Empire's Son: An Epic Science Fiction Novel Series

I quickly put my feet into motion as I caught up with her, but I also was a little wary as I once again found myself swept up in her Dome-ni orbit. In all the radiance coming from this beautiful woman, I could also feel the danger that lurked beneath what she offered. It put me on my guard. I was a brick house––mostly.

“So this is the east docking bay and before us is the concourse that will take us into the east tower of the palace.” Tessa began in a more professional voice as she took on the role of my guide.

We had stepped from the domed bay and now a large white bridge stretched out before us, connecting the ship landing to one of the five glistening towers of the White Palace. Below the bridge smaller white buildings of a variety of sizes and shapes were nestled close together a good fifty feet beneath.

I allowed myself to get swept up in the awe that I felt over the radiance my guide was putting out. Indeed, I had seen the white massive palace as we had dipped through the atmosphere of Dyniss.

It had looked like a giant white four pointed star in a sea of brown from the stratosphere. As we drew closer to the planet surface, I could make out the colossal towers that made four inner points of the star and a fifth tower in the very center, and then there seemed to be a shorter skirt of white structures that made up the star arms, extending around and beyond each of the four points.

I also had been able to quickly tell that the sea of brown was actually a city of buildings, stretching out in every direction as far as I could see. Did the city of buildings span the whole planet? I was curious to know, but I didn’t want to interrupt her tour, so I logged that as a question to ask later.

As we finished our crossing of the bridge and approached the first inner “point” of the star, I made careful observations of the bridge under my feet and even the tower that soared several hundred feet above us. From just an eyeball observation, it seemed that both were made of an ore compound of a white material that almost seemed to glimmer in the light of the red sun far above us.

Though the most impressive aspect were the delicate carvings of swirls and loops etched into every inch of the white material at closer examination, which I realized, resembled the golden tapestry in my long coat.

The white ore seemed more natural than man-made, but how they had fashioned a natural material into such grandiose structures and with such delicate artwork was what caused most of my awe. This was the work of spectacular craftsmanship. The engineer in me was deeply impressed.

“Who built this palace? How long has it been here?” I couldn’t help but burst out.

Tessa stopped and eyed me like that wasn’t a question that was asked very often, or maybe it didn’t need to be asked because it was already common knowledge.

“It was built nearly five thousand years ago, during the reign of Taverus Zahn.”

I gave a low whistle. “That’s a long time for a structure to stand, and be in this good of condition.”

“I suppose,” she said as if she had never considered such a thing, and perhaps, she had not. It wasn’t something an ordinary person would pick up on.

I eyed the tower opening up before us in a new light. Five thousand years? Damn. It was an engineer’s dream to have something stand such a test of time.

They must have some really great maintenance protocols for the upkeep of this place, but I kept that thought to myself, because Tessa had already moved on into the large arching doorway of the tower. So I followed.

If I was impressed by the outside of the tower, the inside was even more so. This appeared to be an anteroom with walkways crisscrossing far above me and far below. It seemed every level of this tower opened in this part to empty space allowing the visitor to get a true idea of just how tall the tower was. By my guess from looking below, the tower plunged hundreds of feet beneath the ground.

Tessa must have guessed the quizzical look on my face, because she said, “Each tower has six hundred and twelve floors. Only about half are actually above ground. But the above ground are the only ones you will be concerned with. The lower levels, including the palace plaza you saw as we crossed the bridge, are set aside for the servants and visitors of a lower status.”

I blinked at her. “Each of these towers has six hundred and twelve floors? What could you possibly need so much space for?”

She raised an eyebrow. “The Empire is a big place, and it was the intention of Taverus Zahn when he built this place to be somewhere all from across the Empire could gather to discuss their business and grievances. It is the custom that no Ethian is turned away, no matter how petty their claims might be.”

“Really?” That didn’t line up with the way Vang had told me about how the governing bodies in Ethia worked, but then he had spoken to me in more general terms. “Who hears all these people’s claims? Surely, not the Emperor?”

Tessa laughed. “Oh, of course not. He is way to busy for all that. Magistrates are appointed to hear what the petitioners have to say. Only the most relevant or dire come to the Emperor’s attention. Sometimes not even then. All of that happens on the lower levels so as not to disturb the real work being done.”

I wasn’t sure I liked the tone of her voice as if she was dismissing the entire idea of the everyday petitioners, which somehow I didn’t think that had been Taverus’s purpose when he built this place.

How I knew that, I wasn’t sure. It was almost like the more I stood in this amazing structure, the more I built a connection with the one who had given birth to this place. It was quite an exhilarating, but unsettling feeling. Was this sensation running through me real, or was I just overwhelmed by everything I was seeing around me?

“What is the real work that is done at the White Palace?” I asked.

She raised an eyebrow at me. “I was under the assumption that the Admiral was to give you basic instruction to the workings of the Empire.”

“He did.”

Vang had gone over some of the governmental structure for Ethia, but it was mostly to inform me of who was who and who did what. There was also quite a lot of players and politics involved, and it had been a challenge to keep it all straight. But most of that information had been about the Kings, their immediate delegates, and the Imperial Family.

“Then you know the Empire is far too large for just one man to oversee its everyday running. That’s what he has the magistrates and Kings for. They inform him of anything that needs his attention.”

“So the magistrates and Kings represent the rights of those under them?” I asked.

Tessa gave me a cool searching look. I had the feeling she didn’t like the turn of this conversation, but I couldn’t discern why. “I suppose that would be accurate.”

It was my turn to raise an eyebrow. “You suppose?”

The woman gave a shrug as if my question didn’t really matter. “The job of the Kings and those below them isn’t really something I pay much attention to.”

“What do you pay attention to?”

She gave me a slow smile that made my whole body tingle. “Perhaps, I’ll tell you that in private as well.”

Tessa turned and walked away once again. It was like she was gliding across the floor without any effort with her hips swaying in a mesmerizing movement. It took me a moment to realize I had stopped right in the middle of the walkway and I was staring… again.

One of the two Zahnians that had followed us from the landing bay cleared his throat. It caused me to come out of the trance I seemed to be in. I shook my head to get myself back in my right mind. I was sure my face was as red as the sun hanging in they sky over the palace.

Damn. I really needed to be careful. This woman was effecting me way more than I liked. It wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t have that nagging feeling that she was using her Dome-ni to manipulate me. The more I was around her, the more I was sure of it.

Or maybe I was just becoming jaded. Maybe my experiences on the Xlero had effected me more than I thought. Maybe this woman was just trying to be nice, and I was just overreacting by being horny, because let’s face it, I was definitely feeling the effects of being so isolated since boarding Vang’s ship. The idea of a beautiful woman giving me attention––any of kind of attention––was like a thirsty man in a dry desert. I needed a drink bad.

I shook myself from all the conflicting thoughts and emotions. I started a breathing routine as I followed Tessa to try to bring myself back into focus on myself. In that place of centeredness, all the conflict slowly dropped away. I decided that I didn’t need to deal with Tessa’s agendas or intentions right now. All I really needed to do was pay attention to the tour itself.

So that is what I did. I kept an ear out for her explanations as we went, but most of my attention went to my surroundings. It wasn’t hard to get caught up in admiring the palace once again. The place was as impressive on the inside as the outside.

Once we passed the anteroom, we moved into a large corridor that made me feel like a small bug creeping along a white gleaming floor in its brightness and bigness. The same white ore was present in every surface floor, ceiling and walls. The delicate etchings there as well, but along the walls of the corridor these etchings were mimicked on a larger scale, so that whole glyphs were the size my head or larger. It made me think of many murals adorning a wall, and perhaps it was.

“Do the symbols mean anything?” I asked.

“They do, though you’ll have difficulty finding someone who understands them, if there is anyone left who actually does. The glyphs are from an ancient language of Ethia during the beginning years of the Empire, even before the Zahn family came into power. It is said that Emperor Taverus knew the language and used it somehow in building this palace, but that’s only a myth.”

Tessa stopped before a circular recess in one of the wide corridors walls. We had passed a few along the way, but I had not gotten a good look at them or fathom why they might be there. She stepped inside, and motioned me to do the same.

The area was barely large enough for her, me, and the two guards that had followed us from the landing bay to enter. We stood there for a moment, and I watched as Tessa reached to one side of the opening back to the corridor. There I saw a large bank of green pulsing circles. She did a swiping motion with her hand, which made me realize that the bank of circles wasn’t static, but a holographic projection that could be rotated. As each new bank of circles appeared, I saw the only difference to the projections was the name across the top. We had started at East Tower, rotated through South, West, and North, before Central Tower appeared. She then reached for the top most circle and lightly tapped it.

I opened my mouth to ask her what she was doing, but stopped as I saw a green shimmer settle around the four of us. A tingling sensation went through me. I shivered. A moment later, the green light lifted, and Tessa quickly stepped from the alcove.

Curious, I followed her, I was stunned to find the corridor was not the same as I had left it. In fact, it was more like a large open room with three doors spaced wide apart on the opposite wall. The door on the far left had a single stone-faced man just outside.

This guard stood tall with the clear sculpture of his large muscular body outlined beneath his coat. There was something about him that was distinctly different than the other Zahnians I had seen so far. Besides the fact that his coat wasn’t as long and fell to just above his knees. His uniform was also black as night, and his hair was sheared short against his skull (the way I happened to like my hair cut). I wondered what the color and hair difference meant. Though it was abundantly clear he certainly wasn’t someone I wanted to mess with.

Tessa continued her spiel as she stepped into the ante-room. “What we just used was the transporter. It allows you to move to any location within the palace or the towers. This particular place is the Emperor’s chambers. It’s at the top of the central tower. His office and private residence are here.”

I looked to where the guard was standing. That probably meant the Emperor was in that room, and judging by the time of day, I assumed it meant that was his office.

“What about the third door?”

Tessa looked to the door on the far right. An expression I couldn’t quite place came and went so fast, I almost thought I imagined it.

“Oh, that would be the residence of the Empress, but that hasn’t been occupied for twenty years.”

That must have been my mother’s room, at least for the time she had been here. It was strange even thinking of her in this place at all. It didn’t fit the mom I had come to know, not even a little bit.

Tessa nodded to the door with the guard. “This is where I leave you. The Emperor is just beyond there. I look forward to seeing you again, Highness.” She then gave me a nod and quickly left as if she couldn’t leave fast enough.

I stood there for a moment wondering if it was something I said, but after a moment, I managed to shrug it off and walked toward the door with the Arnold Schwarzenegger wanna be. Before I even reached the entrance, the guard placed a hand on the palm control, and the door slid open.

This was it.

The moment I had been thinking about for weeks. I was about to meet the man who had instigated my life changing trip across the universe, and all I could think was I hoped I didn’t do something stupid to embarrass myself. I finally blew out a long breath, squared my shoulders, and stepped through the doorway.