72.2. The Viceroy - Part 2

Liana trusts that the research team will do everything in their power to come up with a solution and quickly returns to the Royal Quarters. She finds that she likes having people she can truly depend on around. That was never a thing when she was still human and led her company.

"What are you doing?" Liana narrows her eyes at Noage who's drinking one smoothie drink after another while still connected with his tentacles to the Emperor.

"Feeding His Majesty intravenously," he explains. "I'm eating in his stead and sending nutrients directly to his veins."

"It's highly experimental, but it's been working really well so far," Julia assures the Viceroy. "Mana are calories are interlinked, so if we keep feeding His Majesty, we should gain more time."

"The rate works against us, though," Noage sighs. "His Majesty is channelling out more mana than he's able to restore over time even when I'm feeding him. Still, it bought us a few hours."

"Excellent," Liana appreciates, gently pets Aefener's feathers and looks at the Royal Consorts.

As expected, Erik and Gotrid are worried sick. Well, everyone is, of course, but Emperor's partners are taking it tenfold worse. Originally, Liana wanted to ask one of them to help her calm down the people in the skyscraper, but it's obvious nothing in the world would persuade them to leave their precious partner right now.

"Your Excellency, we need you in the conference room," Luviael silently comes in and her eyes water when she sees the Emperor in such a weakened defenceless state.

Liana nods, anticipating exactly that, and they leave the infirmary in a hurry. Barely thirty minutes elapsed since Aefener put up the shield, so the whole skyscraper is only starting to fully realise that they've been attacked for real and that the Emperor is unconscious.

"Your Excellency, what happened?! Nobody knows anything!" Laurin is nervously stepping in front of the conference room and he isn't alone—the Czech Prime Minister is with him because he was meeting her today.

"Liana," Bauerova's voice is trembling when she addresses her. "Was it a monster attack? We didn't see it, just heard the impact."

"Let's come inside, Katerina," Liana invites her in without a second thought, even though the Council is supposed to be Draconian only. All the ministers have gathered already and the atmosphere is extremely tense.

"Your Excellency, is His Majesty...?" Celestial Ministers flock to her and their wings are shaking.

"The Consorts and the doctors are taking care of him," she assures them. "We won't help him when panicking. Sit, we have a lot to discuss. Is it on the internet yet?"

"For a few minutes now," Luviael confirms grimly. "The skyscraper is closely monitored by police and media drones all the time. They have a recording of the whole thing including our Emperor casting the shield. The media are streaming it non-stop."

Liana clutches her hands, but she didn't expect otherwise.

"How did he know?" Forent doesn't understand. "We didn't feel a rift opening, it couldn't have been a monster attack."

"No, it wasn't," Luviael says slowly. "The media slow-motioned the recording, look."

She puts the video on the 3D projector and everyone watches the moment that thing hit the shield in slow motion. It's a bit blurry, but the proof is undeniable.

"A missile," Liana feels numb all of a sudden and her lips go dry.

"Whoever it was, the EU has no part in it, I'm sure!" Bauerova exclaims defensively. "They knew I was meeting the Draconian Minister of Foreign Affairs today."

"I hope," Liana says darkly. "I don't think they would have a problem sacrificing you, though."

"It wasn't the EU!" Bauerova insists and shakes her head violently. "I attended the EU conference just two days ago and every European state was more than eager to accept Draconian protection against monsters."

"The EU President is on the line," Luviael announces. "Putting him through."

"Your Majesty, it wasn't us!!!" Bennett blurts out before he can even make out who's actually on the camera.

"His Majesty is resting, I'm acting in his stead," Liana says, her voice cold. "If it wasn't you, care to explain how could a missile slip through your air defence without anyone noticing?"

"We're investigating that," Bennett clears his throat nervously. "Your Excellency, I swear we have nothing to do with it."

"I want to believe you," Liana says. "Still, this was an act of open aggression, someone wanted to get rid of the whole Draconian government at once and waited when most of us have gathered in one place. I'm sorry, Mr President, but we're forced to assume that we might be at war."

"With humanity?" Bennett forgets to breathe for a second.

"No, with the part of humanity that's responsible," Liana purses her lips. "You're still forgetting we're not you, we would never blame everyone for the actions of a few."

It looks like Bennett remembered how to breathe again. His relief is obvious.

"Panic and riots are erupting all over the world, we have to stop it before it gets serious," he pleads.

"We'll do our best to calm Draconians in allied countries," Liana promises. "As for the rest, screw them. In fact, I'll implore our people to move out of hostile countries entirely as soon as possible. I'm sure the EU will welcome more Draconians immigrating?"

"We will," Bennett nods furiously several times.

"Great, continue with your investigation and contact us when you find out new information," Liana says and ends the call.

"I have to go," Bauerova stands up, even though she's just sat down. "I need to make an official proclamation and calm down Czech citizens."

"Thanks, Katerina, really," Liana appreciates. "We'll keep you posted. Don't worry, open war between our races is the last thing our Emperor would want. We'll do everything in our power to avoid such a scenario."

When the Czech Prime Minister leaves, Forent stands up. He looks angry and confused.

"How did His Majesty know the missile was coming?" he repeats his original question, this time with more emphasis.

"That we don't know," Liana sighs. "Luvi, did anything strange happen when Aefener was meeting the research team?"

"Everything was perfectly normal until it wasn't," Luviael recalls. "One second His Majesty is greeting our new scientists, then he's suddenly hurrying to the window."

"He must have sensed something," Liana thinks hard. Still, it doesn't make any sense. How could he sense a missile? That has nothing to do with telepathy.

"The Celestial Emperor is too miraculous," Forent narrows his eyes, demanding an explanation. "Other race rulers don't come even close. Is there something you're not telling us, Your Excellency? Giving out blessings isn't even in our lore."

Liana bites her lip. It's difficult to make crucial decisions in their Emperor's absence. Yet, this is exactly her role. Being the Viceroy means having the responsibility to carry out even the most important matters when the Emperor is indisposed. She was entrusted with this task.

"We demand answers, Viceroy," Forent presses on. "We're supposed to trust each other at this Council, yet Celestials are keeping secrets."

"Darling," his wife Evaniel leans in to grab his hand, but Forent evades her.

"You know something that I don't," he frowns at her. "Yesterday, after you stayed behind with His Majesty, they told you something important."

"Your Excellency, I know His Majesty isn't here to decide, but I think at least all Ministers should know," Evaniel implores the Viceroy. It's obvious that she hates being on bad terms with her husband and keeping things from him.

"You're right," Liana sighs after a quick consideration and gives in. She watches how Forent's and Rien's jaws drop when she tells them about Aefener's telepathy and that his father is involved in developing Draconia Online.

"For obvious reasons, we want to avoid humans finding out for as long as possible," she adds urgently. "You can talk about it with Celestials and other race rulers. Only Julia, Noage and Ingri know besides that."

"Of course, naturally," Rien and Forent nod, still shocked by the revelation.

"What's our stance, Viceroy?" Laurin impatiently returns to the main topic, not bothering to give Forent and Rien more time to digest the information. "We need to be united about this and stand strong."

"Let's get in touch with other race rulers first," Liana suggests and tries calling Emi, Deminas, Twyla and Werden.

Deminas picks up right away, but he's on his phone and obviously on the run.

"We heard," he says, steam coming out of his mouth. "We're relocating to a secret safe house as we speak."

"You suspect you might be next?" Liana asks anxiously.

"Suspect? We don't have your Emperor to conveniently create a magical shield, so we don't have the luxury to suspect," Deminas grunts and quickly says something to his subjects in Russian. "We left the building immediately after we heard and..."

He doesn't finish the sentence, though. There's an overwhelming bang and Deminas's phone either loses signal or gets damaged in the blast because the call is interrupted. The conference room gets unnaturally silent for a moment before more panic erupts.

"Another missile?" the Ministers are downright terrified now.

"Emi isn't picking up," Liana quickly checks other simultaneous phone calls. "Nothing from Twyla and Werden either."

"Our Supreme Alpha is always on the move, it would be impossible to send a missile her way," Rien says with careful hope, but his voice doesn't sound confident.

"So the only thing currently protecting us is His Majesty's shield," Sarayah summarises, almost whispering. The tips of her colourful feathers are shaking uncontrollably. She's scared. Everyone is.

"Oh no, that is...!" Luviael exclaims out of the blue.

She doesn't wait for Liana's approval and switches on the 3D projector again. There's a live streaming of two completely destroyed buildings.

"It's the Dragonkin residence and Twyla and Werden's ranch," Evaniel gets all teary and she's not the only one.

When sadness settles a bit, it transforms into anger and hatred. Liana herself is barely suppressing her Celestial wrath. If she knew who was behind the attacks, she would take all high-level battle mages and go destroy the culprits. No, to annihilate them.

Her phone rings unexpectedly and interrupts her emotions building up.

"We managed to escape!" Deminas's scaly head appears on the screen. "If they didn't attack you first and we didn't get a head start, we'd be dead by now."

"Where are you?" Liana asks, overjoyed to see that he's alive. At least some good news.

"We split so that they can't target all of us again," he says. "I'm sending Fefnir to you earlier, you need your Minister of Defence and it seems the Draconian tower is the safest place one can be right now anyway."

"The Earthborn ranch has been destroyed as well," Liana tells him grimly. "We don't know if they managed to escape. It happened around the same time as the attack on you, but maybe they weren't warned in time."

There's an excited murmur around the Dragonkin Patriarch and he continues running again.

"We need to reach our safe house, see you soon and best of luck," Deminas ends the call abruptly which leaves the conference room in tense silence once again.