Zodiac Academy 8: Sorrow and Starlight
Sorrow and Starlight: Chapter 37

I pulled on my favourite blood-red smoking jacket and admired myself in the gilded mirror in the rooms I’d claimed for myself.

I was still having trouble accessing Hail Vega’s old chambers, the grandest in the palace, and worse than that, I still could not get even close to the treasury. It was as if the corridors shifted and changed every time I delved into the deeper regions of the palace, though it was surely just some spell set to confuse me. Whatever pathetic magic had been placed here to try and keep me out would dissolve in the face of my might eventually though, I was certain of it.

Lavinia had travelled north to visit her army of Nymphs this evening, and I was finally free of her at last. If only for one night. But I would certainly be making the most of it.

I had summoned Francesca Sky to me, the FIB agent a beautiful specimen who had often crossed my mind since our last meeting. It was time I got a taste of sweet, warm flesh again. And hers was a delicacy I would spend many hours enjoying.

She was most willing. Her answer to my summons having come swiftly, as I had predicted. I had seen the way she flushed in my company, how she admired my great size and looked up at me through those thick lashes with want. I was the most desired man in the kingdom now, I supposed. The Dragon King. The greatest Fae to ever live.

I slipped a belt through the loops of my trousers, fastening it tight and running my thumb over the golden clasp shaped like a Dragon’s scale, feeling the little touch of magic it gave me. I had laid naked upon my newly acquired gold offered up from the Dragon Guild all afternoon, recharging my power and writhing in my trove. Though I had been sorely reminded of the treasure that had been stolen from me, some of the most valuable pieces of history among my trove now vanished into the rebels’ grasp.

I growled, smoke pooling between my lips and heat rising in my chest like a furnace. No, I must not dwell on that tonight.

I would soon replace my way into the palace treasury and lay claim to all the priceless jewels that were hidden within. Mine. All mine.

A nervous knock came at the door which I was growing far too accustomed to.

“Enter, Vard,” I growled, the Cyclops irking me as always. He had been working on Gabriel Nox’s mind day after day now and had produced little of substance, telling me all he could see in the Seer’s head were visions of a giant nest shaped like a falcon and fine sticks inlaid with gemstones. I had no idea what trickery was at play, but there was something the Seer was doing to evade being broken again. But Gabriel would see the rebels make a mistake soon enough, and then Vard would pull the vision from his head and I would march out to obliterate them that very same day.

The next time I met with the rebels, I would not leave a single one of them to breathe another breath. I would eradicate them, every man, woman, and child, burned to ash so that they could never rise against me again.

“Sire, I have made some progress today with my experiments. I thought you might like to come and see?” Vard asked hopefully, like a mutt looking for scraps.

I pushed a hand through my golden hair, styling it just so and taking a moment to admire myself longer in the mirror, letting him wait on my answer.

“If you waste my time again, I will be most displeased.”

“I promise you will want to see this,” he said eagerly. “Come, sire. I will bring a smile to your face this day yet.”

I turned, letting him lead me from the room and down into the belly of the palace where I allowed him to conduct his experiments. I followed him into a brick walled room where a woman was strapped down on a metal bed in the middle of it, the sound of rebels crying and begging from nearby cages irritating me. I cast a silencing bubble over them so that I didn’t have to listen to their unFae whimpering and followed Vard over to the woman.

Her eyes were glassy, though she was still with us, her fingers twitching a little to let me know as much. She was young, pretty perhaps, if it weren’t for the tubes sticking out of her flesh, feeding some glowing blue potion beneath her skin.

“Look,” Vard said, picking up a little wooden tongue depressor and using it to peel the woman’s upper lip back.

Vampire fangs were revealed, and I looked from them to Vard blankly. “And?”

“And she is a Harpy by birth,” he said with a twisted smile, making the scar across the side of his face crease.

“Has she shown interest in feeding?” I asked, my curiosity piqued at last.

“A little,” he said. “These trials have been far more successful than my Emergence trials. I spent many years trying to switch the orders of children before their Orders awoke. That seemed most logical, you see? But I had little success with it, though I learned much about the inner workings of the Orders and how to contain them once they are removed. Each Order is different, some trickier to sustain than others when they are cut from a subject. And I believe children can be useful to this area of science yet.”

I nodded, my curiosity deepening. “And does the essence of these Orders die once the subject dies?”

“Some do, others live on,” he breathed excitedly, leading me over to a metal cabinet which had frost clinging to its exterior. He opened it with a wave of his hand and a flash of magic, tugging the doors wide and showing me the rows of large glass jars inside. Light glowed inside them, flickering, pulsing, each moving to its own particular rhythm. I read the labels on them all with intrigue. Manticore, Cerberus, Werewolf, Medusa, Vampire, Centaur.

“My babies are waiting for a new home,” Vard said, snapping the doors shut with a gleeful smile. “Your cousin Benjamin has been quite helpful with this project. Perhaps you would permit him back into your court?” he asked sweetly, clearly put up to this by my uncouth cousin, and I bristled.

“Benjamin may assist you, but I will not risk bringing him into my court. He is a gambler and a liability. No Dragon worth their salt should gamble away their trove, it’s despicable,” I spat.

“Of course, sire,” Vard said, bowing his head and leading me back to the girl strapped down on the table. “Now let me see if I can get our friend to feed.”

The newly made Vampire gnashed her teeth, thrashing wildly, her empty eyes filling with a murderous want. But that hungry, riotous need in her suddenly turned into a fit, her body starting to jerk, her eyes rolling into the back of her head.

“No, no, no. Hang on.” Vard pressed healing magic into her skin, but blood was dripping from the woman’s mouth, her ears, her eyes, the thrashing of her body only gaining in intensity before she fell all too still, eyes wide and death stealing her away.

I clucked my tongue in annoyance.

“What did I tell you about wasting my time?” I snarled, and Vard winced from my tone, lifting the wooden tongue depressor and shrinking behind it as if it could save him from my ire.

I caught him by the throat, fire blazing in my palm, and his scream echoed around the room as I felt his skin sizzling beneath my heated grip. I released him before I burned my way too deep, and he staggered to the ground, holding his neck with a whimper.

I turned my back on him, leaving him there to heal himself and striding for the exit, but his calls made me pause on the threshold as he dared cry out for me again.

“Sire! There is another subject you should see – the other experiment I have been working on!”

Curiosity rose in me unwanted, but I couldn’t resist the urge to turn back fully, my gaze moving over the pathetic creature who called himself my Royal Seer. The only reason I still kept him in my court was because of the few exceptionally useful visions he had managed to conjure during his time of service to me. He may have been a pitiful waif of a Fae, but occasionally, he proved his worth. I would not have found the rebels’ hideout without him, and I could not forget that.

“Show me,” I growled, and he nodded quickly, scrambling to his feet and beckoning me after him.

He hurried across the room towards the next chamber, guiding me past the corridor which led to the cells holding the Fae destined to become his next test subjects, their cries for mercy stirring my blood as I ignored them.

Vard strode into a dim corridor where thick metal bars marked the front of huge cells, the test subjects within those on our left recoiling from us while we passed two empty cages on our right before Vard finally fell still.

He reached out for a clipboard hanging from the bars and I drew closer to him, peering into the cell, seeing only shifting darkness within.

He offered me the clipboard and I snatched it from him, my eyes roaming over the information there detailing the subject’s name as Will Oli, his Order form a Vampire and his Element fire. Beneath it was the name of a monster which I knew lurked in the bowels of this world; Obscuro, a beast of twisting darkness with rows of sharpened teeth that could skin a Fae in minutes.

“These are the genetic mutations you’ve been working on?” I asked curiously, and Vard smiled toothily at me, the movement stretching his scar and making him seem even uglier than usual.

“I call him, the Oliwill,” he breathed, his excitement palpable.

I stepped closer to the bars as I spotted movement within the cage, the darkness seeming to shift in the rear corner.

I walked all the way up to the bars, squinting to see better before flicking my fingers and casting a Faelight into existence.

A shriek erupted from the cage at the illumination of the bright light, my heart leaping as a creature of smoke and flame shot towards me with the speed of a Vampire, death flashing before my eyes as I caught sight of a feral face hidden within the thick smoke.

I stumbled back, my feet tripping over themselves, and Vard snatched my arm into his grip to keep me from falling as the thing in the cage wailed with hunger, lashing its near formless body against the bars.

“He’s hungry,” Vard purred, watching the thing he had created with wicked delight, and I found myself staring as I straightened, taking in this creature of chaos.

“What does it eat?” I asked in a low tone, cocking my head to one side as I surveyed the beast, its body humanoid, but ghostly too where the smoke parted to reveal its lengthened limbs.

Vard’s smile widened and he lifted his hand, casting magic towards the rear wall of the cell. It parted at his command, a prisoner revealed in the chamber there, her face written with terror as the Oliwill snapped its attention to her.

She barely managed to scream as it shot for her, blood spraying across the walls in a wide arc as the Oliwill made a feast of her in seconds, flesh and bone shredding within its wide, tooth-filled jaw.

“You have control of this creature?” I demanded, as a vision spread before my eyes, of me wielding this thing at my will, setting it on those who disobeyed me, using it to tighten my hold on this rebellious kingdom.

“I used collars in my previous experiments, but I am designing new methods to control them, ones which are hardwired into their minds and cannot be broken by outside forces. Though as of yet, I haven’t perfected that,” Vard admitted in a small voice. “And…”

“Spit it out,” I snarled, making him flinch as I allowed my Faelight to dim, leaving the Oliwill to its meal of rebel flesh.

“Only around one in fifty survive the modification, and even then, they don’t live for long.”

“How long do they manage?” I demanded and he flinched.

“The Oliwill is the first of this batch to make it beyond a day. The records of the processes I used when I first developed these methods were all destroyed when the Celestial Council voted against me continuing with these experiments,” he sighed, casting his eyes to the floor, and I didn’t miss the tone of accusation there.

“As you know well, I voted for those experiments to continue. And without me taking the throne, you wouldn’t have ever been granted the permission required to restart them,” I growled, and he cowered like the snivelling cockroach he was.

“Of course, sire. I didn’t mean any disrespect. I only meant to explain why I am struggling to recreate such viable subjects. Oliwill is doing better than the others, but even he is showing signs of deterioration. At the current rate, he will be dead before dawn…”

I cursed as I looked from Vard to the cage containing the gruesome creature, my need for more power consuming me as it always had. I would never get enough, never reach the epitome of all I craved.

“Keep working on it then,” I commanded.

“I shall, of course. I had great success in the past with such mutations, but it is proving difficult to recreate without my original notes to go on.” He sighed again. “However, I have a woman I am prepping. Mary Brown. She is responding well to the initial stages of the trial. Perhaps she will respond as well as my dear Ian did.”

“Good. Only bother me again if you make a success of it next time.” I turned and strode away from Vard as he simpered in my wake, slamming the door shut behind me.

When I made it back upstairs, I walked to the lounge I had asked Horace to prepare for my date and found him waiting with a fine bottle of whiskey and my favourite cigars. I relaxed, the tension rolling out of my body at replaceing him living up to my expectations for once. His minor mistakes were becoming fewer, but I still missed the perfection Jenkins had brought to this role. Lavinia just had to go and fucking eat him, didn’t she?

I clipped the cigar and lit it with a flame cast upon my index finger, wafting Horace away to pour me a glass of whiskey and dropping into the large wingback chair by the fire. Yes, this was good. I could breathe again now that Lavinia was no longer in the palace, and when Horace passed me my whiskey in a golden chalice, I thought on how I might regain control over Lavinia, taking a long sip of the fine drink. I really had to get a hold on her before she demanded an heir from me again.

I shuddered at the thought of her taking me to bed, of getting me to give her some monstrous child again. I had to try and avoid that fate at all costs.

I had a host of diviners reading the fates for me regularly in every manner they could, and I received daily Horoscopes from the Horometer at Zodiac Academy too. Just this morning, I had been offered a grand forecast from the stars.

I took out my Atlas, reading over it again and enjoying another sip of the fine whiskey.

Good morning, Aries.

The stars have spoken about your day!

Power blossoms in your life like a spring flower reaching towards a bright blue sky. The day ahead is set to be a bountiful one indeed, but the turbulent nature of your ruling planet, Mars, may bring lows along with the highs. Ride the highs while they last and reflect on the lows. Your need for sexual connection is finally coming to fruition as the alignment of Venus in your chart predicts a fiery experience in your near future.

I smiled, putting my Atlas away and thinking on my highs, anticipating many more to come.

The academy was well under my control now, many of my Nebula Taskforce placed within its ranks, and I had Dark Coerced anyone who had opposed my reign. I had big plans for the academy, a place to train the higher Orders and recruit them to my army. I would have the curriculum overhauled, and all lessons would focus on creating warriors out of my allies. I had dreams of an army which could one day crush all others. With the lesser Orders eradicated, the pure lines would live on, generation after generation, making Solaria the greatest power on earth.

I could be the king of the entire world one day, but there was one thing I needed to ensure that. Time. And I could secure it as soon as I found the Imperial Star. If the legends were true, it could grant me immortality and I would remain here forever, conquering the realm piece by piece.

My cock stirred at the mere idea of it, and I took a toke on my cigar, rolling it between my teeth and settling back into my seat. Things were not perfect, but problems could always be solved. I just needed to think on how to handle Lavinia, and once she was subdued, I would kill Gwendalina Vega. Perhaps I could even replace a way to use her to lure her sister to me, then kill them both in a bloodbath of my own design. It had worked once before, after all.

A woman stepped through the open door and my eyebrows arched at Stella Orion in a tight navy dress and high heels. She looked ravishing, yet her expression did not speak of her delight at seeing me like I expected.

“Good evening, Your Highness,” she said respectfully, bowing her head for a moment before glancing at Horace. “I thought we could have a word…alone?”

“Of course.” I wafted my hand at Horace, and he scarpered from the room, shutting the door behind him as he went.

Stella remained across the room, folding her arms as she inspected my outfit, and her eyes brightened a little. “Were you expecting me?”

“No,” I said simply. “I have company arriving soon.”

“What kind of company?”

“The female kind,” I admitted.

I didn’t care to lie to her. What did she expect? I was the king now, and my needs were as infinite as the sky.

Her eyes rippled with some weak emotion which I wasn’t going to bother to decipher, and she folded her arms.

“Why did you bring me to the palace?” she asked.

“You know why. I enjoy you very much, Stella. But I cannot escape the wants of other women. I am the most desired Fae in Solaria. And as king, I shall be pleasured by the beauties of this land as is only right for a man of my status.”

Her throat bobbed as she nodded, seeming to accept that.

“How is the new rift coming along?” I asked, flicking a silencing bubble around us to keep our secret between us.

“Slowly, as you asked,” Stella said. “But sooner or later, Lavinia will figure out that I am stalling on it, and what will happen then?”

“I’m working on it,” I assured her. “Just buy me a little more time. Now off you go.” I jerked my chin at the door. “Who knows, perhaps I’ll have my fill of my company early, then come seek you out in your bed tonight too.” I smiled seductively, and her lips twitched as if she was going to object, then she bowed her head and left me there.

I chuckled to myself, puffing on my cigar again. She was learning her place in this world, and it was at my beck and call. I liked the way it sparked a fire in her, and I’d enjoy extinguishing that fire just as much. She was my plaything now, and she liked it too. She would admit that to herself eventually.

I flicked the ash of my cigar in the ashtray, gazing into the fire in the hearth, thinking on my issues. I had always been a master problem solver, and I had made it through greater challenges than these.

There was an answer just out of my reach, my diviners had spoken of it many times this past week. The stars were turning in my favour again, shining down on their favourite Fae and blessing me with their light. Indeed, the answer was coming, I only needed to be patient.