Chapter 5

The man that was now rapidly approaching the Emperor's audience chamber was no stranger to the Imperial Palace, but the feel of it was very different this time.

Overlord Gronnus D'yoran was puffing lightly by the time he reached the great doors of the chamber. He had always been a little thick of body and face, but when this particular Overlord was stressed, he tended to overindulge at meals. Thus he was a little thicker than he had been, and it was affecting his stamina.

He had little choice as to the speed of his gait, however, as he was being hurried along by armed guards.

Any other Overlord would have taken great offense at such treatment, as it was an affront to Narlassi protocol. A sovereign either allowed unencumbered access to his person from a visiting dignitary, or he simply refused the audience. Anything in between -- such as this -- was considered a grave insult.

But Gronnus also knew that he had no clout with the Emperor. Even less so with his fellow Overlords. Any complaint would have fallen on deaf ears.

The doors were barely open before the Emperor was upon him, bringing his hawk-like nose to within a handspan of the Overlord's face. Gronnus tried not to flinch and failed.

"Well?" Z'haas demanded.

Gronnus glanced to one side and noticed that the Emperor had not bothered to dismiss the guards on either side of the door within the chamber. It was general practice to wave them away so that the Emperor can have a private conversation. If he were leaving the guards in place now, that was yet another tradition being breached. Each time he saw another tradition or protocol fall by the wayside, the more he feared the Emperor.

"What would you have me tell you, Z'haas?" Gronnus said in annoyance. He tried to maintain a hard expression against the Emperor, but his voice quavered nervously. "They trust me not. They confide nothing in me. They tell me little more than mundane matters."

Z'haas huffed, his eyes growing hard as diamonds. "And you do not have spies? You do not have slaves traded to other Overlords that can feed you information?"

Gronnus looked aghast, but he should have expected Z'haas to say such a dreadful thing. "We do not use our slaves as spies! I have told you this before. That would be a horribly taboo act to..."

"You were not so worried about such a thing when you conspired with Freya to steal away Amanda from Roquan."

Gronnus felt uncomfortable. He really did not want to recall anything of his attempted dealings with Overlord Freya D'yros. Despite his antipathy towards Roquan, Gronnus would never again treat with the one that he often referred to as "that backstabbing bitch of an Overlord."

"Nevertheless, Z'haas, my point is that I have no information to give you and no means of obtaining it."

"Why? Tell me why, Gronnus, as I do not understand. And if I do not understand, I will start making my own conclusions. And that conclusion will be that you are conspiring to keep information from me, information that could be vital to preserving the Imperium!"

Z'haas' voice rose during his short speech, managing to make it more forceful without necessarily making it louder. Gronnus found this rather intimidating, but he tried hard not to show it.

Preserving the Imperium, Gronnus thought derisively. You mean preserving your rule of the Imperium, and to the hells with everything else!

Z'haas folded his arms. "Do not delay in answering me, Overlord," he said, speaking the title as if it were an epithet. "I take that to mean you are attempting to contrive a convincing lie."

"Great gods, but you are paranoid!" Gronnus finally blurted. When he saw the anger start to blaze in Z'haas eyes, he rushed with his next statement, stumbling over some of the words in his haste to put the ill-conceived statement behind him. "You want a reason, Z'haas, for why I cannot obtain information, but you ought to know it already. I had told you that Roquan knows of my involvement with the plot against his life! Do you seriously..."

"And he has told the others?" Z'haas interrupted sharply. "Do all the Overlords know that you have betrayed Roquan? And when considering your answer, Overlord, be aware that I just might know the answer already, so do not let me catch you in a lie. You will not leave the palace alive if you do."

This statement shocked and frightened Gronnus so badly that he did indeed have to pause in his reply. He had had his suspicions that the Emperor was growing increasingly aggressive in dealing with people that displeased him, but this went beyond what he considered even remotely acceptable. He had only half-believed some of the things he had heard about the recent purge at the Imperium. Now he faced the possibility that it was just as bad as had been conveyed to him.

"As far as I am aware, Z'haas, he has not," said Gronnus. "Again, as far as I know. If he has told someone, I would know it only if the other Overlord confronted me about it, or enough of them heard to wish to call a new Conclave to discuss... deposing me."

Gronnus hesitated on the word, and then shuddered slightly after he had said it.

Overlords generally were allowed a great deal of leeway by their peers so long as they adhered to proper protocol and tradition when training and dealing in slaves. Even when they did violate these unofficial rules, it was generally dealt with as a private matter.

But there were some rules that simply could not be broken. An Overlord that violated one could be deposed by his peers. He would be stripped of his Overlord title, and his Manor disbanded and the slaves sold at auction.

What Gronnus had done -- conspiring with an assassin to kill a fellow Overlord -- was considered a grievous act warranting being deposed. If he wished, Roquan could inform the other Overlords of what Gronnus had done. Instead, only Roquan, Rennis, and Doran knew about it. It was a huge weight hanging over Gronnus' head.

"And again, I ask you, why can you not obtain information from more direct methods?" Z'haas demanded.

"Hellfire, Z'haas, you are not listening to me!" Gronnus cried in exasperation. "If Roquan ever suspects that I am poking into places he does not want me to be, he can hold that knowledge of my collusion over my head!"

"And do you not have something to hold over him? What of Amanda? What of the fact that she has not had the Draught? I thought that was another of your precious traditions."

Despite his fear of the Emperor, he almost bristled when he heard the sneer in Z'haas' voice on his last two words. "I cannot use that against him," Gronnus said in a low voice, almost growling the response.

"Do not test my patience, Overlord. You will explain any answer you give me. Why can you not use this against him?"

Gronnus' face was tinged red in his growing anger and frustration. By all rights he should have been able to get Roquan deposed for training a slave who had not been given the Draught of Forgetfulness after being brought into Narlass. It was done to all those that were taken as new slaves. By making them forget their past life before coming to Narlass, it made them more tractable and easier to train.

Amanda had never taken the Draught. Freya had discovered this, but would not let Gronnus use the information. Instead she had insisted on using it for her own little power play, and for the trophy of Amanda herself. By the time Freya's plans had collapsed, Roquan had manipulated events so that he would be held in high esteem while Gronnus would be made to look like the fool.

"Roquan is far too influential at the moment," Gronnus replied.

"Nonsense. Even the greatest Noble can be brought down to the gutter by discovering his improprieties and whispering them into the right ear."

"You do not understand, Z'haas, and that has been the crux of our disagreement all along. Roquan is impervious to slander at the moment. It is too soon after the Conclave. Events are still fresh in the other Overlords' minds. If I were to accuse him of such a thing, I would be laughed at!"

The embarrassment in Gronnus' cheeks was evidence that he was telling the truth. It was also an admission that the others thought him the fool. It was something he rarely would admit even to himself.

Z'haas stared at the Overlord for a long, hard moment, as if searching for something to use against the man, something in the reply that he could throw back at Gronnus. When he found nothing, he turned on his heel and clenched his hands into fists at his sides in frustration.

"Roquan is an Overlord," Z'haas said through clenched teeth, the barely contained fury in his voice evident. "Nothing more, nothing less. He has no true power in the Empire. He never did, and he does not now." After a moment's pause, he whirled around to face Gronnus again, and gave vent to a little of his rage. "So why are you all treating him like a gods-damned MESSIAH?!"

The last word echoed through the cavernous chamber for a few moments before it was again quiet.

Gronnus swallowed once as he looked into the Emperor's narrow, burning eyes. "I have no answers for you, Z'haas. So... so order your guards to strike me dead now, if that is what you desire, if you believe I am of no further use to you. End my frustrations. End my sleepless nights. End my..."

Without taking his eyes from the Overlord, Z'haas raised a hand and gestured. As one, the two guards left their posts on either side of the door and stepped up behind Gronnus. Another gesture, and there was the sound of sliding steel as the blades were drawn.

Gronnus' eyes shimmered as he stared at the Emperor, his corpulent form visibly quaking. His gaze tracked the Emperor's hand as it rose again and hung in mid-air. His lips parted, but his throat locked up when he tried to speak. All the while, the Emperor never stopped giving Gronnus a cold stare.

"Make no mistake about this," Z'haas said in a low and deadly voice. "I will do so if I feel you are conspiring with the Overlords against me. I will do so if I feel you are somehow working against the Imperium. I will do so if I suspect you are even remotely trying to delay or inconvenience me. You will understand, here and now, just how important preserving the Imperium is to me. You have failed to comprehend this."

"S-so what I have heard... about the purges..." Gronnus croaked.

"I do not know what you have heard, and I do not care. But I have indeed rid myself of people that I suspected of moving against me, or that would move against me given the chance. But I fear that I have not rooted out all of them. The Overlords will not roll over and play dead. They will continue in their efforts to usurp the throne. That must not happen. I will stop it at all costs. Even the cost of a life. Or several lives."

Gronnus looked at the Emperor in a new light. He now felt that Z'haas was truly mad. No Emperor had ever taken such a line. An Emperor was concerned with caring for the nation, not his own personal power. No matter what the threat to the realm, a good Emperor was willing to step aside if new leadership was needed. It was why nearly all Overlord-initiated or Nobility-initiated coups in the past were bloodless. The Emperor never put up armed resistance if the conspirators managed to penetrate the Emperor's inner sanctum.

Instead, the Emperor would negotiate with the usurpers. Sometimes the Emperor remained in power as a result, if he agreed to redress their grievances.

Z'haas had alluded in the past to some sort of threat to Oceanus, one that he felt he alone could handle. Thus he was intent on staying in power. Several times Gronnus had asked the Emperor to be more explicit about his fears, so that the Overlords could help. Each time the Emperor refused and simply stated that the Overlords could be only a hindrance and never a help.

With Roquan it had been worse; Z'haas had claimed that he was colluding with the enemy directly. Whoever this nameless enemy was.

After a long moment, Z'haas completed his gesture. Gronnus gasped and tensed, but rather than being run through as he had expected, he instead heard the sound of swords being sheathed, and of footsteps as the guards returned to their posts.

Gronnus let out a sigh of relief. His knees shook briefly.

"You are still of a use to me," Z'haas said as he turned and walked towards his throne, his cloak billowing behind him. "But only if you can get me the information I desire."

"Then give me a specific task," Gronnus said in a shaky voice as the Emperor ascended the dais to his throne. "I cannot continue foundering as I have been simply waiting for choice bits of information to fall into my lap, because it will not happen. Nor will arbitrary spying."

The Emperor turned and sat down regally on his throne. He rested his arms on the sides and gave the Overlord a haughty look. "The Overlords will be making a move. Find out what it is."

"I need something more than that."

The Emperor's eyes blazed, but he otherwise remained outwardly calm and thoughtful. "They will need a contact in the palace. Find out who it is. Find out who the Overlords may be sending to the palace or what message they may be trying to pass."

"That is still too broad. I cannot..."

"That is all I can tell you. You will have to figure out the rest yourself. For your own sake if nothing else. Now... leave me."

There was again the sound of weapons being drawn, though the guards did not advance from their positions at the door.

Gronnus paused a moment. He glanced towards the guards and then back to the Emperor. He knew that if he tried to attack the Emperor, he would be dead before he took more than a handful of steps. He almost considered it, if only to end the nightmare that his existence had become. Instead, he turned from the throne and headed out of the chamber, the guards standing down as he passed out of the room.

Z'haas waited until the doors had closed fully before he spoke again. "Your opinion?"

"You kept your cards close to the chest, my Emperor. Very well played."

The Emperor casually turned his head. Q'yros stepped more fully into view. "As you," the Emperor said.

The Mage gave him a sly smile. "Oh, you mean this little technique of mine? A mere parlor trick for me."

"And it was my understanding that invisibility was no simple feat."

"And it is not. For that is not what I had done. True invisibility is the stuff of myth and nothing more. But it is much easier to make oneself inconspicuous. A part of the shadows. A section of the wall. Eyes tend to simply slide past without seeing."

"In any case, Mage... care to expand on your statement?" Z'haas said crisply.

Q'yros stepped up to the throne and placed his hands over the top of his staff. "You know more than you let on to Gronnus. That much is certain."

"Was I that obvious?"

"To me. But only because I know you so well. Gronnus did not suspect."

Z'haas frowned. "Gronnus is truly a fool. I was very tempted to end his life as he seemed to wish it just moments ago. It would have been a small loss."

Q'yros looked thoughtful. "I believe you were wise in letting him live. He is truly your only contact in the Overlords' camp."

The Emperor sneered. "Do not remind me of that. I wish it were otherwise."

"So, were you indeed baiting him?"

"I was. Consider it a test of his loyalty."

"So you know of the new conspiratorial elements already?"

"There are some I chose not to purge," said Z'haas. "But they are of little consequence in the hierarchy. Their use is limited to this."

Q'yros nodded once. "Again, well-played."

Z'haas' expression hardened. "Now... if only the Nobility were as easy."

"Ah, but are you meeting with resistance there?"

Q'yros had tried very hard to keep the amusement from his voice. Some of it may have come through anyway, for the Emperor glared at him. "Some are questioning my decision, yes," he said through clenched teeth.

And how could you have expected they would not? Q'yros thought acidly. "How many?"

"Enough to potentially make things difficult."

"And your response?"

A long pause. "I have not finished contacting all the Nobles yet. And some wanted to consult their advisers before responding to me. As if I had given them a choice! This is not up for a vote or debate, yet some of them insist on treating it as such!"

Q'yros was glad that the Emperor did not appear to be thinking about moving against them in a military fashion. It showed that Z'haas had at least some restraint remaining.

Z'haas sighed. "Leave me, Q'yros, I need to think of my next move in light of any possible resistance from the Nobility."

Q'yros inwardly bristled at being dismissed so readily, but he simply nodded and turned to leave.

The Mage almost hoped that the Nobility would do something to put the brakes on Z'haas' plans, at least for a short time. Q'yros really needed to find out more about what kind of enemy they were dealing with. Z'haas was slowly revealing more information to him, but he had to keep pressing for more. The Mage Guild was learning some alarming things about the Portal energies that were recently used within the confines of Oceanus. He needed to know how the two were related.

Maybe then he could make sense of the Emperor's paranoia and obsessiveness.

"Really, this is getting to be something of a nuisance now," Duric said with a small sigh in a slightly strained voice.

His proclamation did little to disturb the actions of his slave Tanyee. As she had not been addressed directly, she assumed that the comment was not directed at her. She continued rocking her body back and forth in time to his thrusts. Her rear slapped lightly against Duric's body each time his manhood slid into her from behind, Tanyee's pussy making a soft, wet sound with each thrust.

"Hmm?"

Duric looked to his distracted adviser with a wry grin. It took a few moments before he finally opened his eyes and gazed at his Lord. "Oh, my apologies, my Lord," the somewhat stocky man said in a sheepish tone of voice. He cracked a tiny smile. "Your slave tends to make me forget where I am."

Duric chuckled at this. Farro J'rin, Duric's most trusted adviser, stood facing his Lord with Tanyee stretched out between them on all fours. Tanyee's lips were wrapped tightly around his cock, her mouth sliding up and down his shaft in the same rhythm as the rest of her body. Tanyee was panting lightly and trembling with increasing excitement. Her tongue pressed tightly against the underside of Farro's manhood, stroking it deeply with each movement.

Farro uttered a low moan and started to rock his hips a bit in time to Tanyee's movements. When Duric had first been assigned as Keyas Governor, Farro had been quite taken aback by the man's willingness to share his slaves with his staff. The previous ruler had jealously kept them to himself, barely even allowing his underlings even so much as a peek at them.

Yet once people got over their initial awkwardness, it had the effect that Duric had wanted; it helped cement their loyalty to him.

"Yes, Tanyee is quite good at capturing a man's attention, is she not?" Duric said with obvious affection in his voice.

"So what is the problem, my Lord?" Farro asked, making the effort to concentrate on his Lord's words.

"I am being summoned to a Farview audience as we speak."

"Oh, not the Emperor again!"

"No. Lord K'vaarik."

Farro frowned and snorted. "The man is a complete boor."

Farro knew it was safe to say this, for it was what Duric thought of him as well.

Duric grinned. He gave Tanyee a light swat on the ass and gripped her hips with his hands. Tanyee uttered a moan through her nose and quickened her pace. This made her mouth work Farro's manhood faster. Farro moaned softly and ceased moving his hips, letting Tanyee do all the work. He started panting as his pleasure rose higher.

"He may very well be, Farro," Duric said, his own voice straining as he pounded into Tanyee harder. "But he is quite influential, and must be listened to closely... but in a moment... there are more pressing matters to attend to..."

Farro could not help but smile at this. It was getting harder for him to concentrate on anything but the pleasure that Duric's slave was giving him. She was so far more skilled than any Narlassi woman with whom he had ever consorted. However, he sometimes wished this were not the case. Eventually, he was expected to marry a nice young Narlassi woman, and he would hope that the lass would satisfy him in bed.

Unfortunately, many Narlassi women found some of the techniques that slaves used to be quite scandalous.

Duric's smile widened and his eyes closed as he felt his pleasure building towards a peak. Tanyee's tunnel was so wonderfully tight around his manhood, even with as long as he had been thrusting into her. Tanyee seemed quite impossible to out-endure, though he had tried on occasion.

Duric felt Tanyee quiver as the slave began rising as well. He felt little telltale squeezes around his cock that told him she was properly holding herself back from orgasm as he had instructed her. Climax was a reward for doing a good job, so he had her withhold it from herself until he was satisfied with her. So far, he always found reason to reward her.

Farro was panting hard, his own body straining as he rocketed upwards. He tried to hold back as long as he could but already knew it would be in vain. He uttered a guttural groan, his body shuddering massively as his manhood began to throb hard inside Tanyee's mouth. Tanyee stretched her neck and enveloped his cock almost completely with each forward stroke, letting him spurt his seed deep into her mouth briefly before pulling back with Duric's stroke into her from behind. Despite how fast her mouth moved on Farro's cock, she managed not to let a single drop ooze past her lips. She used her momentum to milk his cock dry before she finally let him drop from her mouth. She tilted her head forward enough to swallow slowly and obviously.

Duric gave Farro a knowing grin and redoubled the pace, slapping against Tanyee fast and hard. Tanyee moaned deeply, her eyes sliding closed. She dropped forward, bringing her shoulders almost to the floor to let him inside her as deeply as she could. She trembled with delight as Duric's cock filled her completely now with each stroke. Her lips parted and she gasped out her rising pleasure.