When Eli entered the room without his mask and with a genuine smile on his face, Liasandra’s face lit up seeing her son again. She then quickly frowned seeing the scars on his cheeks clearly caused by something so traumatic that it had permanently marked his soul. He walked over and sat across from the three women on the other side of the table. No one spoke at first, he just smiled at his mother waiting for her to speak first, the other two women sat comfortably with identical smirks on their faces enjoying the moment.

  “Well, uh Eli, if you would like I can get all from my continent to side with whatever you like for the votes. They don’t know who you are but they do know that you represent an enemy that they cannot survive.” Liasandra said her first few words were shaky but she quickly composed herself. Eli could feel her nervousness fade as she spoke and in place of it was nothing but a heart ache like an old open wound that was just now starting to show signs of mending.

  Bethany was about to speak but he cut her off with a hand gesture. “I would appreciate you doing whatever is best for your people. I cannot presume to know what will serve them best having absolutely no information about them or their culture at all. I do not wish to rule this planet despite how frequently my companions tell me how easy it would be, I only wish to be a knife in the dark to those who would be cruel to their people without the fear of that knife.”

  Liasandra could not keep the large smile off her face after hearing his words as well as feeling the sincerity behind them. She took a deep breath and let go of her tension, comforted by the knowledge that her son was a good man despite everything that she had put him through. “Then could I ask a favor on behalf of my continent?”

  “You can ask.” Eli replied implying that he was reluctant to do her any favors.

  She took the hint and quickly reworded her request. “My culture is tribal, it has to do with the nature of our old magic. There are some tribe leaders here who do not believe my words of warning about you simply because they come from me. If I can get them to challenge you, could you display enough of your power to put them in their place and prove my judgement trustworthy?”

  “This sounds like you wish to use Eli as a political pawn to solidify your own power. And you are setting it up in such a way that he will look weak if he doesn’t play along.” Bethany said with some disgust and anger creeping into her voice.

  Again Eli quieted her with a gesture, “I can play along, just know that you will receive the same display that they do. Afterall, you already agreed to keep your side of the room in line.” He was smiling again, but it wasn’t a happy smile, more like the smile of someone who finally has a chance to taste some payback against someone who hurt them.

  Liasandra lowered her head, “I guess that's fair.”

  Eli stood and started walking towards one of the bedrooms. Bethany also stood, “Thank you for visiting, now if you would please leave while we discuss all of this and prepare for the vote.”

  She nodded and wordlessly walked over to the teleporter wall and vanished. Eli walked into the bedroom furthest from the teleporter wall and laid down in the bed staring at the ceiling. He had heard everything his mother said while she was talking to Bethany and Alora and he needed some time to process it all. The biggest obstacle was deciding how he felt about his mother after meeting her and knowing the story behind everything, or at least the version she told them. It could all be a lie and part of some bigger game she is playing, she was strong enough to trick his magical senses if she wanted.

  If it wasn’t for his transcendent aspects, she would easily surpass him in magic alone and he was realizing that when he had checked her magic earlier it hadn’t felt as strong as when she was right in front of him and he could focus his senses on her specifically. Her ability to hide her strength was a practiced art, it was refined and clever. Not the kind of thing someone has from a custom made ability that they figured out on their own, but the kind of thing that was perfected over generations. This meant that the people of the chaos continent were probably stronger than he thought, those from the order continent as well. There was more danger here than he had initially thought and his plans needed to change.

  Liasandra returned to her floor and two of her closest friends and advisors were waiting for her, she ignored them and walked right over to the table and sat down with a slump, removed a bottle of magical liquor from her inventory and took a drink. Her hands were shaking and her breathing was shallow, there were goosebumps on her skin and she had a look on her face of staring into the middle distance like her mind had short circuited.

  “How did it go, my Queen? Was your son everything you hoped for? Please tell us, we have been waiting years for this.” Her male advisor asked.

  Liasandra paused and took a deep breath, getting the shock out of her system and regaining composure befitting royalty. “He seems to be doing well, those women with him would have killed me without hesitation if I represented a threat to him. The spear wielding one would not be easy to kill either, her magic and intent were completely covered over by her love for Elias, I couldn’t read her at all. The other is his apprentice and has the strongest soul I’ve ever felt, aside from my son of course.”

  “But how is Elias’ strength? Can we proceed with the plan?” the female advisor asked.

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  “He has the strength we will need, but his soul is a wild thing and I’m not sure he could control himself at full power. I’ve asked him to demonstrate it in a way that benefits us but will look like a challenge to his power here and they saw through it instantly so he said he would go along but that I would be part of his demonstration. I believe he means to show me that he won’t be manipulated without consequences, but he did not hide his magic from me and I would guess that it won’t go as well as he thinks.

  “May I join you?” Bethany asked with a mocking sarcastic bow.

  “Please do, I need to process all of this and clear my head for the vote. I welcome any help.”

  She stripped and joined him on the bed, it was obvious that at first she was just going to dive into the sexy stuff but she saw the look on his face and instead laid down next to him with her head on his chest. “Tell me what's in that strange head of yours.”

  “I trust you, but lying to my mother isn’t sitting well.”

  “You’re worried about how it will affect your chances at a relationship with her?”

  “I know she was lying to us, and she abandoned me, but I should be the better person about it right?”

  “I love that you think that way but if she is planning to use you to her advantage, that kind of naive thinking is what will let her. You heard her say that she has been ruling for over 120 years, she could be over 200 for all we know. With that much life experience, if she wanted a relationship with you she would not have made such a self serving request.”

  “But part of your plan was to make an example out of someone as an excuse to display my strength. It’s not like we weren’t going to do it anyways.”

  “Yes and I am sure she knew that, but with her request it also serves to discredit those against her. She took something she was sure we would have to do anyway and made it benefit her. It's not like she was going to ask you to do something you wouldn’t do.”

  “So should I do it, or not? And how far should I take it?” Eli asked Bethany but he felt he already knew the answer.

  “Enough to make a point, but not everything. It needs to appear effortless, like putting them in their place was barely even worth your attention.”

  “You know, you are making it hard to make friends.”

  “That's what you have me for,” she said as she positioned herself on top of him. She rested her warm naked body on top of him and kissed him deeply. “If you are saying I’m not enough for you then I will have to work harder to make sure you are satisfied.”

  Two loud and sweaty hours later they emerged from the bedroom and began preparing to return to the voting room for discussion on the vote by the entire room. There was a shower kind of area near one of the doors that led to the balcony but it didn’t have a curtain or anything so Alora turned away as the two cleaned themselves up and got dressed. She was trying to stay out of the romantic area of Eli’s life for the time being and didn’t want to get tempted. Eli was in his mask and fuzzy underwear again, Bethany and Alora were wearing loose fitting pants and a short sleeveless shirt. Both garments were somewhat see-through, a point that they both wanted to make to the room was that Eli would not fall prey to sexual manipulation since he had a beauty on each arm already.

  The seven hours was about half over and they were ready to go back to the voting floor when Eli had an idea. “Should we just blink to the throne? It would be way more flashy of an entrance.”

  “Don’t be silly, save that for a moment of anger or when you need to intimidate someone. The less you do, the more mysterious you are, the more weary everyone will be of you because you are an unknown. Just sit on the throne and look bored and sexy and let me handle things.” Bethany said.

  “Ok, but I think you should sit in my lap and we act like this whole thing is beneath us.” Eli replied.

  “Is that for the plan, or did you not get enough of me earlier?” Bethany asked in a sultry voice.

  “It’s boring just sitting there looking stoic and unapproachable,” Eli grabbed her by the waist. “I would rather make them jealous than make me sleepy,” he said and kissed her.

  “I think we can work something out,” She winked at him. This was more affectionate than Eli usually was and she couldn’t figure out if he was being appreciative, if his feelings for her were getting stronger, or if he really was just bored without anything to fight. Either way, she really liked it and despite her usual disdain for all things romantic, a spark of hope started growing in her heart that she would believe him if he told her he loved her.

  The three of them went to the teleporter wall and appeared in the voting room, it looked like about three quarters of the chaos and order continent people were in their seats and discussing things. It would be too hopeful to imagine that they were discussing the vote, most had probably already done that and were looking for the chance to discuss things as a group or with him specifically. His mother and Ornori were talking while standing at the middle continent’s table which was empty except for Aria and the woman she was with. Both of them seemed to be scheming something involving him, but if he had to guess, it was not the same thing.

  They walked past them and toward the center of the tables, on their approach the throne rose out of the floor, apparently whenever he left the floor it sank back down. Bethany would know more about it but Eli guessed it was some kind of political statement on his behalf from the system. He sat and was immediately bored again, most had quieted down when he entered but after he sat they started talking again. Bethany was about to pull her spear out of inventory to slam the butt on the ground again but Eli stopped her, this was his moment to make a dramatic entrance. He gathered himself and with Goshen’s help he pushed his will to fill the room, then down a few floors until he knew he would be able to reach Winston. He didn’t go far since Winston was on the middle continent meeting room floor.

  A hollow breath could be heard by everyone he was able to reach, then some terror inducing clicks echoed inside everyone's mind feeling like someone was poking their forehead from the inside. “I will now speak to the leaders.” Eli said with will speech. Goshen was helping his range but the power was all him. Some of the weaker people in the voting room fainted with nose bleeds, others just looked like they had eaten some bad seafood and might vomit. His mother, Liasandra, and Ornori made their way to him, not rushing so as to save face, but they didn’t hesitate either.