Pride x Familiar (23 page)

The girl looked down at her hands then folded
them neatly on her lap.

“So Caelum has been kept in custody while my
family and the Lanfears petition for his release. Last I heard, the
Primatriarchs of both Prides were involved in the disagreement.”
She gave me yet another despondent look. “There’s also the problem
of hiding what happened from the public. So many people witnessed
and recorded the encounter that it’s been impossible to cover up.
Believe me when I say the Prides are trying, but the holovids keep
popping up all over the cynet.”

I frowned at her. “Countess, are you saying—are
you saying everyone knows about what happened?”

The Countess exhaled loudly. “Not everyone, but
certainly a large percentage of Pharos’s population.” She gave me a
smile full of mixed feelings. “I’m afraid that you, Constance and
Caelum have become quite infamous.”

I raised my head off the pillow. “People…know
about me?”

Simone let out a very heavy sigh. “Oh, they
certainly do. It didn’t take them long to figure out who you were.
There was even a reward posted on the cynet boards to anyone who
could identify all three of you.”

I lay back and stared at the line where the
ceiling met the far wall.

“Famous...infamous….”

The Countess stood up slowly and stretched her
body. “Damn, I need a shower….”

I couldn’t help looking at her. She was dressed
in a black blouse, and black slacks. I was ashamed to admit she had
an excellent figure, though I thought her breasts were a little too
large for her. Actually, they were
too
damn large.

No wonder Caelum was so interested in them.

Her breasts had felt quite firm against my back
when I carried her.

I reached up and touched my chest where the pain
lay.

Not fair. It really wasn’t fair. I was proud of
my body, except for my
inadequate
chest.

And now there was this scar to consider.

I felt like crying.

“Hey, hey, Caprice—what’s wrong?”

Simone was standing close to the bed, leaning
over me with a concerned look.

“I’m sorry?” I asked.

“Why are you crying? Does it hurt? I can call
the nurse.”

“I’m…I’m crying?”

I reached up and touched my cheeks, feeling the
moisture there.

Simone sat down on the edge of the bed. She
looked like she wanted to reach out and comfort me but didn’t know
how much pain that would cause me.

Again it was impossible to ignore her voluptuous
figure.

Gods, even if it was wrong I still envied
her.

The Countess swallowed and spoke in a firm,
confident tone. “Caprice, Caelum will be fine. We’ll have him
released soon, and I won’t allow his Fragment to be taken from
him.”

Huh? She misunderstood the reason for my
tears.

But when she mentioned Caelum I felt truly
ashamed over my reasons for crying.

My lack of decent breasts was the least of my
problems.

The Countess pressed on. “My family won’t allow
Constance’s actions to bear on him. She tried to kill you and for
that the Ventiss Family is already on the back foot. And as I said
before, Prissila is in hot water for giving Constance the order to
keep me from interfering. But the fact Constance tried to kill you
will drive a resolution firmly in Caelum’s favor.”

I wiped at my tears with my fingertips. “What
about me?”

“You’re in the clear. You were defending me and
yourself. You don’t have to worry.”

“Would they really take Caelum’s Fragment from
him?”

“I’m sure they’ll try.” The Countess paused for
a long moment. “I have to admit, after seeing its power as a
Fragment, maybe it’s a good thing it’s not an Artifact.”

I tried not to frown.

If it was an Artifact and Caelum was slowly
drawing out its full potential, then did that mean the Lanfears had
lied to us all this time?

Or were they simply unable to tell whether it
was a Fragment or an Artifact?

Something the Countess had said earlier came
back to mind.

“Countess, how long was I asleep?”

She blinked in mild surprise. “Ara ara, I forgot
to mention its Sunday evening.”

It was my turn to blink quickly. I stared at her
with a disbelieving face.

The Countess patted my arm. “Don’t worry. You’re
almost healed. The doctors say you’ll be fine in a few days.
However, they aren’t expecting to discharge you until Wednesday. So
for now just rest.” She gave me a conspiratorial look. “Say, can I
get you anything to read?”

I mulled her offer over. “Okay….”

She smiled then laughed mysteriously before
saying, “I have a lot you might find interesting.” She leaned close
to me. “But you have to keep it a secret. Promise?”

I regarded her warily for a moment, then gave
her a nod. “Promise….”

The Countess sat back in her chair then bent
down. I heard the rustle of fabric.

I realized she had a bag at the foot of her
chair.

When she straightened, Simone had a second
data-slate in her hands. She hummed to herself as she worked
through the various menus. After a few moments she handed the slate
to me.

I looked at the reading material she had
downloaded into the device.

I read the titles, then I turned and regarded
Simone critically. “Romance novels?”

Simone’s smile grew slightly nervous. “You—you
could call them that.”

I blinked a few times. “Countess, these
books—”

She laughed quickly and waved a hand. “Ah
well—just don’t tell my mother.”

I looked at the selection of books presented on
the slate’s screen.

Hesitantly and with great trepidation, I picked
a title.

Little did I know what I was getting into.

#

(Alessandro)

“Do you understand what I’m saying to you?”

I looked at Severin Kell’s holovid image
projected on the wall unit in my office.

He was quiet and thoughtful for a moment. “So an
agreement has been reached between the Primatriarchs?”

“Not exactly. There’s still some debate going
on. However, it’s been agreed unanimously that if we allow the
Galatea Academy Student Council to continue with its own plans,
they will undoubtedly unravel Commander Alucard’s preparations for
Crimson Crescent.”

“And what preparations would those be?”

“Severin, you’re not really expecting me to tell
you.”

He nodded. “It is within my purview to ask.”

“Then my answer is, you are not in a position to
expect an answer.”

“I see. As expected of the Powers-that-be.
Consummate arrogance.” He smiled thinly. “So the fate of the
academy is in the hands of Simone’s mother. I’m considerably
reassured we’ll at least see the end of the school year.”

“If you do as you’re told, there’s a good chance
you’ll be able to graduate at the end of the year as well.” I
relaxed a little a more in my high backed leather chair. “Now, to
put it simply, the Student Council will work with Commander
Alucard’s personnel. You will follow the instructions to the
letter. You will not deviate from them, and you will not question
them. You are children who chose to play in an adult’s world. And
this is how adults treat children who trespass into that
world.”

His smile grew. “I see. Anything else?”

“Keep in line those Familiars you’ve recruited
to your cause. For now, nothing more.”

Severin Kell looked amused. “So the Student
Council is now a puppet of Selena Alucard. Correct?”

“The Student Council is under Commander
Alucard’s authority.”

“So you’re not going to tell us what measures
she has in place against Crescent.”

“Don’t ask the same question again, Kell.”

I watched him nod faintly.

His amused look was beginning to irritate
me.

“In that case, Captain Alucard, would you mind
telling me when Desanto will be released?”

“He’s been released into the custody of Arisa
Imreh Lanfear.”

“With or without his Fragment?”

I hesitated for just a moment, then gave Kell a
smile of my own. “Without it…of course.”

Inwardly, I regretted the decision, but there
was no other way to get a compromise out of the Ventiss Family, and
even the Raynar Primatriarch had agreed it was a good decision.

Kell frowned noticeably. “That is indeed a
pity.”

Yes, it was. But Desanto’s demonstration of the
Fragment’s power had resulted in many loudly voiced concerns.

Arisa had no choice but to agree to the
condition for his release. Needless to say, she was incensed. I
didn’t doubt for a moment she would have killed the Ventiss Family
representative had the two of them been alone in the same room.

Kell’s voice intruded into my thoughts. “Well,
if there’s nothing else, then I bid you adieu.”

He ended the connection before I could utter a
word.

Bastard.

If his family wasn’t directly related to the
Avenir Primatriarch, I doubt he’d be so arrogant. But in the end,
he was just being true to the character of an Avenir.

I turned my chair so that I could look out my
office window.

Through plasti-steel glass I could see out into
the interior of Island Three’s Habitat Three.

The mammoth rock cavern was observing a night
time cycle.

I looked at the thousands of lights shining from
the hundreds of buildings that occupied the habitat. Far below, the
nighttime crowds made their way down the sidewalks, and traffic
continued relentlessly lurching through the habitat’s streets.

I held back a bitter sigh.

With this, those kids will be spared. Alucard
had no intention of having them face off against Crimson Crescent,
and I agreed with her.

With their lack of training and experience, they
would be slaughtered.

But if they could be properly trained, they were
a resource that could be utilized.

To that end, I believe Severin Kell realized
this which was why he had agreed so easily to hand control of the
Student Council over to the commander.

I had to admit, I was interested in seeing how
things would pan out.

As I’ve explained before, the Cataclysm left
behind a giant cloud of dust and debris that was christened the
Hurakan Nebula. The asteroid Island colony of Pharos floated a
couple of light-years within its border.

But I haven’t explained what purpose Pharos
served.

The colony was an oasis – a port of call for the
hundreds of starships that traveled back and forth through the
mapped regions of the nebula. Freighters, mining ships, resource
vessels, they all dove into the murky, cloudy space and kept the
machinery of commerce and industry running.

The Hurakan is a source of raw material.
Trillions upon trillions of tonnes of it – the remains of shattered
star systems and planetary bodies the trans-light shockwave claimed
in the first hours of the Cataclysm. All of this material was
simply too much to pass up. Even while Pharos was being
constructed, mining and shipping companies were already charting
and staking claims on territory within the nebula.

It didn’t seem to matter that the Hurakan was a
graveyard to the billions of people that died on those worlds.

The Aventis are as greedy as the next
Regular.

However, there was another reason for building
Pharos.

It served as a home for the Prides intent on
harvesting the Fragments and Artifacts slowly trickling out of the
nebula. The Sanreal Pride used its ship building prowess and its
experienced crews to sail deep into the nebula, acting as
pathfinders for the mining and resource ships that would eventually
follow.

The Sanreals were always at the forefront of
exploration.

The other Prides would make efforts to compete
against them, but the Sanreals had kept their edge over the
competition for decades, until the Lanfears happened upon a
collection of Fragments that boosted their efforts at space
exploration. Fairly soon, they were finding some rather juicy
Fragments on their own.

If they weren’t trusted before, the Lanfear
Pride was trusted even less afterwards.

By the same coin, the Lanfears had never trusted
the other seven Prides, not even their close cousins the Raynars.
That’s not to say they didn’t work together with the Prides, they
just did so with a measure of caution best reserved for dealing
with dangerous foes.

I might be generalizing too much.

I knew that Arisa had a good relationship with
the Countess, and with Severin Kell.

In any case, the point I was trying to make was
that Fragments and Artifacts found out in the Hurakan were returned
to a secret repository on Pharos to be shared between the Prides.
Each piece was carefully analyzed, and tested, then the Prides
would follow procedure and allocate them to a compatible Familiar
if one was available.

However, there was little doubt in Arisa’s mind
that the Prides were careful with what they shared. In other words,
they undoubtedly kept the best pieces for themselves.

What separated the Lanfears from the other
Prides was they spared little effort concealing this fact.

(Caelum)

I was released from custody on Sunday
evening.

After spending the equivalent of a full day in
an Enforcer containment cell, a small two by two meter block, I was
happy to leave.

I kept my mouth shut and my eyes locked straight
ahead.

The Enforcer sergeant handed me my belongings
which had been taken from me on Saturday, namely my gym bag,
palm-slate and id wallet.

Then I was escorted to the building’s exit where
a Lanfear representative was waiting for me. The young woman had
the typical executive secretary look down to a tee.

She introduced herself as Arisa’s personal
secretary so I wasn’t that far off the mark.