Emperor of the Source

A starship settled onto its assigned landing platform beneath the Crimson Spire on Sanguis Prime, and the formations around its hull slowly dimmed. When the ramp lowered, a single elder of the Ebon Meridian Sect stepped outside. He had grey-blue skin and narrow features, and the insignia on his dark robes identified the sect he represented.

He paused near the top of the ramp and examined the docking area. Crimson Vital vessels occupied the neighboring platforms, while broad passages connected the landing bays to the headquarters beyond them. Nothing appeared unusual for the governing center of a galaxy, and he descended toward the disciple waiting below.

As the distance between them shortened, the elder's attention shifted from the surrounding buildings to the man before him. The disciple wore ordinary crimson robes of the sect and held a small tablet beside his waist. Yet the strength he sensed from him was far beyond what he had expected from someone sent to guide a visitor.

"Welcome to Crimson Vital headquarters. Please follow me." The disciple inclined his head and turned toward the nearest passage, leaving the envoy looking at his back for a moment before following.

"This should be impossible. According to the reports, there were only two Astrals in this sect, and neither of them was this man."

He had studied far more than Crimson Vital's recent victories before coming here. Sect Leader Hestia and Elder Adrian were its two known Astral cultivators, while its five senior elders had reached Peak Rule. Many disciples had fought in the war at High Rule, but only a few months had passed since then. Even allowing for incomplete information, finding an Astral handling a routine reception was difficult to explain.

The envoy had reached the Astral Stage himself and later attained Chime of Consciousness. He knew how much work those advancements required, and he could not mistake the stable presence of another Astral at such close range. Still, one unreported breakthrough did not necessarily mean his information was entirely wrong.

He kept that explanation in mind as they entered the Spire, but it became harder to accept with every passage they crossed. Disciples stood beside open administrative chambers, carried records between offices, and discussed their duties around small projections. The first group he passed consisted entirely of Peak Rule cultivators. So did the next.

None of them concealed their cultivation, though they were not deliberately pressing their auras upon anyone. The envoy could sense their strength as easily as he could hear the conversations around them. By the time his guide led him across a broad hall, he had passed more than a hundred people without encountering a single cultivator below Peak Rule.

Near one of the adjoining passages, two Astrals were speaking with a woman who held an open formation chart between her hands. Farther ahead, another emerged from an office and called to a disciple walking past. The younger cultivator stopped to answer, and their ordinary exchange continued as the envoy followed his guide toward the lifts.

He began comparing their faces with the five senior elders in his records, but none matched. By the time the lift doors closed behind him, he had counted at least ten unfamiliar Astrals in addition to the man accompanying him.

One disciple might have been close to a breakthrough before the war. A handful might have completed years of preparation at nearly the same time. But that did not explain so many Astrals, or why everyone else he had seen had already completed a Rule foundation. If Crimson Vital had possessed this strength during the war, its struggle against the surrounding sects should have ended very differently.

The guide stood quietly beside him as the lift rose. The envoy made no attempt to question him.

When the doors opened on the highest occupied floor, a woman with silver-crimson hair waited outside. He recognized Elder Lara immediately, and the Astral presence surrounding her removed any hope that the familiar senior elders had remained as his records described them. His guide bowed before her and stepped aside.

"Elder Lara, the Ebon Meridian representative has arrived."

"Thank you. You may return to your duties." Lara acknowledged the disciple before turning toward the visitor. "Please come with me. Master Hestia is waiting."

The disciple withdrew into the lift, and the envoy followed Lara through the golden-crimson doors of the head chamber.

The doors separated.

HUMMM!!

The envoy had barely crossed the entrance when a deep hum seemed to pass through his awareness, and a chill spread across his skin. His gaze moved toward the far side of the chamber before he consciously decided where to look.

A young man sat behind the dark-crimson desk with a small, welcoming smile. There was no Divine essence or aura around him, yet the envoy felt an awareness so dense that simply drawing its attention made him struggle to hold his next thought in place.

He recognized Adrian from the images he had studied. Knowing that this elder had reached Anchor had prepared him for a stronger consciousness, but the feeling he was currently experiencing was far beyond what he had expected. Even standing before Sect Leader Orveth had never made him feel anything like this.

Only after looking at Adrian did he notice Hestia seated beside him, her deep auburn hair resting over her crimson robes. The two shared the broad desk comfortably. Hestia's pale-gold eyes followed him as Lara led him toward the chair opposite them.

The envoy swallowed before continuing forward. He had negotiated with angry rulers, confronted hostile sect officials, and delivered agreements to cultivators capable of killing him before he could react. His experience allowed him to keep his expression controlled now, but as he crossed the remaining distance toward the desk, he found that some portion of his awareness remained fixed upon Adrian regardless of where he deliberately directed his gaze.

"Please, take a seat," Hestia said, gesturing toward the chair. Lara bowed and withdrew, leaving the three of them alone as the doors closed behind her.

The envoy sat with his back straight and activated the prepared agreement. A projection unfolded above the desk, displaying the covenant records and proposed terms. Before Hestia could speak, he began the explanation he had rehearsed throughout the journey from Valtheris.

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"I have come on Sect Leader Orveth's behalf to settle the terms concerning the Ancestral Venture Covenant. We recognize that the patriarchal office named within it remains yours, and we wish to reach an agreement through that office."

Ebon Meridian's complaint claimed that the old debt passed through Hestia's inherited office into the sect she had built. The sect used a clause meant to prevent escape from that debt to name Crimson Vital as the Solvaren Clan's successor estate and demand more than its entire recorded wealth. If that sum could not be paid, Ebon Meridian claimed its worlds, treasury, archives, businesses, artifacts, and governing rights. Hestia's own service was named as payment for whatever remained.

But he had not come expecting her to hand over any of those things. This was not a UNI-Contract. UNI had confirmed the old signatures and allowed the claim to be presented, but it had not ordered payment or agreed to collect the debt. Taking a world or treasury from Crimson Vital would still require Ebon Meridian to face the people who controlled it.

More importantly, the sect did not yet know how much the Solvaren descendants upon Nerath actually meant to Hestia. That uncertainty shaped the envoy's real assignment.

The initial agreement had been designed partly to discover whether the ancient clan still mattered enough for Hestia to bargain around it.

"We ask for public recognition of Ebon Meridian's standing under the covenant and the agreement between our sects. We also request a place for one covenant and trade office, with access to your regular commercial routes and markets. Finally, we seek a ten-percent discount on a fixed annual quantity of the healing artifacts sold through Crimson Vital's public division."

He brought the purchase schedule forward. Crimson Vital's obligations under this arrangement would be limited to the stated terms, with paid purchases, an agreed quantity, and an office restricted to their business. Its worlds and governing authority would remain its own.

Hestia's fingers stopped beside the edge of the projection. She read through the remaining clauses, then returned to the opening terms and examined the permitted functions of the proposed office more carefully. She had expected Ebon Meridian to demand considerably more, but as she studied the agreement, she realized that immediate concessions were not much.

Her eyes widened slightly as she studied the permitted work of the office. "Your sect is looking far beyond this first agreement," she said, lifting her gaze toward him.

"Sect Leader Orveth hopes for a lasting relationship." The envoy gave the answer without adding anything to it.

Hearing his words, Hestia clearly understood what was happening.

Orveth had never needed her to surrender a galaxy today. An office would give his people a place to work, while regular trade would bring them into contact with merchants, officials, and other sects. Given enough generations, those relationships could provide opportunities no demand for immediate payment would ever secure.

Unexpectedly, recognizing this brought a measure of relief. This was developing in a direction she could work with. Hestia had needed time to find a better solution for Nerath and the covenant, and Orveth's preference for gradual influence rather than immediate confrontation gave her exactly that.

"These terms are acceptable, but I have conditions concerning Nerath," Hestia replied. "People are discussing what happened there on the forums of several networks. I will not agree to this while the clan can still be punished for the actions of those two strangers."

"No civilian is to be seized as payment for your elders' deaths, and the clan must not face collective punishment. The accounts posted on those forums say the council tried to restrain Narev. You cannot turn that into a claim that they helped him. His own actions can be judged separately, but the council must not face any punishment that cannot be reversed before its part in the incident has been established."

She indicated the agreement between them. "Those protections must be written here. They do not end when this meeting does."

The envoy considered the conditions against the authority Orveth had granted him. "I have the authority to accept those conditions," he replied. "I will include them in the agreement, with Narev's case treated separately."

He entered the additions and moved the revised section toward Hestia. She read each condition carefully, making certain the protections would remain in force after the meeting. When she finished, the two recorded their acceptance, and the elder secured his copy. The main negotiation was already over.

"We will make the public announcement and have our people arrange the office," Hestia said. "Your staff can coordinate the remaining details with Elder Lara."

The envoy acknowledged her words and rose. His main assignment had been to determine whether the Solvaren Clan still mattered to Hestia, and he now possessed an unmistakable answer. Yet at this moment, his attention was already more focused upon the distance separating him from the chamber doors.

He offered his farewells, receiving a small nod from Adrian, who had not spoken once throughout the meeting.

Only after the golden-crimson doors closed behind him did his thoughts begin settling into their normal rhythm.

The pressure upon his awareness receded with every step he placed between himself and the head chamber, and for the first time since entering, he could properly consider something beyond the next sentence he needed to say.

That realization immediately reminded him of the questions he had never asked. Sect Leader Orveth had given him another instruction beyond negotiating the covenant. If an opportunity presented itself, he was supposed to investigate whether any connection existed between Crimson Vital's leadership and the two unidentified cultivators who appeared on Nerath.

Questions about recent travel, cultivation, or the sect's response to events in Valtheris might have offered something useful without revealing what he was investigating.

He had worked out several ways to introduce those subjects. But inside the chamber, even keeping the official discussion clear had required effort, and he had wanted the audience to end before attempting anything more.

As he continued toward the lift, however, the envoy did not regret the missed opportunity as much as he expected. What he had already learned was far more urgent. Sect Leader Orveth needed to know about the Astrals casually moving through Crimson Vital's headquarters passages. He needed to know about the Peak Rule disciples surrounding them.

Most importantly, he needed to know about the consciousness of the elder who had sat beside Hestia throughout the negotiation. From what the envoy had experienced, Adrian might already be stronger than the man who had sent him here.

The lift carried him down through the Spire, and when its doors opened, he retraced the route toward the docking platforms with noticeably quicker steps.

Back in the head chamber, Hestia closed her copy of the agreement and turned her chair slightly toward Adrian.

"Did we really need to show him that much?" she asked. "You brought disciples out of cultivation just so he could pass them in the corridors, and he could barely look at you by the time he left."

Adrian smiled at her. They had arranged the entire reception before the Ebon Meridian vessel landed. Crimson Vital cultivators had been placed throughout the visitor's route, while one of the newly ascended Astrals had been assigned to receive him at the docking platform. Others were given ordinary work within the passages he would cross, ensuring that nothing about the display appeared like a military formation prepared specifically for his arrival.

The pressure within the head chamber had been equally deliberate. Adrian had allowed the envoy to experience only a small portion of his consciousness while keeping his mana and Divine essence completely contained. After more than a century of strengthening his willforce and practicing increasingly precise control over it, maintaining that pressure throughout a short meeting required almost no effort.

"We needed him to see it," Adrian replied. "Orveth should know that he is dealing with more than the two Astrals in his old records. Once he hears how much stronger we have become, he will think more carefully before moving against us."

Adrian rested one arm along the desk as he looked toward Hestia. "Do you remember what I told you before the Andromeda war? If we defeat one enemy but his allies still believe they can defeat us, then they will simply become the next ones to come after us. To break this chain, we not only need strength, but we need to show it off to the point that would make others fear."