Fate of a Dynasty

The only thing that was on her mind since the meeting was the warm tingling feeling pulsating between her legs. Normally she would be able to control such urges, but the ideas that floated within her now daydreaming mind were too much, even for a queen to ignore. As she led atop the bed fully naked her fingers found themselves making their way down her body. Her hands brushed over erect nipples, sending a shiver through her body into her now soaked slit. A few long swipes of her fingers from her opening to her clit had her lips wide open and ready. Brianna began to circle her fingers over her delicate nub, lost in the pleasure she longed for.

Emperor Augustus Redmaine

Mornings were always the favorite part of Augustus Redmaine's day. He would wake up, have his cock sucked by one, or multiple of his slaves. Sometimes he would make one of the male servants do it, if nothing other than to prove to them he had complete control over their lives. Whatever he wanted to do he would do it, with no hesitation. The only exception in this regard had been the bitch-queen Brianna. She had avoided his advances, despite his promises to unite their countries under a single banner for the good of the known world. Sure, it might be true that he would likely lock her in a playroom for the rest of her days, feeding her scraps and stuffing every hole she had each day for as long as she lived, but it beat having her country invaded and people slaughtered.

Perhaps once Clement begins making ground, I shall sail my fleet across the sea and force her hand

The plans for a full Dominican invasion had already begun to take place, first he would support the usurper, just enough to cause a distraction in which he could strike unseen. Augustus Redmaine would become the first human to control every country within the known world. And then perhaps he would sail south and conquer whatever was in that direction.

His morning was disturbed by a skinny man who could only have hit his second decade recently looking at his scrawny skeleton.

"And who do you think you are, disturbing me at such an hour?" Augustus barked at the nervous wreck.

"I-I b-bring a m-m-message from Lord Orion, s-sire," he whimpered back, bowing his head, and raising the letter.

"Guard, bring the letter from the boy and send him away with a silver piece, another moment in my sight and I might have to teach him how to act like a man. Pathetic," Augusted muttered without realizing the nervous boy had already left his company.

He lifted the bedsheets to look down upon the green-eyed woman currently servicing his cock, "Speed up and get it over with, I don't have all morning."

"Now then, let's see what we have her..." He stopped, his eyes rolling into the back of his head as his cum exploded from his cock, coating the back of the slave's throat. "Make sure you clean it up before you finish, " he demanded, satisfied when his slave proceeded to suck his shaft clean.

He opened the letter to read the worst news he could have hoped for. His favorite gladiator at his most famous establishment had escaped with the one they called, 'the boat man'. Fortunately for Augustus, he knew better. The rightful king of Dominica had been within his grasp, exactly where he wanted him the entire time. He was being kept there so when it came time to sail to Dominica he would have the best bargaining chip one could hope for locked away within his ship. Now, unfortunately for Orion, he had for some reason been set free, and what was worse he had taken Isabella with him. Augustus had longed for Isabella but removing or causing her harm would only turn the people against him, she was a fan favorite after all; he should have taken her when he had the chance.

The all-familiar sensation of rage began to boil within his chest, it was the last time that fool Regulus would meddle with his gladiators. He had removed him from ownership when he last visited and since then there had been nothing but the old fools' mistakes. If it wasn't for the man's creative ability to entertain a crowd he would have been disposed of long ago. He would have to find a way to punish him; physical punishment would not do, the man was a retired warrior, to harm him might cause backlash. It would have to be something the public would see no sign of something to ensure the man would never disappoint him in such fashion again.

"Guard!" Augustus shouted, "send a letter to Lord Orion, tell him he is required to report to me at once. Tell him to bring that old wife of his too, if he won't pay more attention, perhaps I will need to give him some encouragement. Send word to every town within a thousand miles, every coastal port and every garrison from here to Dunderta that we have runaways. 50 gold pieces to anyone with information that leads to their capture, 200 gold pieces to anyone able to capture them. I want them alive; do you understand?"

"Yes, your majesty," the guard said, before he bowed and headed off to send the letters.

"I WILL NOT BE TAKEN FOR A FOOL!" Augustus roared at the open air for anyone unfortunate enough to be within hearing distance.

He was going to show Lord Orion what happens to those who fail him so often, and then when he was done with that, he was going to finish off gathering his army and sail his fleet to the southern region of Dominica and invade the country, it would be a war for the history books and that excited Augustus. He understood history is written by those who win, and he had every intention of the history books painting him for what he saw himself to be; the most successful conqueror to ever live.

Lucifer

The feeling of the ocean breeze hitting his face was a welcome sensation, it reminded him of home. The long sandy beaches of Dominica were Lucifer's favorite place on earth and as such, a sea breeze was special. If you closed your eyes as it swept upon your face you could smell the ocean; the pure, unwavering, and everlasting mass of blue that promised adventure. There was no beach where he now stood, upon the edge of a large cliff edge overlooking the turbulent ocean as its ferocious waves hounded the cliffside.

It's quite something, isn't it?" Isabella asked, appearing by his side.

"It's the most quite something, something that has ever been something," Lucifer replied with a grin.

"I can tell you miss home, what is it you are running from?" She glanced at him nervously through the corner of her eye.

Lucifer ignored the question, diverting the topic of conversation. "Imagine we could sail away, never to be seen again. Wouldn't that be marvelous."

Not wanting to push Lucifer but attempting to keep him on track, Isabella replied, "I would sail with you in a heartbeat Lucifer, but ever since that shack I can only feel this insatiable urge to follow your rightful path. I really believe you can make a difference in this world; I hear where you come from there are no slaves?"

"In a way," Lucifer stood in thought, looking out over the ocean towards his homeland," there are slaves, but they are not necessarily treated with such disrespect. The term 'slave' is not used in Dominica, they are servants who earn coin for their troubles. We certainly do not slaughter them like animals as is the tradition here under this foolish emperor."

"You should reclaim your throne, sail your army here and end all of this," Isabella whispered, almost afraid to suggest it.

"And risk the lives of all my people, it is not something that is so simply fixed. Every nobleman across the central kingdoms owns slaves, imagine telling them all they now have to pay or lose them. There would be disastrous consequences, slaves would be murdered rather than paid, there would be rebellions. It would take decades to sway the mentality these countries are built on."

"But it would be decades well spent. I may have never told you this before Lucifer, but my father was a slave and my mother his owner, she fell in love with him and birthed me. When the local authorities found out they had my father whipped in the streets, not stopping until he bled to death. When I was of an age to fight, they came for me, took me from my mother and left our home in ruins, burnt to the ground."

"Isabella that is awful, what happened to you once they took you in?"

"I was trained, physically and mentally. I was beaten, raised to be ruthless. My first task from the emperor was to scout villages local to the one I had come from to find any slave who had overstepped their supposed boundaries and murder them in the streets, just as my father had been. Redmaine likes to force us to do what we hate most; it makes him feel powerful."

A hint of anger burrowed across Lucifer's forehead as he listened to Isabella's story, "I have seen the man, but never met him. I will do my best to ensure I never have the displeasure of crossing his path. So how did you end up in the Arena?"

"It is quite simple really, I refused to kill any slaves. In Redmaine's anger he forgot his extreme desire to take me to his bed as his warrior plaything and cursed me to a life of slavery as punishment. He thought the idea of me being a slave, fighting and killing other slaves within the arena would be the most appropriate punishment I suppose, another one of his cruel games."

"You should think yourself lucky," Lucifer said with a hint of a smile, "I'd rather kill a thousand slaves than have to sleep with that man, he's a giant!"

Isabella swatted his chest, "Lucifer! It isn't something worth thinking about, I would neither have sex with him nor kill people unless I was forced to do so. At least now I can choose who I do and do not kill, and who I do and do not share a bed with," she added, lifting herself up on her tiptoes to give Lucifer a peck on the cheek.

Lucifer smiled at Isabella, it never failed to amaze him how strong her personality was. She was a fierce warrior, a gentle woman and wise counsel as and when needed. He could do a hell of a lot worse. "You are a special woman, Isabella; I could not think of anyone else I would rather share a life with."

"Let us hope such a life lasts until our bones grow brittle, our back hunches and our hair grows white," Isabella smiled at Lucifer, her beautiful eyes piercing into his tortured soul.

"I think I would like that," he replied, taking Isabella's hand, still staring into the ocean. His silvery blonde hair blowing behind him as he thought about what was to come.

The bushes behind them rustled, breaking their attention. Jardan and Johna emerged from the overgrowth rubbing their eyes in the morning light. It appeared it was going to be a cool day as the clouds above appeared un-moving; there was a chill in the morning air.

"So, do we start moving south down to the port?" Johna asked as he reached the two standing on the clifftop.

"I think so. One last walk before we get on a ship and hopefully sail away from here for the last time," Lucifer responded, a bittersweet tone to his voice.

"Sounds good to me, I hate this place," Johna admitted, leaving Lucifer unsurprised by the admission.

"I think I would like to live in this homeland of yours, I hear your women are exceptional," Jardan added with a cheeky grin in his usual manner.

"That they are, everything about my home is exceptional, in a way it saddens me every day to be away from there. In another way, I'd rather be anywhere else."

"You know Lucifer, "Jardan approached the topic carefully, "I don't think a crown is something you can so easily run from, the gods have their ways, and if destiny shines upon you, nothing you do will be able to stop that."

"It is not the gods I fear, dear friend. The gods are selfish, unloyal and demanding. They assume we owe them everything when in fact we owe them nothing. They assume they have such an influence over all life, and all life should bow before them. You will never see me bow before them, Jardan."

"So, what are you afraid of?" Isabella asked, taken with his ruthless assessment of the gods.

"I fear spending my life serving others, I fear not having the choice of how I live and more importantly, how my time ends. Being born with the blood of my ancestors should not mean I am bound by a fate decided for me. The gods should fear us, not the other way around."

"You should be careful with your words Lucifer, the gods are not so forgiving," Johna warned.

"Then they can come down from their eternal seats and I shall explain to them myself!" Lucifer replied bitterly, leaving everyone in agreement not to push the subject further, "let's head south."

The four of them travelled along the edge of the cliff, it was slow moving. Every so often they would hit an obstruction of some sort and have to walk inland before coming back out to the coastline. Several days of travelling seemed like an age until they finally arrived at the port town of Dun'Loch. From a distance it did not look like much, a settlement that spanned a few miles in each direction, finished off with the wooden walkways of the port jutting out into the sea. Several ships of all sizes had docked there, from small travel boats to a large war vessel docking there, likely re-fueling before continuing its patrol of the country's borders.

As far as Lucifer was aware the small port town was mainly used by fishermen. The main routes in and out of the town were via boat or through a narrow road within the forest on the opposite side of town. While once one of the main shipping docks of Athenia, it had since dwindled down, joining the other average sized coastal settlements in providing fish for the bigger surrounding towns and cities.

"Well, it doesn't look like much. Which ship are we taking," Jardan asked with a smile on his face.

"Something small that we can take and disappear fairly unnoticed," Lucifer replied, scanning over the harbor. "Something like that one," he pointed, focusing on a small to mid-sized ship.

"And how are we going to crew that with four of us?" Isabella asked, noticing the size of the ship he was pointing towards.

"Well, we aren't. We are going to jump on the big ship, sail it out until we have been noticed. Once that happens, they will send all their reinforcements out to stop us, thinking it's petty theft. We will smash a hole in the bilge, so it brings on water and then abandon ship, swim back to the dock and steal that little trading vessel closest to us. It should just look like a trading vessel leaving and we should be long gone before they consider what we have done. If they try to chase us they will likely sink before they realize what is going on," he explained, waiting to see what the others made of this plan.

A smile appeared across Jardan's face while Isabella and Johna looked unconvinced, "It's lucky we can swim!" He quipped back laughing at Johna's facial expression.

"I was hoping it would be a dry affair, but why not... it might cause enough of a distraction for us to tie down the trading vessel's captain and sail away completely free," Isabella said, her facial muscles shaped in that of concentration

"Sounds like we have our plan," Johna nodded in agreement.

"Excellent, let's make our way down there and see if we can cause a little chaos," Lucifer said before smirking to himself.

Ardune Clement

The camp Ardune Clement had set up was scarcely managing, for now. He had been stuck within the camp for considerably longer than originally planned. Lucifer leaving the country was supposed to have been the turning point, with Redmaine convinced he could overthrow the current royal family and insert himself as Emperor leaving Ardune to rule on his behalf. He hadn't expected the sister of Lucifer to be such a nightmare, however the thought of her rejecting the emperor on several occasions did make him smile. Nobody with such beauty should be with a man like that, he would ruin her within a fortnight. Breaking in that bitch was something he wanted to do, and it should be enjoyed over a long period of time. Plus, he wanted to be the one who eventually removed her head from the rest of her perfect, tight little body.

There was at least one bit of good news, the large trading vessel full of food that managed to find its way through the Domincan defense had turned up in one piece. The smaller trading vessel the Dominicans had captured had apparently made them feel like they had won a small victory over him, fools. If they had not been paying so much attention to the small ship with measly supplies, they might have noticed the much larger one further out to sea, right between their lines. Enough to last them at least a year at least. Ardune had no plans to be here in a year, he was to be sat on the throne by that point, that he was sure of.

His camp spanned miles in-land; the flat, green grasslands splattered with rows upon rows of white tents. The front line, roughly 50 miles in land was heavily guarded, donning a large portion of the 70,000 men he had in his service. A force large enough to hold their ground anywhere.

The army, once belonging to the southern part of Dominica, was loyal to the region of Luanda and its ruling General and had been expertly trained. General Ardune Clement was quite safe in his current location and had no intention of moving for the time being.

The section of the camp in which the high-ranking members' tents were located was known to the troops as 'the silent row', due to it being considerably quieter than the rest of the rowdy encampment. That suited Ardune perfectly, the days of being a feisty young male were long behind him, and for now he had a war to plan.

Ardune Clement's boots sunk into the wet ground as he made his way into the war tent where his captains were huddled around a table, pushing small wooden blocks over a map of Dominica.

"What about pushing a second legion to reinforce the main front line here, while our left flank slowly increases. Once they turn their attention to the left, we slowly increase down the right, gaining more ground each passing week," one of the captains suggested.

"That could work, but we would need to have fluid communication between each side, one wrong push could leave an entire side vulnerable, the middle would have to increase in relation to each side so as not to create any weak spots, maintaining somewhat of a line."

Ardune who was standing and listening to his captains' exchange ideas decided it was now time to announce himself. "A fine idea, Captain Lewis, if I do say so myself," nodding towards the well-built, tall, young captain, who had now turned to salute his superior, "the one problem, however, is that if we move our territory further up the country we are exposing ourselves to a much larger threat," he walked towards the table and moved the squares that represented his forces further in-land as his captains had suggested.

"Now you see, Dominica has an army likely ten times the size of our own and equally well trained. Their fleet of ships are unmatched by any single nation and if we push further into their territory, we will force their hand. They will sail the ships around the coast and land on our beach, they will push their land forces on us and trap us, leaving us with too much land to defend or travel across and surrounded on all fronts. The only reason they have not attacked so far is because currently we have all areas defended sufficiently; their victory would not be worth their loss."

"Forgive me for speaking out of turn, General; but if we do nothing, are we not just waiting for defeat?" Captain Lewis asked, sounding concerned.

"If we were not waiting on the Athenian fleet to arrive with reinforcements I might agree with you," Ardune said with a sly grin, earning whispers from each of his captains.

An older captain at the back end of the table spoke up, "And what are these Athenians expecting in return?"