Conquest Of The Fallen: Dark Dominions

• FORT SANDRINGHAM – FOUR DAYS LATER

"GRIEF AIN'T A NEW THING in our Empire. I know what it is to be wounded, deprived, and to mourn. And so do all of you. People of Titans Landing and the river cities, the Freelands, the border realms, and the islands of Corynthia, hear me! You are not alone in this grief. I mirror your agony in my heart, more than any Empath could muster. These days, our world seems to be crashing and burning every time we blink. But, trust, that to grieve alone would be the true bath of despondency. I, your Empress, am with you." Ravenna de Vries stood on the brass pinnacle of Halen's Tower as she addressed the multitudes.

Thousands stood on the acres of green field on the military base's lot. Still her voice reached the last man standing. She spoke eloquently and veracious. She didn't read from no speech text. All Ravenna had said, and was saying poured from the depths of her heart; a girl off the gritty, nutty Rhobine coasts who had seen as much death as the next man and woman staring up at her in the stadium arena. Her past would argue more. From the pitá and mush had borne the finest young leader country and city had seen.

Her Empire respected her for it. So what if her father had been a blood-drinking demon and a tyrant—two of those evil things—she had proved herself in many a war since.

With the mighty Apollyon at her side, she had risen above her station...conquering blue Giants, morphed oddities, a household of powerful demons—thus the gulf of despair.

But this same [Apollyon] was missing in the crowds, and on the balcony of her Imperial speech.

"Down in the muds of evil, should we not dream of the light? Should we not fight, my people? I tell you, we are only truly lost when we stop believing," Ravenna was still speaking on Halen's Tower, her calming voice sounding clearly out the [Amplifier rune] a druid in her entourage had floating next to her lips; she told her people of peace and redemption, and the need to keep hope alive, each man and woman of every House in the Nine Realms to bear witness – those that couldn't make the travel in the days leading up to this her public speech were granted viewership of the event by Conjurers: these Halfling witches were dispatched to pull up the live screening of the event to those who couldn't make it.

Those like the Empress's boyfriend, the Apollyon.

As those home-alone in distant codges of the kingdom stared into mirrors, basins of water, and any reflecting surface that could serve as the summoning screen, there t'was, the missing man was found.

Israfel Blüdthirste lay alone on a masters bed in an equally distinguished bedroom. The entire ceiling above him was a mirror.

Thus, a viewing screen to the arena at Halen's Tower.

Halen's Tower was on the east side of Fort Sandringham, and since for the most part the green there was used as flight fields for Dragonrider trainees it sufficed to host the hundred thousand gathering. Rafel was granted view of the whole eastern side on his ceiling.

It even did zoom-ins on the angelic face of Her Majesty.

Rafel was still in Onijo omi. The estate had provided the perfect recluse and rich living for the long hours since their arrival. His army of ex-lovers whom had saved his life had remained in the stately countryside with him; all the women had different reasons for this. And no—Mary hadn't gotten her wish yet to 'cater' to his wounds. Rafel watched the Imperial announcement progress smoothly in the quiet. He could see the rosy lips of his Redeemer. Her regal back, her black-gold diadem, her green, green eyes; it was during one of these zoom-ins that Rafel's mind went back to just this morning, before the speech. In this same luxurious bedchamber, he, Ravenna, and Peitho had stood—and argued:

"Why can't I come?"

He had stood in his sharp and best tunic, growling upon his little Raven.

"You know why." Ravenna had pleased, fumbling around with her own dress. Her delicate body threatened to pull his focus. Yeah, he did remember that. But also how he had refuted back, with quizzed yellow eyes, "no, I don't know why! You expect me to stay back here with. . .I don't know all these girls I fucked before you, DOING NOTHING?!"

Rafel had known exactly why Ravenna forbade his coming to the public speech at the Fort: it wasn't a good look. Plain and simple. She knew, and he knew the kingdom, the Continent loved him dearly, but his freaking mum had just collapsed the Great Fey Castle—killing hundreds of its loyal stewards in the process, some of which had served since Queen Giselle ruled in her gold aura. The people weren't going to take her message of hope and togetherness seriously with the son of Lilith standing behind her. And it wasn't his fault. It was just... genes.

Rafel even had her vibrant flame-colored hair—when Lilith chose to keep it real that is.

She knew this, and he knew this so why was he starting up shit. Plus Rafel tried to anger her into letting him come with the ex-thing. He knew she didn't like the idea of having so many of his former concubines in the same house, even though it was a literal Livingston Mansion and had like a hundred rooms. He wanted to rile her up so much she'd let him come.

As he remembered clear as daylight, it didn't work.

Ravenna had only stopped by the walk-in closet and then turned to glare at him.

"Don't start with me, demon."

And at that moment, Rafel could swear he felt her holy aura pulse against his own infernal-born energy. She added as she put up pins for her, herself—cause her boyfriend's mother had killed all her staff, "—oh, and they are coming, the concubines."

"WHAT! SO I AM TO BE HERE ALONE?" Rafel remembered shouting.

Nothing sounded out the huge closet a while, before Ravenna padded back out, looking hell of rapturous in her swaying Swati dress. She stepped to him. "Peitho will be here." And then she breezed past, leaving a final kiss on his perfect jaw. She collected her glass heels off Peitho's hands and vanished. Across the chambers Rafel met Peitho's eyes. "Forgive me, Lord host. Her Imperial Majesty is right on this one," she said. And that was how Rafel had watched all of the gorgeous women in the house leave without him.

Almost all.

Under Peitho's sweet eyes, he fell to the sprawling bed. And that was where he still laid. His long tunic looked unruffled. When the door opened and Peitho slipped in quietly with a luncheon tray, he was pulled out of his reminiscing. "I thought you might be hungry." Peitho told him. He kept his gaze on her as she walked over. This morning wasn't the only thing he remembered. He too had not forgotten all the sweet love Peitho had being laying on him lately.

"Come." He beckoned to her. "Watch with me."

"The Speech?" Peitho said.

He nodded and she dropped the tray off on a cube table, since he obviously wasn't into his lunch.

Peitho fell into the giant bed beside him, and together on their backs they watched the ceiling – the viewing screen. Its mirror surface showed Ravenna's pretty face in magnificent relief; it was some stellar invention, Rafel and Peitho both agreed—in his mind. Now Ravenna was saying, "...I do not come here to tell you how to mourn. Or to what side of our battles the tears may fall. But I come to remind us what we are all fighting for: the same thing. A better world. A better Empire. A better life, for us and our children. For the future. It's all we can do—" Her voice rose in gusto on the screen as the angle shifted to the thousands of Eldorians cast on the green fields of Fort Sandringham, not ignoring the many more watching in many places.

"I tell you this, for if we give up fighting, hoping, and dreaming, to the madness around us then the evil has truly won. . ."

"She's good." Peitho said of Ravenna. She could see on the screen the fire in those many souls light up through their eyes, unfailing, fledgling but still there, even though the broken stones of the Imperial Palace was there for every one to see. Destruction by an [S Rank] villain like Lilith was once a millennium. The peoples hoped this. 'That girl is good at many things.' Peitho read this from Rafel's mind. Though she didn't 'hop' into his head as much these days, she could still hear, react to, and fulfill all his thoughts. Lovingly, Peitho dropped her hand to his thigh. She did not mean to, really, but her fingers brushed him.

He was hard.

[Ding!]

[System detects an uncomfortable erection in Host's southern extremity?]

[Shall system fulfil?]

[Yes/No?]

Rafel turned his head to meet Peitho watching him intensely. He'd never get used to her hot eyes—the appealing curves on this Afrikaner. He couldn't help his dick neither. But he didn't want to fuck. So he grabbed her hand. 'Let's just watch.' He said this in his mind but she heard. Holding hands, the two of them watched the rest of the Imperial Speech on their fine ceilinged screen.

Ravenna gave the past Kings of Eldoria a run for their gold in transparency of rule when she told, publicly, that Racquel Serpent—the infamous Blood Mother—was apprehended and currently in custody with the C.S.A. And that's Lilith's body was to be given no burial, for in the several days since her self-deleting, there was not so much as a smidge of rot upon her. Afterall, gods didn't die, much less decay. And that was not all. But saved from the public ear was the fact that the Umber dragon was currently hidden away in a cold basement at Fort Sandringham; her supple body lien in a sarcophagus of pure gold.

Lilith Firstborn did still have rich-ass benefactors.

Rafel was finally engaging his luncheon—at hours past the proper time, to Peitho's chagrin when the Royal carriage pulled through the foliage of onijo omi. Ravenna left her entourage at the fore grounds, Mary and the other ex-concubines at the steps, and soon came pushing through the door. Rafel watched her with his fork midway as she kicked off her heels, running through to the bathroom. Peitho, who sat across from him shrugged with a smile. Ravenna popped out again after some time; Rafel's vampirish hearing had picked up on the trickling in the bathroom, but he didn't ask. Ravenna drew a chair in to the chestnut table under the long window where Rafel sat and ate. Without asking, she picked up a pome from his dish, licking her fingers.

"Corazón has been put on the River Sana'a. It is mist season," she spoke over her soft chewing, "Makbaah the Djinn would be there at dusk to take her corporeal form. Moira told me in the ride back." She paused, obviously waiting on Rafel to ask something. He did not. "Makbaah is one of the thirteen [Spectres]. I know you don't want to see her body... but would you like to glimpse the ritual."

Rafel shook his head.

"That's all you're gonna give me? Give her?" Ravenna's voice began to rise. "We all loved Cora. But right now her SOUL is scattered in [Kaos]. Her body might be impotent, but her spirit ain't. She needs you."

"I said NO." Rafel pushed his dish aside.

"Is this because you're afraid to see her body. THEIR BODIES?" She meant Aya Naamah too. On a normal day, Ravenna was not a girl to pry but the event of Stormanos had nearly wrung out all the love in their relationship like a squeezed towel. "Or is this because of the women that saved your lives? If so we aren't complaining. We LOVED to save you. I just think that—"

"THIS AIN'T ABOUT EGO!" Rafel erupted to his feet.

Ravenna rose so fast after him, Peitho literally carrying her backwards, but the fire in Rafel's iris still bloomed like a furnace full of embers. The luncheon table that was under him, and the dishes now was ash at his boots. The girls knew he'd never hurt them, but still. The grand walls of the bedroom had sudden stick shadows creeping along. The chambers had grown darker. It was in this that Ravenna said softly, pressed up into Peitho. "I don't want to fight with you."

A minute passed—mostly with Rafel reining in his anger. Then he said, "me neither, Little Raven. But I need time."

"Time?"

"Yeah, time. I heard your speech and all, but it'll probably be a decade before the Fey Castle is rebuilt to former glory. Corazón is drifting in the Aether. Aya is dead, real dead. Lilith is a literal mummy. And you have lost your entire stewardship. So yeah, I need time. I think you do too."

"Don't tell me what I need!" Ravenna broke a sob.

All the while Rafel had been talking she was crying. First, her grief at the loss of her two best friends. And now... he was leaving? "You're just running away. You can't face it—the pain," she cried and pounded his chest as he moved in to hold her. "—that's why you can't look at their bodies." She sobbed harder. But Rafel held her in his big embrace. Peitho joined in, and for the bliss of a few seconds they were three superhumans united in their pain and loss: a devil, an angel, and a demigod.

Rafel kissed Ravenna on her forehead, breathed her deeply and stared into those jade eyes of hers one final time before he pulled away. He left her with the parting words:

"Death beckons to us all. Hades is nigh. Who wants to live forever?"

He grabbed hold of Peitho's hand, stepped into a long shadow, and he was gone. Out of the chambers. Out of onijo omi. Out of her life.

Rafel left Ravenna crying that somber noon—he wished he could cry, for he felt so torn in leaving her. But he knew he had to – they'd only blame, and then hate each other for what happened on that cursed rainy twilight. Tme had become a vital ingredient to process their emotions. Later that day, the Jade Empress and three hundred close folks gathered on the banks of River Sana'a, and in the rolling fog, they watched Corazón, clothed in a simple pale shift, sweep out in a little canoe to the waiting darkness of Makbaah. The 30ft [Djinn] wraith floated on the silent waters in the beyond, ready to clasp and guide her shattered soul through the seamless Aether. Ravenna did not like it one bit, but she would do anything to hold onto a fragment of her friend.

Above, miles high in the clouds, no one could see but Israfel and Peitho watched the eerie water burial too. Both the Apollyon and his demon [Subservience] were standing in the sky, levitating.

Peitho offered Rafel her wrist. "Drink up, dearest Host. We have a full season ahead."

Rafel took her sweet hand. And as his alabaster fangs punctured the warm skin to even sweeter blood, he heard her sensual, massaging voice sing in his mind.

[DING!]