Ascension of the elder

"Who says cool guys don't look at explosions."

With that Kyle turned away and led the group through the forested area towards his nearest bastion. As they walked a living shadow covered them, it had no fixed form which the human eye could observe and gradually it merged into the shadows of the trees and the head of the Miles family never saw or hurt his wife and daughter again.

*****

A few hours after the explosion had destroyed the compound the current head of the Miles family was in a meeting hall with the upper echelon of his family. These elders were all sitting in high backed chairs ranged around a semi circular table facing the head that was sat on a throne like chair on a raised dais forcing those who were sat at the table to look up towards him. It was a simple power play but the head felt this was a good way to reinforce his command and authority over these men.

"What are the reports do we know what caused the explosion?"

"Currently it appears to be a mana overload in the arrays."

One of the elders responded to the head while he was glaring at him, he also had a woman in the compound and he was blaming the head for letting this situation from occurring. He also had malicious intent when he was considering if there was any way he could use this event to his advantage but currently the head had too much power for him to directly confront so he would have to wait.

"Well what caused it then?"

The family head asked with anger evident in his voice, he had just lost 2 of his most enjoyable slaves and now he had to deal with these elders who he knew held no loyalty to him and would stab him in the back if it meant they would gain some form of advantage. While the Miles family may appear solid on the surface in the background they were raised to be vicious scum, this meant they were more devious but it also engendered a lack of loyalty between them.

"It seems to be from the mana crystal the control ring pumped too much mana into the system overloading it."

Another elder responded, this one schooled his expressions more than the first but the head still wouldn't trust him given the animosity within the family at the moment.

"Was this an accident or was this intended?"

"Unknown but it is most likely an attack based on the timing and that there was no previous problems."

The second elder responded as he had been amongst those who had actually attended the scene. Accidents within arrays do happen but it is almost always within the arrays themselves rather than from the crystal as these are produced to precise standards and if there was a problem it would be apparent almost straight away.

"Okay so assuming this was an attack do we have any suspects?"

The head was thinking who could have led this assault but for every suspect he came up with there was a reason why it shouldn't or couldn't be them.

"Currently we are looking at a few people, the top of the list is the Powell and Black families as they would have the most to gain but we've seen no military movement from either and as far as we are aware they don't have access to the forces necessary to attack in this manner. Next is the Tor family, as merchants they may have access to the necessary resources to launch a campaign but the question is what would they gain as we even trade with them ourselves. Then we have the imperial overseer but he is the least likely for obvious reasons. Then we have the gangs and while the group calling themselves 'shadow hand' have been active they've only gone against other street gangs. So currently our best guess is that a family from outside the city has got wind of our increase in forces with the gangs and merc bands and wants to cause a street war to weaken us."

Responded another elder who had access to the families intelligence and had been compiling a list of possible culprits but he was at a loss as to who was most likely to have led the attack.

"Hum I think we are missing something but I can't put my finger on it, keep looking into it I want to know who did this and more importantly why. Oh before I forget were there any survivors?"

"No we found a couple more bodies clear of the blast area but not in any reasonable condition so we can't check how they died. We haven't found any remains from with the explosion."

"Well it doesn't matter we can always find more but I want this kept quiet if people find out what happened they may think we are a soft target. We'll spread the word that an array master was renewing some of the arrays and triggered the feedback and we'll lay the blame firmly on the array guild. Does anyone have anything else they want to add?"

They all shook their heads and so the head dismissed the meeting. Walking out of the hall the head was greeted by two young men. The first looked to be in his mid twenties and while he wasn't bad looking had an arrogant look to his face which made you just want to run up and punch him solidly on the nose, this was the heads eldest son and heir apparent Raith Miles. He had a bad reputation within the city as he was known to grab young girls and boys from the commoner families within their territory and some never returned, but as they were commoners and the imperial overseer was on their side nothing was done.

The second young man appeared to be around 15-16 and was the youngest son of the family head called Willem Miles, if Kyle saw him he would recognise him immediately as he was the one who was causing problems in Bruno's family store before Kyle had intervened and in the last few years they had some other run ins so it was known that there was some bad blood between the families now.

"Greetings father" Raith was the first to greet the head while Willem merely nodded to him.

The head was a little perplexed with Willem recently as he seemed distant with him but he was aware that his elder brother was scheming against him to ensure his place and he had done nothing to curb this so it was to be expected. For his part Willem was concentrating on the younger members speaking with them and making connections so both were already playing the game which would determine who would be the next leader.

"Boys follow me, I take it both of you are aware of what happened earlier. I am going to take some maids for myself until I can find a new woman, Raith I know you are always up for more women to enjoy but I think it's time for Willem to get a taste as well hahahah."

The head wanted to improve his relationship with his younger son and as his father did with him when he was Willem's age he thought the best way was to find him a suitable vessel for his seed.

Raith looked excited as he always enjoyed breaking new women and he was itching to find a new one. Willem just looked at them but before he looked away a flash of disdain appeared in his eye which was noticed by the family head.

"Oh Willem don't you want to become a man, you can't stay a child forever, it's time you stopped your whining and grew a pair."

The head started mocking his younger son in the hopes that in his anger he would agree to finding a woman to abuse, his elder brother picked up on this and ran with it.

"Ah does little Willie want his mommy? Well if you look around the grounds you may find some bits of her hahaha."

Hearing his elder son the head also began grinning while Willem just turned and walked away ignoring them both and treating them as if they were strangers.

*****

While the night was still dark Kyle and his group silently made their way through the forest and as they approached their destination the women from the compound gradually became more and more nervous.

They were approaching the old ruins which had a bad reputation, no one went there but in recent years it was said that shadowy figures had been seen moving amongst them like spirits. Some people thought these were evil ghost who would swallow your soul but others believed they were evil cultivators who used the aura of the area and blood sacrifices to strengthen themselves.

Unknown to them this feeling of dread people felt from the ruins was caused by some of the arrays Kyle had placed to make people keep away but it had caused certain misunderstandings and rumours to surface but this only helped to secure the bastions.

Gradually the women slowed down as their fear seeped into their bones making them want to be anywhere else but here. Kyle on realising what was happening couldn't help but think he was an idiot before he used the shadow which was still covering them as a shield to block the effects of the arrays. Once they are past a certain point the arrays won't affect them so it was a simple fix.

Feeling the fear leaving them and seeing Kyle continuing on the women followed behind while looking around. As they passed a particularly large boulder their view seemed to melt away and before them stood a huge and proud building blazing with light. This was one of the repaired bastions Kyle was now in control of.

Walking up to the door Kyle opened it and let the women enter before he followed them in. The women were huddled up at the entrance as they looked around with wide eyes. Everywhere there was light and the building was surprisingly warm inside. Unlike Kyle's bastion this one didn't have much in the way of carpets and other fixtures as this was rebuilt from the ground up and they hadn't brought in much in the way of comforts to ensure its security.

"Welcome back."