terrible beast.

  "What are you doing here?" her voice cut through Enrieta's thoughts.

  The Queen of the Nephilim turned her head ever so slightly, "Roderika, It has been some time." Enrieta managed a thin smile.

  Her sister in return, bared a look of hostility, "We are not on amicable terms." She approached and around her the air hummed. "Do not be so casual with me."

  Of all her siblings, Enrieta found herself most at odds with Roderika. The two of them once had been inseparable in their youth but as heirs to their respective thrones other matters took precedent. The realms of Aurum were not easily tamed, especially for women who held such power. As Enrieta looked down at her eldest sister, she could not help but amuse at their tepid alliance. Such a fragile thing held together by something so tangible as blood.

  The Vanaheimr Queen placed one hand on her hip, "You cannot still be mad about that incident?"

  Roderika brushed aside her auburn hair showing fiery emerald green eyes, "You asked for help to win a war, and I obliged." Her olive skin glistened under the scorching sun through the massive windows opposite them.

  Roderika was much shorter than Enrieta, standing barely at her waist. Her royal attire was dawned with the colors of her kingdom, Black and deep maroon. Had she not chosen to carry a permanent scowl, she would be considered beautiful by many. Her hair was braided neatly in an array of style's and resting upon her head was a bronze crown.

  Enrieta waved her hand dismissively, walking past her, "And I am forever thankful, queen sister." She spoke the words with little emotion, having repeated them multiple times.

  "That is all you have to say?" demanded the Queen of Lunaelia, "I gave you thirty thousand men, thirty thousand good men and you returned to me only corpses."

  The blood queen shrugged, "I had high hopes for your elite troops, but in the face of that Stygian bitch, how was I to know they would amount to only fodder?"

  The hallway they occupied groaned underneath the weight of Roderika's building rage. A face usually in a perpetual scowl now twisted with scorn. The Queen of Lunaelia had a day to forget, meeting her sister here in the royal palace did nothing but further dampen that day. She had long since given up on her sister's bloody crusade against the Stygians. Even now as the cost of lives had steadily increased, uneasiness washed over her at the casual reaction her sister had to throwing away so many lives, in the pursuit of what she saw as childish revenge. This madness was only exacerbated by the emperor. Roderika calmed herself, she would not allow Enrieta the satisfaction of seeing her anger. Right now she had to focus on only one person, too much had already unsettled her.

  Upon realizing that she would not get a rise out of her sister, Enrieta dropped her shoulders in dissatisfaction, "You are no fun. You used to be fun" She leaned against the painting, picking at it "Speaking of fun, where is Saturn? I managed to make it all the way here without a lecture."

  Roderika walked over and stopped her from damaging the painting further, "He went south. Along with Galahad and Helax." She rubbed her sister's finger clean. "Even Mars went along this time."

  Enrieta perked up at the news, she knew of her elder brother's regular conquests beyond the southern sea. But for him to bring a Dragon Lord and his dragon along and not just that but their younger sibling too. It was a show of overwhelming force. Something her brother was not known for. This news only emboldened her reason for being here, and she looked to pry even further.

  "What could be so pressing down south, that he would even take Mars?" Enrieta hid the intrigue in her voice.

  Roderika brushed aside her hair, dark freckles across her eyes and forehead glittered slightly. She shrugged and from that alone, Enrieta was able to tell her fellow queen had asked the same of the emperor to no answer.

  "You know how father is, better yet, you know how Saturn is." She leaned back against the wall. "Their focus has always been beyond our home."

  Enrieta silently agreed. She was all too familiar with the aspirations of their father and how he used Saturn as his vessel. The death of her eldest brother and his family still tasted bitter in her mouth and all these years later, nothing had been done. For her fathers focus looked beyond finding the killers, instead on the expanse of Aurum's power. But she did not care, while her father continued to look without, she would look within. She would show them once again who their true enemy was.

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  "No matter, I have more pressing concerns." Enrieta dusted off her ruby nails and straightened her royal attire. "I take it you are done speaking with him?"

  Roderika gestured for the golden doors in the distance, "He is all yours perhaps you will have a more pleasant conversation."

  Enrieta had begun to make her way but curiosity would not let her leave without asking a question that had plagued her since reuniting with her sister after so long. The thought scratched at the back of her head like a warm spot. Although she knew how she was perceived by many, if not all. Some part of her which she did well to ignore, could not help but show itself.

  "Roderika?"

  Roderika turned to look at her sister, "yes?"

  "How is Reza?"

  A sudden chill went down the auburn queen's spine. She flexed her fists and the entire hall cracked underneath her Will. Once pristine marble walls and ceilings now lay battered and broken. Several mirrors shattered, spraying glass in every direction. The large paintings on the wall shook and wobbled in fear. The ground between them divided itself leaving a small crevice in its wake.

  Through gritted teeth, "Why are you mentioning her name?" Roderika did not take her eyes off her sister's silhouette, her porcelain skin glowing in contrast with her red dress.

  Enrieta did not respond for some time, the uneasiness disturbing Roderika even more. She hated Enrieta's fixations, for the consequences of those fixations led to the deaths of many. She had warned her on many occasions that Reza should never be one of them. But for her to mention her so close to her naming day ceremony. Roderika was alert.

  "Truly, it was good to see you dearest sister." Enrieta began, "My regards to the others when you return."

  Enrieta did not give her sister time to respond and began on her way. Just as Roderika's anger appeared, it vanished. She turned to her left to see people cowering in the corner at the sight of her outburst and immediately she was overcome with embarrassment. She wanted to turn her fury back towards Enrieta but she was already out of reach. She bemoaned at the erratic nature of her sister, and further still she disliked how distant they had become. But she knew that would not change. She simply wished the unsettling feeling she had when Enrieta spoke of Reza did not fill her with so much dread.

  As Enrieta reached the massive golden doors. She could make out the various engravings that were etched into it. None more prominent than the golden stags with black roses on their antlers, on either door standing proudly. They were the proud symbols of house Blackrose and subsequently of the emperors, her fathers. But they were not her symbols nor was this truly her house. Her birth was one of necessity, not of love, something she was constantly reminded of. As she could see her Nephilim features within the golden doors. Around the golden stags were stories of ancient members of house Blackrose and their tales throughout Aurum. Many of them she knew, through her own studies, and yet she would always find some that she had never heard of. Stories lost to time, either too short to remember or far too long ago to recall, perhaps both. She wondered how many of them would recoil at a Nephilim opening these great doors.

  She opened them with little effort. The doors recognizing the emperor's blood that flowed within her veins and granted her entry into her fathers study. What greeted her was a breathtaking sight, rows upon rows of books were neatly placed against the walls, in the center a massive wooden desk matching the same style as the wooden floors. On either side of the desk golden stag statues stood wisely guarding it. To the side a large fireplace raged on with intensity, above its mantle a painting of the emperor, the light and heat of the fire doing well to illuminate the room. Stairs led up to a series of floors all with more shelves filled with books. From where she stood she could see one floor housing a balcony with two tea cups. She moved further inside and opposite the fireplace hung an assortment of legendary weapons that belonged to house Blackrose, some she had recognized from her lessons others she did not know. But she could feel the energy coming from them, ancient tools of war long dormant waiting for the call of battle once more. Even from this distance she could feel the draw of the Stygian Steel and she did well to steer clear of it. There were doors to other rooms, and hallways to other areas of the study. She knew this was merely a small fraction of how large the emperor's study was. It was his own personal library.

  Enrieta moved closer to the desk and above it on the wall there hung a portrait of the Crown King Saturn Blackrose in his younger years. His blonde hair and blue eyes identical to the man in the painting she examined before. But the indifference in Saturn's eyes was far more pronounced, the look of a true born monarch. Enrieta detested it. She turned her gaze to the other portraits hung around the room and each of them was of the emperor's various children, she saw Roderika's, Mars, Reza's and even her own. Her portrait painted of her during her younger years, back when she still felt something. Seeing herself, it was the first time in a long time, Enrieta felt old.

  "When I was your age, it was near unthinkable to approach this room. And here you stroll in." A voice croaked behind one of the bookshelves.

  Enrieta turned to scan the room looking for the source of the voice, only for the man to appear behind her.

  "Father!" she bent over and kissed the old man on the cheek. "As I recall, in our youth you were adamant we treat this room like any other."

  He furrowed his brow as he walked past her, "Hm, your sister said the same thing."

  "It seems we can agree on things."

  "Then what was all of that noise earlier?" he asked, mimicking an explosion while he organized his desk.

  Enrieta slumped into one of the chairs by the fire, "Oh just a friendly chat between siblings."

  Her father elected to groan as a response and continued his task. Enrieta twirled her finger through her hair.

  "Will you tell me what brings you here, or will I have to pry it from you?" the old man asked.

  Enrieta made herself comfortable and thought about her father's answer much to his own dismay at her playfulness in his presence. Of all his children, she was the only one who would dare attempt this and as such was given the luxury to do so.

  "I would like to speak to the emperor." She cocked her to the side, studying her fathers expression.

  Emperor Nero was a man of small stature. But his name reached every corner of Aurum and beyond. There was nothing particularly exceptional about him, nothing save his ascent to the throne, something Enrieta had studied in great detail. The tales from his youth were sung throughout Talterra and how he, along with a legendary Stygian, and a powerful witch, slayed the mad emperor before him. At the end of the Third Great War, as the ashen skies darkened and the bodies of a thousand warriors lay dismembered and scorched black. It was Nero who stood atop all, emperor of Aurum and all her realms, save one.

  Nero rubbed his back, he had been alive for well over two hundred years and each day his body would remind him of his waning mortality, he moved over his chair and sat down at his desk. The various gold rings sparkled on his old fingers, even now the size of them looked to weigh him down. The responsibility of royalty and all that came with it, the power and adoration. It gave him much thought. But even with such a weak frame, his eyes could not betray the ambition within. The monster that lurked just behind the surface, even now she could see it as he looked at her. His mind still as sharp as the day the throne became his. Enrieta smiled.

  Emperor Nero sat back in his chair, "An audience has been granted. Speak."