Whispers of a Dead Empire - Chapter 78

Yas more chapters 🙂 I know that some of you are iffy on the child, I was to at first as I wrote it, but she grew on me. Hopefully she does as well for you guys :D.

“I thought you were supposed to be a dragon.” I sat up on my bed and stretched. The relief was tangible once I figured out what this child was, but so was the stress.

“I am a dragon, mother. However, I took this form since I had assumed that it would be the most appealing to you.” The little girl huffed at me. Her small arms were crossed, though her dress seemed to swallow her up.

“I’m sorry, I just wasn’t expecting to see, well, a child here.” I chuckled nervously while scratching the back of my neck.

“Hmph. anyway, now that you have awakened, I demand immediate affection.” The little girl stamped her tiny foot and balled her fist up as she glared at me

Mentally, I sighed, and I could feel a tension headache rising behind the migraine that hung behind my eyelids. This was going to be a pain in the ass. I wasn’t ready to be a mother! Damn everyone involved in the string of events that led me here. “Uh, you do not get to make demands of me,” I replied as I stood up and quickly adjusted my cloak.

The little girl stood at me, her eyes wide in shock as I walked right past her. “But mother.” She huffed as she followed quickly behind me.

“If you ask nicely, I’ll consider it,” I told her through a yawn as I walked over to the door that led to my office.

“B..b.but.” Her voice lowered slightly as I kept pressing forward. I really didn’t feel like dealing with this, but I had to.

“Say, please,” I told her as I opened up the door and held it open as I gestured for her to walk through.

She shot daggers at me as I stepped into the room behind her. God, this child was going to be quite the headache. Instead of saying anything, she gave me the silent treatment as she stormed into the room, sat on the ground, and stared at me menacingly.

I, however, would not argue with her. I walked over to my desk and pulled the chair out and sat down. “So, tell me. Do you have a name?”

She had her cheeks puffed up as she glared at me. Silence hung in the air for quite some time before she eventually spoke. “No. However, I demand that you bequeath a name upon me.”

I sat back in my chair and crossed my arms. Oh, she is spoiled rotten. Now that I think about it, she sounds like a more eloquent feminine version of Midir. “So, here are the rules, right? You do not get to make demands of me. That is not how any of this works.”

“But..” But I cut her off, I had no interest in trying to argue with her.

“No buts. If you refuse to listen, then you can go back into my soul realm until you decide otherwise.” I actually didn’t know if I could put her back in there or not, so hopefully, this bluff works.

Her eyes widened, and she shook her little head as fast as she could. “No, no, no, I refuse. I’ve spent far too long there. Anything but that, I implore you, mother.”

I had to suppress the smile that threatened to dance across my face. Finally, I have my first trump card on the matter. “Good, then listen to me. Now, first things first. Tell me about you.” I kept my voice stern, but really, I had no idea what I was doing. I had never interacted with a child like this before, so it was all too new to me.

She looked down and idly ran her fingers across the concrete ground. “Well, when you selected the aspect of the dragon, I was inserted into your soul. It allowed me to awaken when you reached the second tier of soul cultivation. However, due to Midir granting me the polymorph skill, I can take the form of a human.

Oh, that bastard. So, this was his doing. If I was stronger, I would beat his ass for doing something like this. “I see. Anyway, you mentioned skills. What do you have at your disposal currently?” I crossed my arms as I filed through the various thoughts. So, as much as I wanted to deny it, the child is mine.

“Well, currently, I have a minor soul shout, basic mana manipulation, and a few other things.” She replied as she kept tracing her finger across the ground. Poor girl, I think I must have scared her.

But wait, why does she get to use magic? I bit my lip and tried to hold back the frustration that simmered just below the surface. “So, if you are an aspect of me, why do you get to use magic?”

“Well, I’m still my own being. I’m a blend between an aspect and familiar. Besides mother, you need mana well to perform any magical feats, and you gave yours up when you took the soul path.”

That makes sense, I suppose, but now that I am getting answers, more questions are taking their place. I really need to get with that adventurer and see what information I can scrounge up on the outside world. “I see. Thank you.” I paused as I realized I still had to name her. I couldn’t let her run around without one. “So now, I just have to name you, huh?”

She nodded her head but said nothing else. It was good to see that my warning had stuck, for now at least. Something told me it would only last so long. Now, what should I name her? The only thing that I really knew about her was that black seemed to be a significant part of her features. Now, what was something that corresponded with it?

It reminded me of nighttime, though I didn’t want to default to something as simple as Raven or a play on words. No, this had to be something meaningful. As I juggled the various ideas, I thought back to what Midir had said. I’m a godling. I may not be a god yet, but one day. So why not give her a name that would reflect that?

As I spiraled down through many names, one stood out. Nyx. On Earth, she was written as a primordial being. One of the first to spew out of chaos. It would be fitting, I suppose. This will be one of the first here. I had Alessia, Kharon, and everyone else, but this dragon was a part of me. Which would make her something extraordinary. I had goals that I was pursuing. Lately a fire had sparked with in, and it has been pushing for me to gain more power. I was starting to grow in discontent with what I had I wanted to name her something that was powerful. So, this name, would fit her perfectly. “I will name you Nyx.”

She tore her head from the ground, and she gazed at me with those emerald spheres, and she nodded. “Thank you, mother.” As she spoke those words, a set of text appeared on my screen.

I read over the text and nodded my head as I dismissed the notification, but as I did, I realized something. If she is a familiar, she should have a stat tree or something of the sort, right? I brought up my menu and quickly started to look through it, at least until I came across what I needed.

As I read through her stats, I couldn’t help but feel jealous. What even was this? My highest stats when I got here would be equal to her lowest. This honestly wasn’t fair. She didn’t even have the same stat and character sheet that I did! As I read through the list, though, it made a bit of sense. She wasn’t human. So, she would be further ahead than I would be at that level. Which would mean that I would have to train my ass off if I wanted to stay ahead of her.

She also had evolutions, so she has the potential to grow further in overall power. Very interesting, though I was curious about how it would affect me. I mean, she was bound to me overall. Ugh, there was so much to figure out. I really wish google was a thing here sometimes. I cleared my throat and sat back in my chair. There is so much that I need to look into. Looks like I’m going to have to cut back on my sleep a bit for a while.

“Empress, who is that?” Alessia’s voice sounded right next to my ear, causing me to almost jump out of my chair and my heart to skip a few beats.

“For Christ’s sake Alessia, I’m about to put a bell on you,” I told her as I adjusted my cloak and cleared my throat and tried to calm my heart.

She gave me a weird look as she glided across the room toward her chair. She sat down and crossed her legs and then her arms, looking at me as if she were scolding me for something.

“I’m sorry, Alessia. I’m just a little overwhelmed right now. Uh, this is Nyx. She is my familiar.” I sat back in my chair as Nyx decided that this was the moment she wanted to speak again.

“I think daughter sounds much quainter than a familiar mother.” She stood up and brushed off her dress and adjusted her little ribbon.

I chuckled nervously as I cast a furtive glance at Alessia, who in turn raised an eyebrow and pursed her lips. “I didn’t realize that you had a daughter.”

Ugh, of all things you could have picked up on, you chose that. “Uh, neither did I?” I laughed nervously as I tried to think of a way out of this.