Chosen by The Fates: The prophecy

Chapter IX - After party

"Wanna let us in on this great plan that you have, Killian?" Theo asked, still boiling with rage.

"No, I don't think I need to." I replied, rubbing my face. "I don't understand why I need to give a f*****g explanation every single damn time I want to do something that concerns MY KINGDOM. I am sick and tired of my every move being under the scope of your judging eyes. I don't recall any other Houses putting up with this kind of interrogation. If you are having a hard time accepting the way I rule, take it up with the Council. I'm done." I went towards the door when my mom caught my arm to stop me.

"Ki, don't. No one is trying to undermine you. We are scared. We've never experienced this before, in the hundreds of years that we have been walking this earth. You are sending a very strong message to all the other leaders. All we want is to be in on the plan so as not to be blindsided when s**t hits the fan." She looked into my eyes, almost begging me not to leave.

"Then stop. If I need help, I'll ask for it." I pulled my arm from her grip and left the office.

I was about to go check on the after party downstairs when I saw Hephaestus coming towards me.

"Tough crowd, eh?" He chuckled.

"Like you wouldn't believe it. Come on, let's have a drink." I proposed and he nodded.

"So, tell me, which beautiful unmated beasts are up for a good time?" He smiled, a glint of mischief dancing on his lips.

"Always looking for a quick f**k…" I replied, shaking my head.

"The question is, why aren't you looking for a quick f**k? Since Kimmy is no longer your imprint, you know, finding her mate and all that s**t, I imagine there is no other curly-haired brunette to warm up your bed, is there?" I wasn't sure where he was going with that.

"There isn't, no. Judging by how some people in our family react to me being King of my own House and doing what I think is right for my House, I don't think there's enough spare time to be rolling around in the sheets. Besides, the next few months are crucial to the establishment of the House, so I don't have time to deal with girl drama." I replied casually.

"Nonsense, a King can have who and what he wants. You have people, use them, you shouldn't be concerning yourself, you should be delegating." he said and tapped the side of his head.

"Thanks Heph, but I'd rather concern myself with this. Overseeing everything will ensure that it all goes according to plan." He nodded and we continued walking. As we got downstairs into the ballroom, the party was still in full swing. We made our way to the bar and got our drinks. The majority of the Impartials have already retired to their guest bedrooms. The only ones still around were Theo and Hephaestus. After having a few drinks with Heph, I went into my room trying to get some sleep, but it didn’t look like I was that lucky.

Jax was pacing in my mind, constantly nagging me to check the borders again. Granted, the borders weren’t being watched and patrolled like they usually were, but that didn’t mean they weren't secured.

‘Listen, we can go patrol the borders now and then come back and sleep or I can whine the whole night and none of us will get any sleep.’ Jax said.

‘Fine. We’ll go patrol the borders for the second time today, although we have teams switching every two hours.’ I replied.

I got out of the suit I was wearing and put on a pair of sweatpants before I jumped from my balcony overseeing the forest. Once I got into the woods, I took off my clothes and allowed Jax to take control. We ran the whole perimeter of the grounds, and even though the party was still going, there was no sign of disturbances in any way, shape or form. We also checked in with the patrol shifts and Axel and no suspicious activity had been observed all night. Needless to say, Jax wasn’t satisfied and continued to pace my mind, but at least he held his part of the deal and allowed me to catch a couple of hours of sleep.

I woke up feeling highly irritated and I knew that was because of Jax’s incessant whining about the borders. There was no sign that anything was wrong and I was starting to think he was going insane. I went over to the mini-fridge and downed one of the spare bags of blood I had. This did little to control my thirst, even though we had hunted a couple of days ago. The bloodlust was getting stronger and that only meant the beast inside was getting ready for an imminent level-up.

The ascensions weren’t something every beast would have to go through. Ordinary, unranked beasts would live a normal life, almost never completing more than the activation of their genes. Which in simpler words meant getting your beast form, may it be a werewolf, a vampire, an incubi or any other creature. However, if the lineage was powerful or royal, the beast’ power would increase to the point where the magic in you would rearrange, morph and bind itself to every cell in your body, making sure that the vessel was strong enough to contain the amount of ousia. This was also the case with hybrids, due to the amount of magic the two beasts had contained in one vessel. The ascension, or leveling up, was always different for every species, and when it came to royal hybrids with very powerful lineages there was no precedent.

The whole ascension system was new to the Impartials too. Nezarches was not working by the old laws and had certainly been a challenge to understand and figure out why beasts were ascending and how to control certain aspects of it. What was clear so far was that strong lineages would only get so far as having two stages. Royal lineages were difficult to account for due to the strength of the blood; weak blood would maybe get one stage, while strong blood could get up to three stages. With hybrids, the research was little, the conflicting nature of the cross-breeding would either activate the most dominant side of their genes or would kill them due to the power of both sides.

One of the most important buildings in the pack was going to be The Jilly Centre. It was still in development, a couple of ideas were still being tested. The centre would be available for everyone that needed a safe place for a violent level-up. It would be made to withstand the most aggressive beasts at the peak of their power, the most extreme affinities and the rawest display of magic. That way they wouldn’t have to flee their homes and fear for the lives of their loved ones because of their ascension. The idea for this centre belonged to Kimmy, after one of her first friends here, Jilly, took her life one week after her ascension, which claimed the lives of her mother and younger sister. She couldn’t take the guilt of having killed them, even unintentionally, and at only 17 years old she joined them. Kim was mourning the loss of her friend and her family for months after that and made all of us swear that we wouldn’t allow anyone else to go through what Jilly had. Kim was still unaware of the name the centre was given, and we were hoping to surprise her. While the inside of the building wasn’t completely done, the outside was and the logo was due to be placed this afternoon. I messaged Kerbe and Larna to let them know today’s plan and went downstairs to get a cup of coffee.

When I got downstairs, I could smell the Impartials downstairs, along with Ben and the triplets. I got my cup of coffee and went out on the terrace where the rest of them were. I could feel some of them stiffen up at my presence and I internally smiled at their reaction.

“Good morning” I said, and took the last remaining seat. They all greeted me back and I continued. “If I remember correctly, we were due a tour of the headquarters? Are you still interested?” I asked, no one in particular.

“Yes, your mom will be down soon, I’m sure she will want to join.” Circe said, reaching for the coffee that was on the table.

“Pretty impressive this home you kids put together. '' Helios said, looking over at me, I nodded. He gave Heracles a knowing smile. They both then looked at Prometheus, only to find him clenching his jaw. For some reason, Helios liked to mess with Prometheus. From what I had noticed through the years, he was still having a hard time accepting him as his daughter’s mate, despite all of Hecate’s scoldings. Heracles, well, he was just up for laughs. Hebe and Metis were fascinated by whatever new gossip Selene had heard and was sharing with them, while on the other side of the table, Kora and Des were, as usual, in their own personal bubble. Ambro and Heph were arguing about some Spanish bow that was, in their words, “the peak of human craftsmanship” and Circe was relentlessly trying to make her dad stop winding Prometheus up. Kim and Ben were arguing with Kerbe and Larna about fighting techniques and I couldn’t help but laugh when Kimmy punched Larna in the shoulder.

“Now, now kids, no fighting at the table, you all know the rules.” My mother had finally come downstairs, just in time to stop the girls from getting into a fight.

“Good morning, mother” I got up and gave her a quick peck on the cheek. “I am going for a shower, when I come back I can take you for a tour of the house.” She smiled and nodded and I went back to my room to take a shower. When I came back, the only people left were my mom, Theo, Des, Kora and Ambro.

"Where is everybody?" I asked no one in particular.

"There was another body that surfaced next to the border between House of Aurai and House of Dracanae. Ben and Kim have joined the others, Larna and Kerbe went to check on some building development?" Kora answered when no one would.

"Right, should I send reinforcements?" I offered.

"It should be alright, Kim is there, I'm sure she'll let you know, need be." She smiled and rested her hand on my arm.

"So, tour?" Ambro asked excitedly and I remembered that I had promised him a while ago that I would show him the level-up rooms. I nodded and made my way into the open-plan kitchen.

"Obviously, the ground floor is the operational space, we have the kitchen which opens up into the living room," I pointed over to my right side to the kitchen, then to my left towards the living room. "Our offices and the library are on the left of the stairs through the corridor, while on the right it's the extension that we've added to fit the ballroom. We are, however, thinking of creating an events hall specifically for such events, as we seem to have more and more of those lately. On the first floor, we have the triplets' bedrooms and a living space, and the second floor is entirely mine. However, I think our attention will be mostly focused on the underground levels." I smiled mischievously and led them towards my office. I placed my palm on the fingerprint ID system and once authorised, the door opened. We stepped inside the room and while I had brought them into my office, it wasn't my office I wanted them to see. I went over to the bookcase, pulled out the specific book and placed my eye in the gap. After my retina had been scanned, the bookcase slid over to the left, opening the staircase to the first underground level. The floor we called the headquarters.

As we descended into the room, the lights came on one by one until the whole room was lit up and once it did, gasps escaped every person that accompanied me.

"This is the headquarters. This floor is dedicated to our operations. We've got the surveillance room, where we keep the control panel for the cameras, the motion controlled sensors at the borders, the fire control system and some spare surveillance equipment." I pointed to the room to the left of the staircase. "Then we have the equipment room, which holds everything that we need for missions, armour, weapons, defence mechanisms, traps, smoke grenades, and so forth." I gestured to the right of the staircase. "The room straight across is the ops room, in itself bigger than these two rooms together and same as everything down here, virtually indestructible. If the whole house was to be bombed, the underground floors would still be here. Tested." I shrugged.

"Wait. You tested it?" my mum stopped me from walking away and looked into my eyes with a scared expression.

"Yes, in the beginning, when we had just built the house, we wanted it to withstand whatever might come at us. Including the off chance of destroying it during an ascension. Don't worry, no one was harmed." I shrugged and continued through the door, into the ops room. I watched them all come in, looks of awe taking over their faces as soon as they stepped into the room, through the archway.

"We have the communication area on the left of the room. This is used to supervise and aid the troops deployed on both normal missions and undercover. Next to that, we have rare literature, categorised by species, history books, both human and supernatural, and also medical journals and books. On the right side, we have the simulation room. This is used for advanced training and somewhat isolated from the rest of the room." I pointed at the glass panels separating the two rooms, then pressed the button next to the door and the glass panels turned black. "This is to ensure that whoever is in the simulation will not be bothered by anyone outside. There is also a control desk, to manipulate the factors of the simulation. It can virtually create any kind of enemy and simulate the powers they may use. Then, obviously, we have the conference table and screens. These are mostly used for meetings and surveillance. Only a few select people have access to the underground floors. Access is granted through fingerprint and retina scans so no intruder can gain access". They were absolutely fascinated with everything I had shown them and if I didn't know better, I wouldn't say they were deities that have lived millenia and seen everything there was to see.

" This looks like something out of the movies." Ambro said, looking around, taking every inch of this place in.

"It's honestly impressive. I didn't think I would see something like this done by my kids." Des smiled widely, came over to me and gave me a hug. I hugged him back and before I knew it, everyone came over for a group hug. Kind of weird if you ask me, but considering the kind of tension that has been experienced in the past couple of weeks, I was willing to let it go without questioning it.

“Right, anyone wanna see the ascension floor?” I asked while letting go of everyone. They all nodded and I went over to the right of the simulation room, to the stairs descending onto the second level of the underground.

“This is the observation centre, it overlooks the condition and activity of the containment chambers, as well as our vitals. There are four chambers, all of them made from the same material as the rest of the house, Arcadian tungsten infused with silver, mercury and mountain ash.” Before I could say anything, Theo spoke distracted by the walls of the chambers.

“There is a spell on these chambers. A very powerful spell. What is it?” He looked at me worriedly. Suddenly, the atmosphere in the room had changed and all I could feel was the tension rolling off everyone around me.

“If you would have let me finish, I would have told you that the rooms have been spelled. It is the personal spell of one of the hybrids in our teams. Her mother is a witch, her dad a giant. The magic manipulation combined with the creation powers is definitely a winning combination for our headquarters. She has spelled these rooms so that they can only be opened from outside. The more magic is used to try to escape, the more the spell syphons, using that magic to fuel the strength of the spell.” I rolled my eyes at his unreasonable worries.

“I’m sorry, the spell felt awfully powerful, the magical trace was pure, the spell was seamless, I couldn’t even find any loopholes, I got worried. This girl is good.” he apologised, rubbing the nape of his neck.

“She is, everybody here is.” I said firmly, then continued explaining about the chambers. “As I was saying, these were designed as en-suite bedrooms, everything else to be supplied upon demand, as there will always be someone here monitoring our progress and also because you never know what you’ll need when you ascend. Stella will be here on the day, so there shouldn’t be anything that she can’t create, conjure or magic her way around.”

“Ki, I have to say it is comforting to see that you four have grown up into the people you are today. I am happy to see that you guys have thought of everything and have control over this. It felt really weird being cut off all of a sudden, but I do understand now why you did it the way you did. We refused to acknowledge that you are no longer our little children. It just hurts to know that I won’t see you everyday…” My mom was getting sadder by the second and I couldn’t help it and went over to her and pulled her into a hug.

“We will work on portal splicers for you so you can visit anytime you want.” As soon as the words left my mouth her sad expression lightened up and so did her mood.

“Ki, as much as we’d like to stay, the rest of us have returned to the Council House and we need to hold a meeting to discuss what they found. Kim and Ben are on their way back, they should be here soon.” Kora said and grabbed Des’ hand and he nodded at me.

“We’ll talk soon, kid.” Theo said and Ambro waved at me and my mom before they vanished without another word. This made me think I couldn’t have them showing up randomly here. I have to speak with Stella and find a spell to keep them from teleporting here again. If they want to show up, they will have to use a portal splicer, like everyone else.

“Well, I guess it is me and you for now, mother.” I looked over at my mom and smiled while I put one of my arms around her neck and started walking. “Wanna have a marathon of the Avengers movies today before we have to probably kill a bunch of assholes in the meeting tomorrow?”

“Only if you make the caramel popcorn that I love.” She said, shrugging my hand off her shoulders. “Please do not treat me like one of those little whores you used to bring home.” her face displaying a disgusted expression. I couldn’t help but laugh, this woman was my mother.