Chapter 6: NOBILITY.

The massive space station, Templar, serves as galactic headquarters for Providence, is one of the most technologically advanced marvels of engineering within Hyperion space. Built atop of a massive asteroid, the station consists of a mighty citadel with towers and walls and bridges, the whole thing was the size of a massive city. Dozens of impulse engines, each the size a building, positioned equidistance around the structure, making it the largest mobile man-made structure in Hyperion.

It was almost impossible to believe that this imposing thing was built and paid for by just one family, and that family, with its vast wealth and resources, has controlled the upper echelon of Providence for over eighteen hundred years. The current head of Providence is the twenty-four-year-old, Ryla Ayona, she had inherited her position when her late father passed away eight years ago, she had also inherited his throne as a Regis as well as the Prime crest that now adorned her body.

She was on her bed in her private quarters, spooning next to her latest conquest; an eager young recruit she had just bumped into earlier the previous day. The girl was probably a virgin from how timid she was during sex, and was now passed out and naked, tangled in the sheets as Ryla sat there, watching her sleep.

There was a knocking at the door and it opened to let in a woman who looked disturbingly like Ryla's twin, despite being almost sixty years older. She was dressed in a white blouse with a black pencil skirt and heels.

"Hello mother." Ryla greeted cheerfully

"Naked and still in bed at this time of day, was somebody having a good time?" her mother asked in a casual manner.

"Yeah, her." Ryla said revealing her bedmate, "she was a virgin, I don't get too many of them anymore."

"Well I'm glad you enjoyed yourself. Is she dead?"

"No, just sleeping,"

"I thought you'd have killed her by now?" her mother asked, surprised

"Mom," Ryla whined "that only happened like twice before, I don't kill every girl I sleep with, I just got carried away those times."

"Okay, enjoy your little friend for a while longer, but if you want to keep her, I'll have to make the arrangements beforehand, silencing the families of these girls isn't cheap."

"But I like to surround myself with pretty things," Ryla replied, "and it's not like paying off a few dozen families to not talk about where their daughters have gone will even out a dent in our weekly budget."

"Be that as it may, you already have too many girls with you as it stands, you're going to have to let a few of them go." her mother said, "either you buy their silence or you terminate them, but we are downsizing."

"Boo," Ryla pouted, "alright, I'll give you a list of those I've grown bored with, have Lisa deal with them as she sees fit."

Her mother nodded, tapping into her tablet, "How is Arax?"

Ryla looked down at her left arm, at the blue mass that adorned the length of her limb down to her fingers

"He's still silent. Ever since this new Regis appeared, he's been silent." Ryla sighed. When she first inherited the Jinn eight years ago, she had been a scared little girl, but it had spoken into her mind, calmed her doubts, and been an ever-present confidante. Even though Ryla despised men, she almost missed hearing his voice in her head… almost. His last warning before going silent still echoed in her mind; Danger! A threat has appeared!

"Well one of our agents has a lead on another potential origin. We'll be buying the site under a dummy corporation be ready to fly out."

"Yes mother," Ryla said, "what about this new Regis? What do we know?"

"Not much; our adepts placed her at the other end of Hyperion, some cosmetic planet that's been gaining popularity called Adryn-VI."

"Her, eh?" Ryla cooed, "I wonder if she's cute?"

"Easy, you still have a playmate there," her mother cautioned

"But I want to add her to my harem," Ryla declared

"you want to add this new Regis to your harem?" her mother said skeptically, "if you could pull of such a thing, imagine the advantage it'd give us."

"Maybe we can find an origin that can control all other Regis, then I can make all of them pretty women and put them in my harem." Ryla said excited by the prospect

"That would be something, wouldn't it?" her mother said, "and we'd control all of Hyperion space, the Ayona family would be the new gods of civilization."

Elsewhere in the massive station, in one of the many medical wards, a lykan –or what was left of one— was being rushed into surgery by a team of doctors and medical adepts.

"What the hell happened to him?" a doctor yells at the woman who walked in with him

"We were chasing a fugitive, an omen who stole a case from an executive," she explained, "we tracked him onto this star liner, the Elemental Queen, he had an accomplice with him, a vampire girl. They fought and when we got to him he was like this."

"A vampire did this to a lykan?" the doctor asked incredulous, "how is he even alive?"

"As soon as we found him we pumped him full of ever bio stimulant and med gel we could find," the woman said, "there was a lot of blood at the scene, most of it was vampire, however she did this to him, he fought back, probably wounded her fatally."

"Doctor, we need to get him into surgery, now." The adept said

"Alright, wait here," the doctor told the woman as they wheeled her superior away on a stretcher.

She returned to waiting area, where the rest of his team were waiting.

"How's the chief?" one of the agents asked

"He just went into surgery?" the woman replied

"What's gonna happen to him?" another asked, "I mean, was he even still alive?"

"The doctors said he still had life signs, they're gonna do their best for him." the woman said, "We, on the other hand, need to continue this case. Muller, were you able to track that voyager pod?"

"No, they turned off the transponder, it could literally be anywhere within a 10 light years of their last known location with solar currents and cosmic tides."

"Well we have probes all over Hyperion, monitoring everything from gravity currents to ship trajectories, find out all possible actions that pod could've taken after it left."

"Right away, uh… chief?" he said saluting

"I'm not the chief, I'm just keeping us organized until he's up and about again." The woman said. "Maraev, check with that star liner, see what you can find about that vamp; where she came from, who she is, and what she was doing on that ship. If she survived her fight with the chief, we need to get her in a cell as soon as possible."

"On it." The agent named Maraev answered

"C'mon," the woman said, "Let's go find who did this to the chief,"

* * *

Terror came too, finding himself handcuffed to a wall, as he shifted his vision he saw that Nya was restrained on a chair, wrapped in heavy chains that completely immobilized her. Smart.

"Oh, awake are we?" came a distorted voice

The sound of heavy footsteps attracted his attention to a person approaching, they wore a large oversized coat that made identifying their body type difficult, thick metallic boots produced the heavy footfalls that reverberated across the metal grate floor, their face was hidden behind a heavy gasmask with tinted visors. All that was noticed was the choppy dirty blonde hair that was visible on their scalp.

"Uh… who are you?" Terror asked

Their captor held their arm out towards Terror and their hand glowed with faint green from underneath the glove. All of a sudden Terror was flung onto the ceiling, which increased the pain to his arm that was handcuffed.

"I ask the questions." Their captor stated as they brought Terror back down

"You're an adept?" he groaned

"What did I just say?" their captor barked as Terror was bashed against the wall

"Alright, alright." He said, "Just stop that."

"First question; who are you?"

"My name is Terrance Quinn; everyone calls me Terror." He introduced, then he pointed at Nya, "That is my friend, Nya Crimson,"

"What is that thing?" their captor pointed at Nya, "She isn't normal."

Terror remembered that adepts were strongly connected to mana, which permeated all things, so they could sense things about people, things even some omen couldn't.

"I don't know, we just met a few days ago." he shrugged

"You said she was your friend?"

"When you help someone out of a life-or-death situation, you tend to become fast friends." Terror answered

"What were you doing out in the middle of nowhere?" the captor asked,

"We were on the run from Providence," Terror said, "We didn't have navigations so we were lost,"

"Then it's a good thing you crashed into my rig." Their captor said dryly.

"Your rig?" Terror asked looking around, "Last thing I remember we were being eaten by a sweeper, are we inside it?"

"Okay. Now, final question; is she dangerous?" their captor asked pointing at Nya

Even through the terribly distorted sounds, Terror could sense something in their voice.

"Yes," Terror answered honestly, "She is extremely dangerous to her enemies. But she's also fair… mostly."

Their captor murmured something that came out as inaudible static.

"Why are you wearing that mask?" Terror asked, "It's making it very difficult to understand you."

"You're an omen, she's… something else. You can't be too careful." Their captor said, as they removed their mask, to reveal they were a she.

Her face was angular and small with a fair complexion, smudged by grease and oil, her eyes were pale blue, almost silver, and she had a small scar over her right eyebrow, she indeed had short choppy dirty blonde hair with a pair of goggles acting as a hairband.

"I'm Kiva." She introduced

"So is someone going to explain to me what happened?" Nya asked, her face an emotionless deadpan. It was so sudden that it startled both Terror and Kiva. When had she woken up?

"Nya, you're up?" Terror said, "It's alright, I'm sorting things out with Kiva here,"

"Good for you," Nya said as her body was suddenly engulfed in her blood aura, which tore through her chains like they were made of paper.

Kiva jumps back, scared, holding her arm out to Nya, threateningly, "S-stay back!"

"You're an adept?" Nya said cocking her head to one side as Kiva's hand glows, "that's interesting."

"Nya stop," Terror intervenes, "she's friendly. This is her rig."

"Alright," Nya shrugged extinguishing her blood aura and looking around, "So this is the inside of that sweeper that destroyed our pod?"

"I thought it was junk until my scanners detected… off life signs," Kiva said slowly

"That would be me," Nya said, "I give off… off reading,"

"Yeah, I can tell," Kiva whispers as she put her hands down.

"So, what now?" Nya asked

"Well, your pod is kind of scrap now," Kiva said, "So I guess you're welcome to stay, at least until I next make landfall."

"Sounds fair," Nya shrugged

"Hey, mind if I have a look at our wreck?" Terror said

Kiva looked reluctant to be alone with Nya, "Uh… why?"

"I left something in it, a data drive." Terror said, "It was really important and we really don't want to lose it."

"No need," Nya said as she holds out a hand, and the data drive appears from her Crimson Void, "I grabbed it when I noticed things were going south."

"That was pretty sly," Terror comments

"Now, I'd like to ask Kiva something?" Nya said

"Um, what?"

"What are you running from?" Nya said standing right in front of her, her black and blue eyes reflecting Kiva's silvery eyes

"W-what makes you think I'm running from anything," she swallows before saying

"Several things. Firstly; I look around here and I see a mock-up, something taken apart and put together another way. Secondly; Terror sounded quite incredulous when he said that this was your rig, which leads me to believe that he isn't used to the concept. Sweepers don't come with pilots do they?"

"Not really" Terror said, "I mean, sweepers are automated, aren't they? Which is why most avoid them; you don't want to be in the way of something like this."

"Which would also make this the perfect disguise, someone sees this rig coming and they instantly avoid it. So once again; what are you running from?"

Kiva looked at the enigmatic woman before her, the way Nya looked at her… it was almost like she was reading her very soul with eyes that said 'you can't lie to me'.

"I'm in hiding," Kiva admitted, "I ran away from home and stole this repurposed sweeper from some surtr smugglers, I've been hiding out here ever since."

"How long have you been in hiding?" Nya asked

"About ten years," Kiva said with a shrug,

Nya narrowed her eyes at her, she was lying.

"Alright, that's all I want to know right now." Nya declared

Kiva looked at her, shocked, "W-what? That's it?"

"We need your help, forcing you to reveal uncomfortable secrets that do not concern us is not the right way to earn your trust."

"R-really?"

"Yes, but let me make one thing clear," Nya said getting invasively close to Kiva, "be straight with us and I'll treat you well… but if you try to fuck with me in any way, I will destroy you."

Kiva gulped. Nya was obviously the youngest of the three of them, yet she was –without a doubt— the most terrifying. What kind of monster was behind those mysterious blue eyes? What kind of life could create such a thing?

Left with no other choice, Kiva nodded.

"Good." She smiled calmly, flashing her inhuman fangs, "Then it is a pleasure to be travelling with you for the immediate future."

* * *

For the next few days, Nya explored the rig. It was interesting to say the least, eighty percent of this craft was the large hollow where space debris was collected, which left twenty percent as living space, and from what Nya saw, Kiva had a thing for nature. Machinery was oddly mixed with vegetation, with small trees and vines growing along the walls, corrugated flooring, and there were even potted plants arranged in a hanging garden hanging from the ceilings.

Terror spent most of the time either asleep or staring at the star map, and Kiva spent as much time away from the two of them as she physically could.

A few days later, she told them that she would be making landfall soon.

"Where are we going?"

"Draxia Urma," Kiva said, turning to a screen on the wall with a map of Hyperion, "I have a full haul of space debris I can trade for supplies."

"But the Draxia system isn't very close," Terror commented, "even at its fastest, this thing probably won't get anywhere close to it for at least a year."

"Not when you know the shortcuts." Kiva said as her hands ran over the controls, "You might want to strap yourselves in; it's going to get very bumpy."

She turned some knobs and switches on her console and attached some electrodes coming from the ceiling to her temple, after imputing a final series of commands, the engines changed pitch. Right in front of the rig, a swirling vortex was forced into existence.

The sweeper was pulled into the vortex, swallowed into the horizon within and the vortex snapped itself shut.

"What the hell is this?" Terror demanded

Kiva didn't answer, her face was strained with concentration, her eyes glowed brightly with power as her hands held onto the controls as if for dear life.

After what felt like a dozen minutes, the sweeper was spewed out of another vortex and into normal space. Before them was a massive orange and blue planet about twice the size of Earth, with three moons in its orbit. There seemed to be one large central continent in the middle of its vast ocean, surrounded by dozens of smaller island chains. Even from here the clusters of cities scattered across the continent in a messy web was evident.

"Draxia Urma? We're here already?" Terror gawked

Kiva let out a groan as she removed the electrodes from her head, leaving slight bruises on her temple, she was soaked in sweat and near exhaustion.

"…just need a… minute… to catch my breath." she replied as she reached into a compartment to her side, which held a refrigeration unit full of bottles of translucent blue liquid. Kiva quickly downs two whole bottle in quick succession seconds, then she rests her eyes for a bit.

When she was feeling better, Kiva opened her eyes to see Nya and Terror staring at her,

"What happened to you?" Nya asked

"It takes a lot to force my way through hyperspace," Kiva explained, "my rig doesn't have the proper shielding, so it puts extra work on me, which is quite tasking." Kiva explained

"You're an astral adept?" Terror asked,

"Among other things," Kiva said, "though that technique only allows me to skim between hyperspace and real space, like skipping a stone across the surface of a pond."

"Hmm," Nya said to herself, "You're lucky you didn't kill yourself."

"It isn't luck if I'm just that good." Kiva said taking the controls again, "Anyway, we'll be touching down in a bit, then you can find other transport and I can trade my junk."

Touching down by a coastal town, at what may have once been an old space port, Kiva starts to offload the haul from the ship's hold.

"Last time I was here, tensions were very high with the constant turf wars," Kiva informed them, "Once you help me with this, I'll take you to the main ports where you can find a ship."

"Alright," Terror said,

"I'd advise you keep a low profile; we don't want to attract any unwanted attention to ourselves."

"I'm fine waiting with the ship," Terror said, surveying the wary eyes of the locals,

"No, that looks suspicious to the locals," Kiva said, "you should both come with me,"

"I see no problem with that, plus I'm curious about your business dealings." Nya said,

"Let me just cast a disguise on you so you don't stand out. Terror has that bracelet of his so he can pass as normal, but you…"

"Hmm," Terror bristles to himself,

Kiva raises her hand, which glow a faint green, waving her hand over Nya, the hybrid is enveloped in what appears to be a haze of green glitter that clings to her form. She doesn't feel any different, but when she catches her reflection in a blank monitor, she notices that her eyes are white instead of black, her claws appear as normal nails, even her ears are human.

"Huh, fascinating." Nya comments, examining her appearance in the reflective surface.

"It's just a simple glamor," Kiva states, "it should last a few hours at best, more than enough time to get you on your way. C'mon, my contact isn't very far, we can get there on foot."

Only the fae were mana sensitive, and thus could become adepts, omen weren't sensitive to mana, and as such, were incapable of feeling its presence in a natural state. Some scholars believe that omen phantasms are a biological response to their lack of awareness of mana, but it was still unknown the true relationship between the omen, the fae and mana.

As they proceeded on foot from the ship, Nya discovered that her vampiric aversion to the sun was significantly weakened, her skin still felt raw under the light of the sun, but at least she wasn't burning. This was most likely thanks to the lykan genetic factor now in her DNA, being a hybrid had its advantages.

"So, you mentioned something about a turf war?" Nya asked

"Yeah, this planet is rich in mythril, and naturally, everyone wants in on it. There are dozens of mines all across the continent." Kiva explained, "The individual mining companies then started fighting one another for control over each other's mines, eventually the social order broke down and it quickly devolved into fighting warlords vying for power, taking control over which mines were in their territory."

Mythril was one of the most valuable minerals in all of Hyperion, not only was is useful in magecraft, but it was also the key ingredient for a potent and stable form of energy known as plasma. Plasma reactors were the most common and efficient power sources throughout Hyperion and could power everything from weapons, to ships, to whole cities and space stations. Mythril, as a resource, was renewable, so a mythril-rich planet like this one would naturally replenish itself over time as long there was still mana in the area.

"I'm guessing territory frequently changes hands around here?" Nya asked

"Yes, but there aren't any mines in this area," Kiva assures her, "this place is mostly stable,"

"How does such a volatile society even function?" Terror asked

"Hell if I know, but they're good at surviving." Kiva said

"Still, this place seems like a nice town," Nya comments, looking at the idyllic coastal town,

"It looks nice, but the locals like to keep to themselves." Kiva explained, "My buyer's up ahead,"

They came to a stop at a large fenced-off area, the gate and fence were covered in scrap metal. Above the gate was a sign that read 'GARO'S EXOTIC MATERIALS' and there was a camera at the gate that looked at them.

"Garo, I've got a fresh haul." Kiva said as she waved at the camera

"WHO'RE THE TWO WITH YA? I AIN'T NE'ER SEEN 'EM BEFORE." Came a static-filled voice from a loud speaker

"They're just some add-ons I hired," Kiva lied, "I got a lot of stuff, it'll take a while to offload without help."

There was a long pause, before they heard loud rumbling of an engine. The gates opened up, and Nya saw what she knew as a massive truck roll out on a dozen wheels.

In the cabin in the front was an elderly man with scruffy white hair and dusty clothes, "Get in." was all he said to them as he waited.

"Interesting friend you have there," Terror commented

"He's a decent guy who doesn't ask too many questions, keeps me coming back." Kiva shrugged as she climbed the ladder leading up to the cabin. The cabin was surprisingly cozy for such a huge beast of a machine, but they all managed to fit.

"We need ta be quick," Garo told Kiva, "There's a new embargo on off world ships."

"Don't worry, we can get our business done before the local war lord or bandits sniff us out." Kiva said, she was confident that she'd be on her way well before then, and Nya and Terror could hold their own against the war lord's forces before they find some other transport off the planet.

"A lot's changed since you were last here." Garo informed her, "World Lord Davos is in charge now, he put an end to the turf wars and is now in control of the planet."

"Wait, wait, wait… World Lord Davos?" Kiva exclaimed, "Since when was there a World Lord of Draxia Urma?"

"Like I said, you've been gone a long time," Garo said, "The World Lord's been in charge for the last two decades."

Nya noted what Garo said, but didn't comment.

"What happened?" Kiva asked, not even realizing she'd been caught in her lie.

"Davos was an up and comer around the last time you were around, not one of the big timers. Then, all of a sudden, he now has enough power to topple every other warlord, and seize control of the whole fucking planet. Weird thing is though, one day all the war lords are dead and their people join up with Davos."

"That is weird," Terror comments, "but at least the turf wars are over?"

"Yeah, that Davos is something," Garo comments,

From what Nya understood, there were many power players in Hyperion who were regarded as nobility, people with excess wealth, power and influence. Most were just titles like Duke, Baron or Count, but one of the highest ranks of nobility was the World Lord, someone with control over an entire planet, it was essentially royalty. The only rank higher the World Lord was Overlord, which had influence over multiple planets within an entire quadrant of space. Regis were a special rank, different from the nobility.

"How're things with him in charge?" Nya asked

"Well for starters, there're no more bandit raids or violent regime changes," Garo said, "he's done a lot of good, putting money into rebuilding, though he prioritizes the bigger cities, as they make the most profit, so places like this are left on their own."

"That sounds rough," Terror sympathized, while Nya showed little interest.

"Though everything isn't as great as they'd make you believe." Garo said, "I've heard that basically a dictator, with his military goons all over the place, people are forced to work in the mythril mines and refineries, though most of that mythril goes off world."

They took the truck back to where the sweeper was landed.

"C'mon guys, let's get this load onto his truck." Kiva said as she Nya and Terror got out.

With their superior strength, moving the scrap collected by the sweeper was easier and didn't take that much time.

"I feel sorry for the people of this town," Terror notes as he moves a chunk of space debris onto the back of the truck. "I mean, with the World Lord they're in no better a place than during the reign of the war lords."

"Meh, life goes on," Nya shrugged, "at least they can get by"

"How can you be so cold?"

"These people don't mean shit to me," Nya said bluntly, "I don't have time to feel sorry for every poor bastard with a depressing sob story. So what they have it rough? That's called 'life'."

"That is a very apathetic view of life," Kiva commented

"Not everyone can run away from their problems," Nya replied, staring pointedly at Kiva, "some of us get broken and have to find a way to live with it."

"Stop wasting time flappin' yer gums and get this crap loaded up!" Garo yelled from the cabin.

"Sorry," Kiva apologized.

Shortly afterwards, they saw a swarm of flying crafts approaching from the air.

"Shit!" Garo cursed as he took off, leaving the truck behind.

Some of the crafts surrounded them overhead, aiming guns down at them, while some landed and let out a number of soldiers dressed in brown uniforms.

"UNAUTHORIZED SHIP, YOU HAVE VIOLATED THE EMBARGO AND HAVE BEEN SUSPECTED OF SMUGGLING. YOU ARE UNDER ARREST!" Came a resounding bellow from a loud speaker.

They were forced away from the truck and sweeper while the soldiers went through a search. An officer approached them, his uniform was much more ornate than the others, he even had a cape.

"I am Captain Saloa." he introduced himself as soon as he arrived at the scene.

"F-forgive me," Kiva said, "I was unaware of the embargo on off world ships,"

Kiva presented a card and a sheaf of folded papers from her pocket and hand them to him

"So what is your purpose here… Kiva Weren" he asked,

"I was just stopping to exchange materials I'd collected from space for supplies." Kiva answered, "I was going to leave as soon as I was done."

"And what about these other two?" he turned to Nya and Terror

"Th-they're just extra hands I hired to help with moving the materials."

"Hmm," the marshal sounded as he scrutinized the two, "Scan them."

"What?" Kiva asked

Kiva started to get nervous, the disguise she made for Nya was just so she blended in, and even Terror's bracelet wouldn't hide his true nature against proper scrutiny from a trained adept.

"I-is that really necessary? They're harmless, really." She tried to dissuade the captain

"Adepts, read them." The marshal ordered as three soldiers dressed in weird robes in addition to their uniform stepped forward carrying staves.

The adepts concentrated for a second before shocked expression overtook their faces.

"Omen!" one yelled.

All three adepts then struck their staves on the ground as the tops glowed in different colors. Suddenly, Nya, Terror and Kiva was shrouded in angry red energy that made them fall to their knees in agony, the glamor that covered Nya and the disguise of Terror were stripped away.

"You were trying to smuggle these omen? That is a serious offence. You will all be taken to the Hall of Judgement to await your fate." The marshal said as the red energy intensified.

Highly disturbed by the red energy, Nya summoned her blood aura, sprouting massive blood red tendrils that quickly take out one of the adepts, ripping him in two before absorbing all his blood. The sudden violence caused the other adepts to hesitate which allowed Terror and Kiva to break the agony of the red energy. By now, soldiers started to close in, so Terror and Kiva tried to fight back and get away.

Unfortunately, their escape was interrupted when reinforcements arrived quicker than anyone could anticipate, the soldiers were suddenly much stronger than before and overwhelmed them. Kiva and Terror were overwhelmed and restrained by the soldiers despite their struggling, while Nya was fired upon using tranquilizer rounds supposedly strong enough to put down an elephant.

"You think this is going to stop me?" she demanded as she pulled the bard out of her neck and grabbed the soldier who just shot her by the shoulder before ripping his throat out with her teeth.

More tranquilizers were shot into her after her violent and graphic display, and eventually she was also subdued.

"You need to restrain her quickly!" one of the two remaining adepts screamed as she and her surviving colleague focused their red energy on Nya.

"What are you doing? We have her incapacitated." The major demanded

"This omen isn't like anything we've ever seen before." The other adept added, "it will kill us all if we aren't careful."

"What, it's just a vampire?" another soldier noted as he went to restrain the other two.

"A vampire that can walk about in the light of the sun without any hint of burning?" the adept soldier snapped, "I don't know what it is, but it's a monster."

"Whatever it is, restrain it as tightly as you can, it shouldn't even be able to turn its head." The major said, "And someone inform the World Lord about this abnormal omen."