Chapter 21

  Werton had grown tired of this grunt work his father had assigned him to. No matter what he did to try to get out of it, his father's heavy hand would be there to guide him back. Werton leaned to his right around the family in front of him. Clicking his tongue, “still millions more.”

  Settling himself in his seat, he called the next family forward. “Next.”

  Another family that came for the right to claim restitution from his grandmother walked forward. He would have to take their details and hope to trace their lineage to the now deceased. The leader of this family walked forward, “Good morning, Sir.”

  He offered a rude bow of his head. Werton squinted his eyes, not offering hello back. This was the first step to negotiation as he had been taught. By letting the silence hang in the open, the man tilted his forehead up and met Werton’s eyes.

  The man continued, “I have come to claim my right of restitution. Please allow me to be made whole again.”

  “The first step of being made whole is showing the proper respect.” Werton fired back.

  “As soon as someone worth respect shows up, I’ll be sure to pay my respects properly.”

  Werton took the time to take the rest of the man in. His attire was the same drab that most in line wore. A black suit over a colorful shirt. This man chose to go with a blue like thousands of others. Sighing, Werton leaned around this man and his family again to take in the line.

  This was why Werton hated this job. He wasn’t allowed to adjust any of these fools' attitudes. He would just have to sit and take these little games. Trying his best to get the upper hand in negotiations. With never knowing which family may or may not have a God in their lineage, you couldn’t tell who you could correct right away.

  Sighing again, Werton offered, “Just give your details to me, I will take them down, and you can be on your way.” Letting his anger boil over, “I am tired of these games, so unless you want me to make a mistake with you. Hurry up.”

  The man, to his credit, finished giving the details he needed to move on. He thanked Werton. But Werton cared little to take his eyes off his ledger, opting instead to wave him away.

  Werton yelled, “Next!”

  Stepping forward, right up to his table with his ledger, a woman’s figure entered the edges of his vision. Her Green dress was so vibrant that it made him snap his head up. The woman who greeted him had alabaster skin and hair a few shades darker than her Orange eyes. She held all the hallmarks of someone high up on the path. He suspected she was a God or a Prime. Not his first interaction with one in his grandmother's line.

  Sticking to his script, Werton said. “Name?”

  “Nia”

  “Nia of what?” Werton asked.

  “Nia of 7738M of course.”

  Werton wasn’t sure, but he had heard this system before. With thousands of systems to remember, thanks to all the factions, he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

  “Well, Nia, now that I have your name, you just have to tell me who was killed, and after we trace their lineage, we will offer restitution.” Werton did his best not to create a situation with someone well above his level.

  Nia responded. “Oh, no one is dead. But I do seek restitution.”

  Werton squinted at her, different from how he had the man before. “If no one is dead, then you are here a few weeks early. When we are ready to receive you, we will send out a notice. Now, if you don’t mind stepping aside.” Werton looked down at his ledger and yelled. “Next!”

  Still finding the woman's vibrant dress in his vision, he said, “Please move aside. We have many others to get to.”

  “What others?”

  Werton looked up and leaned to his right again around the woman. The line so far that it made his head hurt was nowhere to be found. Werton allowed his body weight to carry him back into his seat. He dared not look the woman in the green dress in the eyes. “I am sorry for the offense. If you would please share with me your grievance, I would be more than happy to see if we can make you whole again.”

  As the last words left his mouth, he felt a hand land on his shoulder. He flinched do to the heightened situation. A familiar voice steadied his nerves. “It has been a long time, Goddess Pyrronia. I have not seen you since I was a Sub-Prime, adventuring through your system. How have you been?”

  “Hello Pruton, is this your pup?” Nia asked

  Werton allowed himself to feel at ease. He looked over to his father and noticed that his father was wearing his armor. It had escaped him that his father's gauntlet was already affixed to his hand.

  Pruton answered, “Yes, he is one of the most promising of my line. I do not know why you are here, but I will be more than glad to help you. Run along, son.”

  Werton felt his father's hand dig into his shoulder. He had felt this many times before; his father was trying to pull him through his portal. But his father's hand stopped moving.

  “This is not necessary. Whatever your grievance is, it has nothing to do with this boy.” Pruton said.

  Werton allowed himself to look over to Goddess Pyrronia. “What if I would like to invite him to the party?” She winked at him.

  Wertons’ father pushed, “Let me be clear, there will be no negotiations in good faith while you use my son as your hostage.”

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Werton watched as Goddess Pyrronia took a stride to her left so she was directly in front of his father. “A pup has no right to negotiate for its master.”

  “Which is why I am here. Now stop this farce and allow my son to leave.” Pruton demanded.

  Goddess Pyrronia took a step forward. The table between her and his father disintegrated. The ledger along with it. She came to a stop centimeters from his father's face and said. “The pup I was referring to was you, Pruton. The only difference between you and your boy is that you have been house-trained.”

  Werton watched as his father's body started to disintegrate, starting with the hand on his shoulder. He instinctively retreated from his father. Falling on the ground, he saw his father's limbs disappear all the way up to his torso.

  “Not bad, pup, I thought you would scream.” Goddess Pyrronia said.

  “My mother will not stand for this.” Pruton bellowed out.

  “No, certainly not. But she will understand why I am here. You be sure to let her know that I have already requested an audience with the high council. I am coming to make my declaration for all to hear. I will be killing your mother, destroying your house, and enslaving all those who dare claim an alliance with her.” When Pyrronia finished, she allowed Pruton’s body to fall to the ground.

  “It seems your father is tired. He fell asleep.” Pyrronia walked over to Werton’s side.

  Werton turned over as fast as he could. He put his forehead to the ground, waiting for judgment.

  Pyrronia laughed, “Relax, boy. I am not going to hurt you. Be sure to let your grandmother know I stopped by. Give her my best and be sure to remind her of what I told your father.”

  Werton dared not pick his head up. “I will do as you instructed.”

  Pyrronia walked away and said, “Be sure to fetch your people in line. They seem to have been moved to your mother's Villa.”

  Werton flinched at her words. He couldn’t help but pick his head up to look at her. She was striking a pose with a grin on her face. She was pointing up into the sky, pointing toward the moon overhead.

  “Bye bye, pup. Until next time.”

  Werton watched as she was enveloped by the space around her. When she was gone, he waited another minute before leaping over to his father.

  ***

  After spending a little over an hour doing inventory and setting up a rudimentary camp on the apex of the mountain, Phony took the lead in deciding their next move. Her having all the benefits of an education, where your mother is a God, made the choice rather easy for Wes. Dozel appeared reticent at first, but after some convincing, Wes had gotten through to her.

  Phony had decided that it was best if they came up with their watch schedule. That way, when they were down on the ground, they would be used to the timing of it, and no matter how tired they were, it would be easier knowing how long they were on and how long they could rest.

  The only objection Wes mostly due to his pride, was when the girls agreed from the start that Wes would always have one of them on watch with him until he leveled a fair bit. That meant that the girls were on twelve-hour shifts, and he would be joining them for six hours apiece. The girls both had the ability to tell the time somehow. Wes assumed that he would also attain the ability eventually, as long as he stayed on the path. Phony insisted that she could go a few days with minimal rest if she needed to. Dozel apparently could go indefinitely.

  Due to her not being one hundred percent human, she could cordon off sections of her brain and put them into a state of light rest. She would eventually need to sleep, but she explained to him that it would be years away, thanks to her level.

  Phony apparently knew this but refused to be outdone by Dozel. The girls had reached an equilibrium and had reached an unspoken understanding, but with Phony being the highest level, she had become the de facto last say. Their camp had been dug into the top of the mountain, straight down. Phony, doing most of the work with the bonus strength that her levels came to provide.

  All said and done, after what Wes had to assume was only a couple of hours, they had a nice 8-foot by 12-foot spot dug out. Just enough to shield them from the winds whipping around at the top of the mountain. Phony had decided to leave it open at the top, explaining that they were not going to be there for long.

  The current plan was to have a visual recon for a day, followed by small excursions. They would be mostly guessing; the forest looked far too uniform to give them any point of interest.

  Phony had to explain to Wes that this was standard practice in the frontier worlds. They would be methodical in their search and develop outposts and strongholds to retreat to in case of trouble. But also to establish landmarks for other people. The second point was what Phony was really interested in. She explained that if this was truly one of her family's training worlds, then they could be here for thousands of years before they found what they were supposed to be looking for. The thing that made these worlds famous in the wider universe was that her family had gone through great lengths in seeding all available land on these planets with trees.

  Depending on which planet her mother had planted them on, even the smallest would take a million years to explore.

  That had been concerning enough to Wes; he had no desire to spend millions of years on just one planet. But what really cemented that he wanted to get off-world as soon as possible was that, apparently, there were still thousands upon thousands of people on these training worlds. They were all stuck until they completed whatever quest that her family had assigned them.

  Many powerful families in the universe had paid and bargained with Phony’s family for the chance of stashing their prize Levelers on the Path on one of these worlds.

  The opportunity to train on one of these worlds was so prized that high-levels would be willing to trade a lesser world or moon in exchange for placing their best and brightest on one of these curated worlds.

  Wes couldn’t help but ask after Phony explained all this to him. “What makes these worlds so valuable?”

  “The failed offshoot of us. The clans.” Phony replied.

  “Why, though? From what I know, there are many different evolutions of us out there.” Wes pushed.

  “Yes, you are right, but what makes this particular branch so sought after is that they register to our status as a beast. They are no longer seen as human to it, even though we know with certainty that we used to be the same type of human. And my family has a monopoly on them. We have made it known that we would rather destroy the planets than allow even one single member of these clans to be taken off-world. The Clans used to be on nine different worlds in the old frontier. Thankfully, Mother came across both systems they populated in her early years and saw them for the value that they were. According to her, they still had some of our traits then, but over time, those were bred out naturally, and they became more or less what we see now.” Phony nodded her head at the completion of her words.

  “Did your family destroy the other worlds?” Wes asked.

  Phony nodded, “Of course. As I said, people have tried to take them from our worlds before. And every time we have destroyed that world. The loss was impactful for a time, but even that passed as the remaining worlds became more and more valuable. The elite of the elite of the republic all compete for a spot on these worlds for their children.” Phony looked lost in thought as she continued, “We have to be conservative on how many people we put on each world, though. To many, and the population in the Clans will be wiped out.”

  As she finished, Wes was already lost in thought. He couldn’t say he agreed with how her family controlled another race of humans like cattle, but he couldn’t really come up with a better alternative. Thinking to himself, if her family weren’t here, they would just be bred like real cattle and harvested for their experience.

  “You think we are on one of your worlds?” Wes asked.

  “I can’t be certain, of course,” Phony looked at Wesley up and down. “But with how valuable my future husband is, I can see why she would put us on one of the worlds. Every world is under the protection of at least three of our families' Elders at all times. And no family would dare mess around on any of them. The high council of the republic would not stand for it. They, as much as anyone, would be upset if anything happened to these worlds. Actually, I suspect I even know which world we are on.”

  “Oh yeah? Which one?” Wes asked.

  Phony grimaced before smiling. “8124D”

  “Is that supposed to mean something?” Wes asked

  Dozel nodded for the first time. “That's the biggest, most prized one. A whole lot of clan members on that one.”