22. The Birth of Ego

 

How do you retake a Palace or any type of land without permanently destroying it in the process? I have been asking everyone this, and my War Chiefs all state it impossible. I am twenty-one years of age, with a mind that is not fully matured yet. Therefore it usually ponders in the small pointless thoughts that is expected of someone so young, and it is that which inspired me to form up an immature plan. A plan that requires a hundred thousand skunks. So when I told my idea to the fully healed Ceoda Moore, she reacted with.

“Not even the richest person can gather that many skunks, and I’m the richest female! Every zoo on Earth is banned so there’s no chance of borrowing the skunks from zookeepers. Plus, animals and especially skunks aren’t allowed to be owned as pets remember, so gathering that many omnivores is not possible as they haven’t even been gathered at all.” 

“Then we could gather them?” I asked.

“Let’s do this the artificial way, Remi. We’ll just use a man made substance that smells just as bad as skunks.”

“The smell needs to spread, and skunks that runs is a great way of spreading it.”

“They don’t run, Remi, they just like to stay put and ready themselves to spray whomever approaches them. However, when they do run, their max speed is only ten miles-per-hour, guess how fast bullets travel.”

“Faster than ten miles-per-hour,” I said. Ceoda always makes me feel stupid, it happens too often that I’m starting to think I was stupid to begin with. 

“You don’t want to be known as the King who sentenced a hundred thousand skunks to slaughter.”

“How should we spread the smell?”

“It’s the year 3015, Remi, I’m sure the battle technicians would be able to figure something out.” The door to my luxurious trailer was being opened by Deconi.

“My Ferna, the Commanders and War Chiefs has requested your attention, permission to greet them in?”

“Aye,” I said. There was about six Commanders in total and three War Chiefs, all about the age of thirty to forty. They bowed and I gestured them to seat themselves at my meeting table, made of Larfern wood with carvings of my ancestors. 

“Any fresh news of the battles to come?” I asked, with Ceoda by my side. I had never talked in this tone but ever since I became King. I had to take lessons on how to speak and use words that average citizens normally don’t use. 

“We found a camp near the Larferna tree, and surrounded them. The commander who leads them wants to surrender, and has revealed that Faavel originally brought a total of one million soldiers. He sent half to harvest as much Larfern wood from the Larferna tree, but your Larfern guards managed to kill just over 200,000 of them. Leaving only 300,000 left, which are the soldiers currently requesting to surrender. 50,000 Reduntians roam inside your Palace, and the rest of the 450,000 men are stationed outside of it, they look to be battle ready, My Ferna,” responded the Head War Chief named Kinvame. 

"How did Faavel managed to sneak one million soldiers onto our Planet?" 

"They must have been importing their men to Earth throughout the years, to avoid attention, but thats just a theory.”  

“How many Larfern guards have we loss during their attempted harvest of my family’s tree?” 

“You have a remaining of just under nine million Larfern guards, about a million died trying to protect it.” 

“When the Reduntians retreated while the Larferns slaughtered 200,000 of Faavel’s men.  Why didn’t they chase after the remaining 300,000, to finish them off,” asked Ceoda.

“All Larfern guards signed a contract binding them to the Larferna Tree. Leaving their post to join the main fight would be a death sentence on their part.”

“What are the losses on our side if we were to fight the supposed surrenders?” Ceoda asked no one in particular. 

“Very high Madam, but we’ll still win the battle,” informed Head War Chief Kinvame. 

“Does this surrendering Commander demand anything in return?” I asked. 

“They want to live out the rest of their days on Earth, and a hand shake from you to confirm it,” answered Kinvame.

“Does everyone here agree that I should accept their surrender?”

“Not with a demand like that!” spat out one of the other Commanders, but everyone else agreed with a nod, even Ceoda.

“Guess I have a hand to shake then.” 

It was safer to order the Reduntian Commander named Garferel to meet me at my camp for the hand shake. Though my many Commanders and War Chiefs noted that if I should go to him instead. It would play better for my reputation, and would also remind the Reduntian soldiers that they’re surrendering to a King. Not to someone who is hiding at his base camp. I traveled there by helicopter, and when I was above the Reduntian camp. I was reassured that an ambush was impossible for them. As my army has surrounded their whole camp, and we outmatched them dramatically. Touching me would be death for everyone. When I got off, the Reduntian soldiers stared at me, some attempted to bow in chance that I may approve, but I walked on, ignoring them all. To gain my affection now would be like winning the lottery. Having craved and desired this sort of attention was a dream back when I was just Quent. Now that the dream has become real, I don’t bode so well with it, because it isn’t really earned by me is it? It’s the family name I so luckily inherited that has gotten me all this  fame. The only way I can enjoy it, is if I earned the fame myself, not merely born to it. I was followed by a mini army, tailing me to the massive pavilion that is owned by the Reduntian Commander, Garferel. The Reduntia sigil was removed before my arrival and was replaced with the sigil of Earth, which is just our circle Planet with the Larferna tree sticking out of it, on a black background that is space. The tents door was held up by my guards and I walked right in, greeted by Commander Garferel and his entourage of servants, about four in total. The Reduntian Commander approached me with a kind smile and spat on his gloved hand, and offered it to me for shaking. I gave him a frown in response. 

“It’s not fair that only I have to dirty my hands,” I marked. Garferel remained his eye contact with me and slowly took off his gloves, and spat at his hand again.

“Who came up with this idea?” I asked, pointing at his spit covered hand.

“Our ancestors stated that saliva is meant to represent our words, and by combining them to others, we merge our opinions also. And both of our opinions is for peace.” His mention of the saliva brought back memories of my stolen friend. Octlyn would have cracked a joke about Garferel’s disgusting handshake. Then the thought of my missing cousin made me mad.

“And does your ancestors state permission to wash our hands after? Or would that wash away the pact we’ll be making?” I remarked. 

“The longer you keep it on, the higher the honour.” He said it in the up most cheekiest tone I’ve heard, and that made my War Chiefs tickle their weapons.

“And how long are you keeping it on for?” Commander Garferel seems taken back by my provocation attempts, and started to show his sullenness. 

“I advise you both to wash it off at the same time?” suggested Ceoda, breaking off the tension. I agreed by spiting on my hand and met up with his. After the handshake was done, ex-commander Garferel ordered two of his naked servants to hold out a basin of water for him to wash his hands in. His butler walked up to him with a tray in both hands, with a swan carved soup sitting in the centre. While I ordered someone to send for a bottle of water, Deconi had a bottle attached to his belt, so he offered to help use it to rinse off my hand. Once Garferel was done he spoke up. 

“Would you like to borrow my basin? Its much better than your water pourer.” He gave Deconi a mocking smile. 

“No thanks, using a basin to wash oneself is like trying to wash your a*s in a bath.” I kept my direction faced at Garferel, but I needn’t to turn around to see that my men are all smirking.

“But I’ll have some of that soap?” I asked, trying to ease the insult incase he loses it. He smiled in reply and sent his servant to give it to me. Everyone seems amused by my remark, but does anyone actually get my true meaning? I made a comment that using a basin to wash oneself is like trying to wash your a*s in a bath. But the true meaning was a metaphoric criticism serving as two messages. Which is in order for change, you must not swim around in the same s**t you’re trying to get rid off, such as with the basin hand wash, recycling the dirt from his hands and not truly washing it away. Just like him holding onto his ancestors inefficient tradition of merging saliva for a pact agreement. As Ceoda stated to me earlier, it’s 3015. So contracts do exist, but this guy would rather have a handshake than sign his name. I ordered a war council to be held at Garferel’s pavilion, and asked him to stay. One of my Commanders sent out some of his men to haul in my Larfern table that is in my trailer. So I killed some time by taking a pee, and when I got back the table was set up, with chairs filled with my war council, and Ceoda with ex-commander Garferel standing idle near the corner bar. I took a seat and begun. 

“What is the current status,” I asked. 

“We have 500,000 Reduntians yet to deal with,” spoke up one of my Commanders, which I still don’t know his name. 

"How many men do we have at this moment,” I asked.

“Two million, but the rest of your army is still making it's way to us. They'll be here by tonight, My Ferna.” 

"Why won't the men at the Palace surrender? Don’t they know they've been outmatched, Garferel?"

"When Faavel split us up, he took the 500,000 men that he knows are loyalist to their death. The men that he gave me to command are mostly built out of cravens, hence why he sent us to harvest the Larferna Tree than to fight alongside with him.”

“So they won’t give up the Palace without war?” 

“Correcto,” confirmed Garferel. 

“The soldiers in my Palace, are they all Reduntian officers, leaders and such?” I asked him. 

“They are, but the 450,000 men guarding them outside are just low ranking officers.”

“Who is the leader of your Planet again?” 

“Sergusto Reduntia.” 

“Do you have a picture of him?” he walked up to me with a phone in hand, showing a photo of his leader, Sergusto. I took the phone from him.

“I want you’s to find someone who looks like Sergusto and an armourer who could replicate his outfit.” I commanded everyone, but it was Ceoda who responded to the task. “I’ll have it done within the hour.” 

“Head War Chief Kinvame, you said my Larfern guards killed over 200,000 Reduntians, right?” 

“They did.” 

“Send just as many Larferna soldiers to recover their uniforms and tell them to wear it, and pass down the order to have all of Garferel’s surrendered men hand in their uniforms. Then have our men wear it too. We’re about to stage a fake battle.” I turned from Kinvame to the ex-commander. “Garferel, I’ve given you permission to live on my world, but that doesn’t mean you have a house to stay in. I’ll give you mansion if you could help us lure out those 500,000 men currently lurking in my Palace, deal?” 

“Of course, so long as you pardon them with the same rights we’ve gained.” I nodded my approval. 

“I want you to make a video call to the leader of those men, who is it?”

“His name is Paulyn Tayler, he's second in command to Faavel.”

“Then that is who you'll be talking to soon," I instructed. We then spent the next 20-minutes detailing the logistics of my plan, and within two hours. We had 500,000 Earthling men dressed in Reduntian armour, and a fake Sergusto leading them. 

We agreed that the fake battlefield should be situated close enough for the Palace to recognise that it’s Reduntian men, but far enough that it will require them to exit the Palace area with a distance of more than five miles to reach them. The masquerade consists of 500k Earthling men dressed in Reduntian armour vs half a million Earthling soldiers. I was standing in front of my army, facing my other army with the fake Sergusto shouting fake taunts at me. The men at the Palace wouldn’t be able to hear this, but they could definitely see us. Soon after, the fake battle started, as fake Reduntian soldiers fell on purpose, pretending to lose to the Larferna army. Thousands of men shouted a pain that they haven’t even felt. After the staged fight started, I went to the pavilion that the ex-commander set up near a quarter mile away from the fake battlefield. I had Garferel call Paulyn Tayler, he picked up instantly. 

“Commander Garferel, we’re watching the fight from the Palace, what is your status?” rushed out Paulyn.

“Not good, Sergusto came back after he heard that his brother had died. He has successfully defeated the Tree Lords first army, but then Ser was ambushed by 500,000 Earthlings right after his victory. Now we are struggling to defend ourselves due to a dramatic lack of stamina,” lied Garferel. 

“I’m sending 400,000 men to help!”

“Then f*****g hurry, or Sergusto will die!” he hung up then. 

“I was expecting you to say a lot more,” I noted.

“Saying too much would have spawned suspicion,” he told me. 

“I hope you’re right, or else there will be no housing plan for you,” I threatened. He nodded solemnly, but he had a hint of disdain within his eyes. 

“If they don’t fall for the lure, then we’ll still win. Your Palace could be destroyed in the process, but your near as rich as me, rebuilding won’t hurt your bank,” reminded Ceoda, as she sneaked in her presence. I ignored her.

“How long do you think it’ll take them to get here?” I asked, directing the question to ex-commander Garferel. 

“Reduntians are known to have stronger lungs than most Galaxins, including Earthlings. So running here wouldn’t take longer than thirty-minutes.” 

“They’re running here? They don’t have any transport vehicles?”  

“They do, but not enough to fit all 400,000 men.” 

“You should have asked how long they’ll take,” I lashed out. Though Gar was right, half an hour and the Reduntian forces arrived near one mile away from the staged battle. That was when Paulyn Tayler called Garferel.

“Commander Tayler? What’s your status,” asked Gar. 

“The fighting has stopped, what’s going on?” shouted Paulyn. My War Chiefs were in the room at this point, surrounding the phone call. I gave the order to begin, and watched the TV that is linked to a live feed being broadcasted by a drone above the battlefield, showing us the action without the risk of dying from it. Jets started to fly past the Reduntians and dropped flammable oil mixed with artificial skunk smell, landing on the ground to create a barrier blocking the army from retreating back to my Palace. Then a few other jets shot the oil and it quickly blazed into a threatening barricade, the oil barrier has the width of half a mile, so crossing it would be impossible. And the skunk smell only drew them further away from the Palace. The rest of my army was hiding at the sides, but now they’ve come out and surrounded the Reduntians from left to right. With a fire behind them and my fake army blocking their front, the 400k reduntians were surround on all four sides. 

“Paulyn Tayler?” I spoke into the phone, wondering if he’s still present.

“Where’s Garferel?” he asked, his tone shivering.

“Holding his residency papers, want one?” I offered.

“You’re Remipor Larferna.” 

“You a fan or something?” he remained silent, so I nudged Garferel to speak for me.

“Sergusto was never here, I lied in order to secure my mens survival. You should do the same with your 100,000, because those 400k men that you’ve just sent have already begun dropping their weapons.”

“Sergusto will�"” Garferel interrupted immediately.

“Faavel’s dead, leaving Sergusto with no heir, and we all know he’s gay so there’s no chance of him producing an heir. Meaning the public of Reduntia is going to throw him off as ruler and replace him with whomever profits the nation most. So retiring on Earth is currently the best option for us.” Paulyn wasn’t answering, maybe he was discussing it over with his council? I couldn’t be fucked waiting so I spoke up.

“Its over two million soldiers against your 100,000, if you don’t evict yourselves from my Palace. Then you and your men will be the only folks who will miss out on the free estates I’ll be giving.” 

“Okay… We’ll do it,” he hesitated, and then hung up.

“I thought you said they were loyalists to their deaths?” I asked Garferel.

“Forgot to mention that these officers are also selfish, and you just stated that they’ll be missing out on some free land, whilst men of lower ranking will still get it, even if they don’t surrender your Palace.”

“You know your men, and it seems I might have to deal with Sergusto in the future. So maybe we cou�"” I was cut off by him.

"Working with the enemy was never my intention, I helped you just to save my men." 

"Then I guess we part ways, stay in your tent. I'll send someone later to take you to your new mansion." 

I took a helicopter back to my Palace, Ceoda, Meeroc and Deconi went with me. I wanted to fly past the many people that surrendered to me. My War Chief’s advised me to wait a few days before entering my Palace, so that the Royal cleaners could polish the place back to life. But Ceoda recommended that I should see the people that died under my protection. So we landed at the front of my Palace than that of the roof, to enable me to walk past all the innocent civilians that had died under the protection of their King. I saw the parents who had been savaged to death by those Reduntian dogs, whilst their children were made to watch. It seems that those Earthborn children had been left for dessert. I saw a dead man with his legs spread with rope, and his eye sockets bloody with the absence of eyeballs, as fresh semen still dripped from his anus and onto his thigh. I walked and walked until I got back to my room, with Ceoda still tailing me, and Meeroc frowning as he glided past all the corpses that was once people. How could I let the Reduntians surrender and still allow them a residency? 

“Meeroc, can you ask the Head War Chief Kinvame to join us?” he exited instantly, leaving me with Ceoda and Deconi. 

“Larferna was apparently the most protected Kingdom in the Galaxy, right?” 

“And yet Octlyn got kidnapped and Faavel managed to infiltrate your Palace for the second time,” added Ceoda. 

“Deconi, how did you escape the Palace and still managed to meet up with me at Kerra’s restaurant? No one told you who Quent was, so how?” 

“His mentor is the big brother of Laloreem, and Lalo’s of your council. Only the Royal council and a few selected individuals know who Quent really is. Did Laloreem tell you this Deconi?” she asked, while my Head War Chief finally arrived. Deconi remained silent as if he was still on guard duty.

“During my last council meeting, Laloreem suggested that it should be you who hires the detectives that will retrieve Octlyn. So hows the hiring going?” Deconi looked at me.

“You shouldn’t have made Ceoda the Head of your Council,” responded Deconi, then he stabbed himself in the neck.

“Annel’s still in the council room locked in with the rest of your councilmen, want to visit them?” asked Ceoda. 

“F**k visiting, summon them here at once,” I ordered. I wasn’t sure who would go in my stead, since Meeroc’s already ran one of my errands, and Kinvame was just asked to come here so sending him away would seem rude, but Ceoda just merely tapped her phone a few times.

“Just texted Annel, she’s bringing them here as of right now.” 

“You think the council betrayed me,” I asked her.

“I think Deconi killing himself was proof enough that somethings fishy,” I nodded my agreement and turned to my Head War Chief. 

“Kinvame, while we’re waiting, I might as well tell you why you’re here,” he quickly got into some sort of marching formation and listened. “I want you to personally find a land that could fit… How many surrendered again?” 

“Just over 800,000,” he responded.

“Find a treeless island that is remote, and place them on it. No food nor water will given when they reside there, and make sure no one can survive by living off the land.”

“Certainly, My Ferna,” he gave off a very formal smile. 

“Spray paint the word mansion onto a tent, and give it to ex-commander Garferel with my regards. Dismiss.”

“Remi, Wait!” 

“I’m sticking with my plan Ceoda,” she frowned at me for saying that.

“A bad leader usually favours their own opinions before hearing anyone else’s.” 

“Sorry,” I gestured her to start, and she turned to Kinvame.

“Make sure the island is littered with cameras, and have 24/7 security with a wall built to surround the whole isle. Make sure you drop a care package filled with enough food and water to keep only 50,000 men alive. Then decrease the supplies every week,” she ordered.

“What’s with the cameras?” I asked.

“For E-TV of course, you’ve just been invaded twice. Having a live broadcast of the Reduntians dying a slow and drawn out death, should notify the whole Galaxy that any type of attack on Earth will be used for profit. This would increase E-TV’s viewership, possibly gaining us enough money to recover the damage that the Reduntians left.”

“You got all that, Kinvame?”

“I have.”

“I want my main army protecting the Palace now, not mere guards, so have it done. Dismiss,” and he left at once. Then conveniently Annel arrived with all my councilmen. Laloreem started crying when he saw what remains of Deconi.

“He did it to himself, Lalo,” said Ceoda.   

“So how is it that making Ceoda the Head of my Council a bad thing?” I asked, directing the question to the whole council, no one answered.

“Laloreem, Dentori, Pernoila, Mikaelin and Renum, first one to answer will be instantly pardoned from death,” I said, but none of them answered.

“The first time we’ve met, you told me that you had given them all an Exporta. That you’ve discovered something that you said you’ll tell me one day, is it related to whatever they're hiding,” I asked Ceoda. 

“F**k no, I’m guessing whatever they did, began when you promoted me to be their boss, and the Exporta’s I gave them was way before that.”

“Can we use your machine to find out why?”  

“Follow me to my room,” she whispered happily. 

I’ve only ever been to Ceoda’s room once, but coming here for the second time, everything was trampled and destroyed, just like my room, by the Reduntians most like. Ceoda didn’t seem fazed by it, and simply walked to the corner of her room. She did some weird coding and another room that I didn’t know existed, showed up. We walked through the secret door near the corner, and was in her own custom built Exporta room. I had the whole council chained up onto movable chairs, and asked my guards to leave us be, leaving only me and Ceoda to watch over the potential betrayers that is my council. Ceoda then called in her two trusted surgeons, Dr. Kenmar and his assistant.

“Who’s brain should we cut open first,” asked the Doctor. 

“Try Renum, he’s the only one who’s not had an Exporta yet,” replied Ceo. The face on Renum seemed most expressive, similar to the features of those innocents that had been slaughtered by the Reduntians. 

“No, Laloreem should go first,” I insisted.

“I’ve already seen his brain, but sure, whatever,” Ceoda waved her approval. Then the Doctor approached Lalo with a knife and his assistant with a sleeping needle, and within six minutes we were inside the mind of Laloreem. 

“What’s the date that I promoted you on?” I asked, she quickly typed in the date and started fast forwarding Lalo’s life. The rest of the councilmen were in awe of Ceoda’s technology, and frightened by it at the same time. 

“What are you searching for, can’t we just watch it from the day I promoted you?” I asked, Ceoda shook her head.

“Lalo lives one of the most boring life I’ve witnessed, I’m skipping till I see a familiar face,” she does look bored. “Finally, some familiar faces,” she stopped fast forwarding when Laloreem was in the same room as all my other councilmen, including Deconi my ex-head guardsmen, though Renum was the only one absent. She pressed play and we all started watching Lalo’s perspective. 

“The famous Ceoda Moore is now the King’s personal mentor, and now she’s the head of this council. That leaves us with less influence on Remi than what we intend to have in the first place,” spat out Dentori. 

“We could still manipulate Octlyn to our advantage,” suggested Mikaelin.

“He’s a close friend to the King remember, making him close to Ceoda’s radar,” replied Dentori. 

“He’s just a stoner, and if we remove Remi as King. Octlyn will have no clue on how to rule, and therefore he’ll turn to our council for advice,” responded Laloreem.

“Who says he won’t turn to Ceoda instead? She’s already influenced the King into promoting her, who says she can’t influence Octlyn into getting rid of us for good,” pointed out Pernoila.

“And who says we can’t separate her from Octlyn,” suggested Lalo. 

“So what’s the plan for, Remi?” said Pernoila.

“We have him killed, then we quickly crown his cousin to replace him,” replied Lalo.

“He’s the most protected man of this world, mere assassins won’t do,” said Mikaelin. 

“I’ve been in the making of a possible deal with Sergusto Reduntia, I offered that if he kills Remi for us, then we’ll give him enough Larfern wood to match the King’s bodyweight,” informed Lalo.

“A small chip of Larfern wood can sell for over 50 million, we’re practically giving them over trillions,” said Dentori. 

“It’s the price for controlling Larferna and the world again,” responded Laloreem.

“What if Octlyn ends up being just as hard to manipulate,” asked Mikaelin.

“Have you even met him before? The guy has no ambition to rule, he still works as a Chef for f**k sakes, than that of ruling the City that was named after his family,” remarked Laloreem.

“I’ll have to agree with him,” said Pernoila. 

“Even if Sergusto agrees to kill Remi, how would he infiltrate the Palace? It’s the most guarded place on Earth,” said Dentori. 

“That’s why I brought along Deconi,” Lalo gestured to him. “He’s hired and trained nearly every staff in the Royal Kingdom, he knows the many ways in which the Reduntians can make their entrance.” 

“Why should we trust Deconi?” asked Pernoila.

“Cause my older brother trained him, he’s practically lived with us throughout his whole life. The chances of Deconi betraying me would have the same odds as trying to grate celery with a flat surface.”  

“Fine, then have it done. Contact Sergusto and tell him that we’ve already reserved his Larfern wood for when he’s completed the job,” ordered Dentori. Ceoda paused the TV then, and I turned to face all my ex-councilmen.

“Laloreem was right about Octlyn’s lack of interest in ruling, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t the ambition to rise higher than all you back stabbing f***s,” I lashed out. 

“Seems like Sergusto had other plans than to kill Remi,” noted Ceoda.

“All those innocent Earthlings that had died was because of you lot, you’re all responsible for bringing the Reduntians here. Just like how you’re all responsible for getting them captured,” I called in my guards then. “Have these men on a plane to the island, War Chief Kinvame will tell you the location. Then have them parachute onto the isle with the rest of the Reduntians. Make sure that every one of them knows that it was these idiots who caused them to be in the situation they’re in.” My guards nodded their approval of my orders and left with my whole ex-council. I was too mad to even witness what reactions and pleads they had for me, I completely blocked them out, even their shrieks of mercy. 

“You’ll have to release a press conference about this,” advised Ceoda, but I ignored her and waved the surgeons to leave the room. 

“Renum was innocent, why you sending him to slaughter,” she asked.

“That was a mistake, inform someone to exclude him from my services instead.”

“Okay,” she said.

“The night you met me, you said my whole council asked for an Exporta, and that you’ve discovered something when you looked into their minds. I think its time you tell me what it was you discovered.”

“As your mentor, and a well known genius in decision making, I advise you to postpone your curiosity for a few more years.”

“And as the King of this world, I advise to reveal the damn secret and stop playing the mysterious card.” 

“Your twenty-one years old, there’s no chance that you’ll watch this without an immature reaction.”

“Well, don’t expect my reaction to be too long, because a youngling like me would probably lack the attention span to even remem�"” she cut me off mid sentence. 

“Fine, sure, have your indulgence satisfied.” She paused for a moment and continued.

“Thinking is one of the most used skill in all human existence, and guess how people think?”

“By using their brain,” I answered. 

“Yep, and guess what? Exporta has helped me gather a bank of brains. This library that I have collected is now far more superior than mere spies. ” She searched for the video memory of Dentori and loaded it onto the TV screen, it was another meeting of my Royal council, but this gathering was held before their Exporta. So they were in their original vessels, though they were still young when they had this meeting. I walked up to the computer and pressed play.

“Lumenarr, handing free samples to Reduntia would trigger a reaction from the whole Galaxy, they’ll all want a piece of the Larferna tree if you just give it to them freely,” said Dentori. Wasn’t Lumenarr my dad? 

“Reduntian newborns are dying as of right now, if a few blocks of Larfern wood could help prevent that, then who am I to decline?” replied my dad.

“If you must give them it, then at least add a price tag," suggested Mikaelin.

"Say 50 million a chip?" suggested Dentori. 

"Reduntia is a Planet that is not known for it's riches, but we are, so�"” 

"So lets keep it that way, Lumenarr,” Pernoila cut in. 

“As your head financier, I recommend that you add the price tag,” said Laloreem. 

"I can't, I'm going to give the Reduntians a piece of the Larferna tree, and I’m not charging them a damned thing,” ordered Lumenarr Larferna. “Meeting dismissed,” he got up and left the council room. Ceoda paused the video, and typed in another date, this time in Mikaelin’s perspective. The location was in my room, or my dads room for that matter.

“You killed my wife,” shouted Lumenarr.

“We don’t want to kill you too, Lumen, but your unfit to rule. Leave with your daughter now and we’ll spare you both,” said Dentori.

“How do I know you won’t just kill my son, and have him replaced with one of your own?” said my dad. 

“Your family has ruled these lands since the Larferna Tree sprouted, disabling that tradition would go against everything we’ve worked for. But your decisions for the future of Larferna is not ideal, though your son might serve to be a better replacement,” answered Mikaelin. 

“He’s sent into training already, so you’ll never see him again until he succeeds the throne, but the Remelan brothers will take care of him,” added Dentori, trying to comfort the situation. 

“If I disappear now with my wife dead, people will suspect that as an assassination,” 

“We’ll just say your wife died of child birth, and you died of a peanut allergy shorty after. The birth of your b*****d daughter isn’t even announced yet, no one knows she exists, allowing you to take her with you, be grateful and leave,” instructed Mikaelin. Ceoda stopped the video.

“I have a step sister?” she ignored my question. 

“When my dad pasted away, I was sixteen, and guess what, he ironically died of a peanut allergy. Exporta wasn’t even invented then, so looking into the mind of my dad was not possible, not that I would had. But I kept his brain anyway, kinda like how some people keep the ashes of their loved ones. He was intelligent, though his kindness diluted it to near non-existence. So when your council asked me for an Exporta, I gave it to them for the sake of having a peek into their minds, just to check if I could trust them. Instead, I found those two clips of memories that you’ve just watched. I recognised that your father looked very similar to mines, so I tried connecting my dad’s brain into Exporta. It didn’t recover his brain, but it did recover some of his memories.” She pressed another button on the TV and pressed play, revealing the memory to be my dads. He was in some kind of ship flying through space, cradling the babe in which I think is my older step sister. 

“You’ll be known as Ceoda Moore from now on,” he said, as my father rocked her back and forth. “But in my mind, you’ll alway be Annanoria Larferna.”