A New Star Chapter 46

The next day was the second day of the party, which I was not at all thrilled about, especially considering my performance from the day before. The funny thing was, the day played out almost exactly as I had expected; while I had been a warrior, soldier, and general through and through in my last life, I still did pick up some of the finer points of politics and social relations after uniting half a galaxy and living for eleven centuries. The kids, young people present, and various minor nobility and small-time knights and baronets tended to avoid me like the plague, something between fear and awe inspiring them to keep their distance. The older, wiser, more powerful and influential people, on the other hand, gravitated to me that day like flies to honey, wanting to know all about me, about my plans, my ideas and ideals, and my thoughts. Much of that was thinly disguised probing to determine how much of a threat I was, or how good of a potential recruit I would be for them, or some combination thereof.  

The third and final day, even more exhausting than the previous two, saw the attitudes change yet again, and just as predictably. The youth and minor players had grown envious and suspicious of all the attention the big fish were lauding me, while the big fish had grown irritated and stand-offish at my refusal to answer many of their questions or go along with their plans. They could all go pound sand, for all I really cared, as none of them had the power or backing of my own family, except for the king, and that was still a close thing. Without the royal or leading families of the other five countries present at this little party, nobody had enough power or pull to really concern me. I did, however, not totally brush off or disregard everyone that was there, as networking was important, and I also didn't want any of these fops starting some kind of blood feud or something because I annoyed them. I spoke with who I needed to speak with when I needed to, and having the Count for a tutor and the Silver Lady to vouch for me was really all that mattered. Networking. 

I made a decent enough impression on the players that really mattered, people of a power level between my parents and the Count, or even at the Silver Lady's level, and the rest were just dross. My leveling of my affinities was already slowing down a bit, the grades ticking by slower as I got higher, but these people were a little overinflated. I was ten and not very familiar with this system and was technically and I-rank already, was a serious threat with many different weapons, and had a tier seven body at G-grade. Not to toot my own horn too much, but I expected to come close to many of those I was socializing with on this third day by the time I was twenty, maybe twenty-five at the latest. In comparison, there was almost no one I spoke with that day that didn't have gray hairs starting to fill in on their head with quite a few years under their belt.  

The weekend finished with a bit of a bang, several duels and exhibitions happening on the third day, maybe even fueled by mine, now that people had recovered from it a bit, but I was largely uninterested. It was a lot of the weaker members of the gathering having quick, sharp fights in the ring, most lasting lest than a minute, and many of them were not wholly impressive. The best I saw that day was a young lady, and by young I mean about twice my age, that was roughly where I was with the sword. That was also a bit of a misnomer, as I had been intentionally holding myself back on progressing my weapons at this point, not wanting to push myself too far while my body was still developing. Or maybe I should say while Alex's body was still developing? I had been doing my best to ignore the elephant in the room, but I was forced to think on it a bit as the Count finally cornered me after most of the guests had left.  

Fortunately, he had no idea what had actually happened when I had left the estate, and none of the truly powerful figures had followed me. I think many of them had thought that I was just bullshitting up an excuse to escape after the second duel and wouldn't want to pursue me and look churlish. The Count, the Silver Lady, and three others that had been at the party had sensed something, but they had sensed it far more faintly than I had. When that sensation disappeared a short time after I left, they dismissed it as something that had likely been a lucky opportunity for me and moved on, having experienced such circumstances plenty. The opportunity hadn't been for me, of course, though have my body, or Alex's body, or our body (damn, this was weird), at G-rank was a nice bonus for witnessing Glorious Death and the final moments of that proud knight, one I certainly wasn’t complaining about. The Count, however, had a few questions. 

"So, what exactly happened?" he asked, sitting in the library with myself, the Silver Lady, and my grandfather. 

"My dear Count, you're going to have to be a bit more specific than that," I replied drolly. 

"Well, with several things, but I will cover the duels later," he said in an exasperated tone. "What I was referencing was after the duels. What exactly did you sense and how did you handle it?" 

"It was Glorious Death," I replied calmly, taking notes in a blank book that I had as I scanned through a set of scrolls. Glancing up, I saw all three of them had a mixture of confusion and disbelief on their faces. 

"Who or what is Glorious Death?" asked the Silver Lady in some perplexity. 

"Glorious Death is an aspect of Death, the ending of life that leads to a new beginning. Glorious Death is that face of his that walks the battlefield, the dueling arena, the gladiatorial games, the fields of conquest, and the Halls of Honor. He is the face that welcomes warriors home, the face that ushers true champions into their final rest, returning their souls to peace," I explained. 

"And you…met this aspect?" my grandfather asked incredulously. 

"I did indeed," I said calmly. "Glorious Death is an old, old friend, one that I have walked before, beside, and behind for many years. He had come to usher a warrior, a champion, a hero among mortals, to their final rest. We spoke, briefly, and he passed me a token, which I cannot show you for several reasons, before continuing on his way." 

"I am a little upset and nervous, considering you know Death so well," the Count said, stroking his beard. "I also am rather concerned that the living personification of, well, not living anymore decided he had to give you a token, but I think we can let that rest for the moment. I'm more concerned about what kind of life you lived before, that Death might even seek you out." 

"War," was my reply, not looking up from my notes. 

"Elaborate," the Silver Lady demanded.  

"War," I said again, looking up at her across the table, my eyes cold and hard. "I lived a life of war. I grew up on a small farm, my family so poor that some days, we didn't have any food to eat. There was always well water. From there, I rose to unite my world, my star system, and a hundred thousand more behind me. I lead a war of interstellar scale, a war between polities that consider entire worlds chess pieces at best, and negligible losses at worst. A war that spanned a thousand years, one where blood flowed like water and souls like spring wine. A war to set the stars afire and burn the heavens to ash. You ask me to elaborate. I cannot. You simply don't have the capacity, at this present moment, to understand what I did. Who I was. What I was. What, in many ways, I still am." 

My little speech had silenced the room, though this time the expressions were a mixture of four parts shock and one part disbelief. Well, whatever, I had no need for their belief or understanding; the life I had led, the battles I had fought, the war across the stars that had filled a thousand oceans with blood, all were mine to bear. My past. My triumphs. My tragedies. Nothing I could do or say would be able to convey even a fraction of what it had been like, what that time and that place had felt like, what the strain and turmoil of eleven centuries of interstellar battle had meant, what it had done to us all, what it had demanded of us. The others didn't seem to be able to formulate any proper questions, and I left it there myself, not wanting to discuss my past any more than I had. Even what I had given them, as much of a non-answer as it was, was more than enough, now and into the future. I finished my note-taking and left the library to work in my lab, which I continued with for most of the week.

At the end of the week I had a little stop to make, that being into Umberton to visit my favorite crime boss and general doofus thug, Pietr. The man wasn't happy to see me, but was thrilled at the same time, an interesting and amusing dichotomy, but I was there for business and little else. He was still running drugs for me, essentially, and I needed him to handle moving several new batches. It was enough product that the town and surrounding area was not going to be able to absorb it, no matter what they did or how they did it. That meant that this stuff was going to spread, likely far and wide, and Pietr still had the network and the connections necessary to get all this moving, and fast.  

"There's a problem," he started off by saying. Well. Shit. 

"Explain," I commanded. He looked like he had swallowed broken glass at my tone and mannerisms, but we both knew who was in charge here. I had all the leverage I could ever need over the clod, but on top of that, I wouldn't really put myself at terrible odds against Pietr in a fight. Give it a year, two at the outside, and I wouldn't put myself at terrible odds against Pietr and his entire gang together, and more to the point, I wouldn't encourage anyone to bet on Pietr's side. 

"Crackdown in the capital," he replied testily. "They're cutting off some of our distribution lines and movin' pieces around. Then, there's two other gangs honing in on our territory, and I mean the trades we make, not on Umberton. Neither Robin nor I have the kind of manpower to fight a war against those gangs, and we can't go against the Crown or the officers working on the smuggling rings. We have alternate avenues, but it's gonna take longer and be riskier." 

"Easily solvable," I said with a dismissive wave. "It's high time I made a trip to the capital myself, in the flesh, and I will sort all these problems out. Negotiations are one things, but cracking a few fools' heads together and getting a positive result is something I'm exceptionally good at. Just give me a list of contacts, of who I should and shouldn't look for, and I will take care of everything." 

Pietr eyed me, likely thinking about me just going right to the source, or, in this case, the destination and selling my product without him, but he didn't say anything. Again, he well understood where exactly he stood in this relationship, and if I wanted to make channels that cut around him, I could and would do it and he would just have to plaster a happy smile on his face and bear with it. Not to mention the power and position of my family, I was his single most profitable source of income, giving me incredible power over the relationship. Maybe also the memory of me dragging his only real competition out into the street, declaring judgement over him for all of Umberton to hear, and then basically crucifying him to the big Oak in the center of town lingered quite strongly in Pietr's mind. Likely he thought about that night rather often, how the girl who had just killed three unregulated, powerful assassins alone had stormed his den, ready to kill him, before then storming his rivals den and thoroughly destroying it, not to mention the previously discussed whole crucifying business.  

I finished my business with Pietr and returned to the estate, getting ready for what would be a lot more than a day trip. My preparations were interrupted by the Count, the man seeming to always have a preternatural sense of when I was getting up to something or had something interesting happening around me. When he pried my plans out of me, he simply stated that he hadn't visited the capital in a while and that the fall made for a lovely time for a trip. Sighing, I factored in dodging the old coot while throwing him just enough of a bone to keep him happy into my plans. I did not, of course, tell anybody else where I was going or what I was doing, which was likely not going to go over particularly well, but then again, the Count was my chaperone and tutor and was responsible for my oversight. I would just fall back on using the codger as a shield for my actions, not hesitating in the least to throw the old man under several running buses. He had survived the intrigues of more than one imperial court as a tutor to two emperors; he could survive a couple hits by a slow-moving bus.  

"You packed remarkably quickly," the Count said with a frown as he caught up to me leaving the Estate. 

"I always have a bugout bag ready to go," I replied with equanimity.  

"A what?" he said in a faux scandalized voice, clearly doing a bit. 

"A bugout bag. A backup bag. A fallback bag. An escape bag. There's a hundred names that different people in different places use for them," I explained calmly. "An experienced traveler, and one that is used to suddenly facing danger, keeps a bag packed with all the essentials; a little food, minimum toiletries, a small first aid kit, some cash or items that have high intrinsic value, clothes, and possibly makeup, depending on the need for a disguise." 

"Ah, well, I am not that familiar with the concept, but I have never really been one for all that cloak-and-dagger malarky," the Count replied, floating along after me as I made double time to Umberton. "This sounds more like something those used to spy craft and underhanded deals would keep ready." 

"It has origins there, certainly, but sometimes it's good to keep a bag ready even if one isn't into the whole espionage game," I said. "There are times, for example, when extremely important business might come up that one needs to deal with on a moment's notice; it can save a lot of frustration and headaches to have a bugout bag ready for such scenarios." 

"I suppose I follow the logic," he said. "I just don't have much use for such things." 

"I would expect not," I said.  

"I beg your pardon," he cried indignantly, which I ignored.  

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