Rener walked confidently through the Palace Mons in the center of the Kaoe isles, whistling a tune older than the island on which he stood. He wore his typical outfit, perfect for this weather. A perfectly tailored frosty blue button down, sandy brown pants, and loving crafted leather boots. He had chosen a pair of small glowing emeralds to hand from his horns today, as they fit well in the Kaoe islands and with the open-air colonnades looking out over a steep cliff that met the clearlake far below. The fantastic view with warm breezes and shade provided by the many varieties of tropical flora planted all around were almost divine.

  Oh, Rener had seen sights that would make these mortal minds tear themselves apart as they tried to comprehend what they were seeing, and he had seen palaces fit for actual deities that spanned across continents… but he nevertheless had a certain fondness for the simple, natural way these people incorporated their buildings into the land around them. Of all the nations on this planet, the Kaoe people were probably his favorite. Like an interesting bug he’d found in his yard, it was something to marvel at under a magnifying glass before squashing or forgetting about entirely.

  Two guards stood at the end of the pathway, on either side of large, dark wood doors with cute little drawings of what they believed to be their heritage and religion. Simply hilarious.

  One of the guards scrunched his face in confusion, before the other nudged him with the butt of his spear, and then bowed low, before opening the door without a single word.

  “Hmm, that was a close one, gentlemen. Let’s be a bit more careful next time, yes?” Rener said in a cooing voice, like chiding a puppy that almost peed on a rug.

  As the doors began to close behind him, the guards whispered to one another “You idiot, that’s the guest of the king, he could have you killed, and no one would say a thing!”

  “That four-eyed freak is a guest here? Why do I never hear about this stuff! Yah know, my wife was just telling me-”

  But their words were cut off as the doors slammed closed with a resounding bang, and Rener held back the twin desires to let loose his laugh while at the same time repurposing their spines as new back scratchers. But a moment later, he decided they weren’t nearly good enough to be back scratchers. If this nation were an interesting bug, those two were electrons on a piece of dirt stuck to the bugs back. Not even remotely worth caring about.

  Entering the simply adorable little throne room of the king, Rener gave an ornate bow and then sat down at a long table with a map of the world splayed out from one end to the other.

  “About damn time, Ren. We’ve been waiting for at least an hour!” Gruff old Tarat said. His wild mop of red hair making most of the way down his back was matched by the auburn stubble on his face and the copious amount of hair on his chest, arms, and legs. If Rener didn’t know for certain, he would have thought this man some off-shoot of a bear. His left eye was pure darkness, no white sclera, just a black emptiness. His right eye was pure light, no iris, no pupil, just a radiant white. His third eye directly in the middle of his forehead was an ever-swirling mix of purple, pink, and black.

  “Tarat,” Said sweet young Isolosi, “You arrived here not five minutes ago.” Her chipper, bubbly voice was a perfect match to her immaculately done hair and perfectly arranged outfit. Her upper set of eyes glowing a fierce gold, while her lower set seemed to glow with an anti-light, a black on purple.

  “Yes, but the rest of you were here an hour ago! And since I wasn’t as late as this guy, I get to act all imposed upon too.”

  Smiling widely and spreading his hands out to either side, Rener looked around the table at his four associates.

  “Greetings, all. I do apologize or getting held up, but… sometimes in life, one must indulge to get the greatest benefit out of something.” He said before licking his lips.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Tarat shuddered “I hate when you do that, just say you were playing with your food or something, you don’t need to be all weird about it.”

  Letting out a soft chuckle, Rener retorted “And you don’t need to be so blunt, my good man. It’s all part of the game, after all. I merely play my part.”

  “And that" said Vezev, the most subdued of the group as she pulled out her pocket watch and sighed, "was your agreed upon sixty-three seconds of nonsense. Time to talk business. Tonight’s the night for the first celestial movement, we should be ready for our initial strikes, yes?” Despite looking for all the world like a librarian with her oversized coat and hair up in a tight bun, she said every word to a slight rhythm, as though trying to match what she said to a tune in her head. Her eyes of deepest Amythest and darkest ebony seemed to shine and dull in tune as well, something which had always fascinated Rener whenever he got the chance to see her up close.

  All four others around the room nodded their heads. Before Vezev continued, “Good. Are there any hopefuls so far? I had a promising one in the east, but he chose time as his class. Not a dead-end by any means, but that means founding the right path from a temporal background which can be tricky. I have some work yet to do with him though, so we’ll see. Who else?”

  Isolosi grinned widely with a twinkle in her eye “I have two, a pair of twins, one boy and one girl! They're the way down in the south-eastern desert. They both chose space, which is wonderful, but are far too goody-goody at the moment to be worthwhile candidates. They're both vying for a life subclass to work on healing and helping, which is a total contradiction, and the local goddess is liable to have a heart-attack when she hears-”

  “I,” Rener cut in “Have the perfect candidate on the large island west of here. She has not only chosen space, but she-”

  “Uhm, I actually wasn’t done with my point, Ren.”

  “Iso, in the most diplomatic and kindhearted way possible, nobody cares, and you need to be quiet.”

  Isolosi looked aghast as she scanned the faces of her companions for someone to be outraged with… and found only mocking smirks or impassive masks to greet her.

  “Okay, each of you are just rude, and you know what... I hate you.”

  “Yes dear, we know.” Rener said, patting her hand gently. “Now then, for something actually important, I once more have a perfect candidate. She has chosen space to begin with and has the necessary items to take the next steps.”

  Vezev was about to speak, when she was cut off by the sound of a book closing at the head of the table as their fifth finally spoke up. His soft, monotonous voice matching so well with his pallid complexion and eyes dark as midnight.

  “If she’s able to take the next steps, why hasn’t she?”

  Rener smiled a wolf's smile and said simply “I want it to be her choice, as it will make her that much stronger of a candidate in the long run. You should know that more than anyone, Lord Kirik.”

  Kirik, his posture straight and rigid, face impassive as the grave, nodded slowly. “I agree that it will be better if she arrives at the choice of her own will, but I won’t allow this opportunity to be squandered. This is one of only twelve planets in this integration that we can pull from, I will not wait for an entire epoch to pass by before trying again. Make it happen tonight, Rener. Pull the strings, send reinforcements, I want the suns to rise tomorrow with a new acolyte on this planet.”

  His mind already whirling with a dozen different ideas abandoned and a dozen more on how to arrange things to make this happen, Rener nodded, his grin now more contemplative. Finally in a voice that put silk to shame, he said, “Absolutely my lord, it will be done.”

  The others spoke about other prospects, as well as the backup plans for what to do if their current crop of hopefuls didn’t work out how they wanted them to, but Rener wasn’t paying attention, not in the least. His mind was on the night's activities, they had already been planning a small incursion into the region, but if he was going to force her hand, Rener would have to put his own cards on the table as well.

  “Mmmmmhhhh”

  All conversation stopped as the rest of the table turned to look at Rener.

  Isolosi was the first to recover “Rener… for the love of the great astral star, can you please shut the hell up and keep your creepy blood lust contained? I can feel it from here, and now I need to shower.”

  “Hmm?” Opening one eye, Rener realized he’d been a bit too lost in thought. “Oh dear, I’m terribly sorry you all had to see that. I was getting a bit lost in the excitement. Sometimes the build-up is just-”

  “No, that wasn’t an invitation to explain.” Tarat said. “I’m with Iso, you really need to shut the hell up. I enjoy conflict as much as the next guy, but… not if you are that guy.” Then he visibly shuddered before turning to Kirik “My lord, I ask your leave to go. It will take me at least thirty minutes to get back across the ocean, and I must ensure tonight's preparations are complete.”

  With a wave of his fingers, the four others stood and bowed to Kirik, before disappearing with a spark of shadow and a sound of thunder.