It was perhaps generous to call the handling of the Jupiter Refinery a blatant disaster, thought Kalique Abrasax with a frown.
Because a disaster is too small a word to encompass this.
A new monarch crippling the making of RegenX seems to… Chaotic. No rhyme, no reason. What could possibly be driving you, sweet Queen Jupiter? The suit of mishandling of the refinery seems pointed, directly defying Balem.
No.
A direct attack on my brother. And it has been approved to proceed. It is almost as if she has declared war upon Balem… Or someone has corrupted the Reoccurrence of my mother to declare war.
Fury is not quite a thing that Kalique usually feels. Too much stress. Too much fuss. Leave it to my brothers to express themselves, whilst I follow Mother's example and plan my revenge. But the thought of some strange person taking her innocent mother's Reoccruance… It made an anger so potent and hot she could kill someone.
She had no doubt she would.
Balem was pacing, like some great predatory beast, mood foul and dark. It had been a long time since she had seen her eldest brother so un-composed. So disheveled. He wore a suit that had no doubt been what he had been wearing when he had gotten the news. It, for a frightful moment, reminded Kalique vividly of the incident at their mother's funeral, and subsequently Balem's little mental breakdown at the time.
Except my brother kept himself together much more convincingly than.
Titus had this stunned, unsteady look to him, one of his legs bouncing up and down in an agitated manner. They were in the same room for the first time since their mother's funeral, truly in the same room, not a projected call to check up and heckle each other.
She had called this meeting together.
Because a Lady's work was never done, and this was a desperate time.
"Balem," Titus started, his voice was wobbling.
He was so damn young. And for the second time in a scant two hundred years, his world had been wrecked. Seraphi Abrasax had never been warm, nor caring. She had been a proper queen more concerned with her affairs than the life of her heirs.
But Kalique desperately wanted her mother at this moment.
Balem stopped his pacing, shoulders stiff, face red and snarled. Kalique's own heart was racing, and aching at the same time.
"What, Titus," his voice was a shaky rasp, as it had been for the near two hundred years, some injury he had never explained properly and Kalique had never been able to dig up, "What could you possibly say right now?"
"We- You- You can fix this Balem."
"HOW!? HOW DO YOU EXPECT ME TO FIX THIS?!" he bellowed.
He strode to Titus, pale freckled hands reaching. Kalique had never her brother be so physical and was stunned when he lifted Titus by the shoulders and shook him. Kalique stiffened and allowed Maledictus to hover just a fraction of an inch closer to her.
"You're… You are mother's true heir. You will find the source of corruption of Mother's Reoccurrence- and you will build a new facility-"
"I cannot," he rasped, voice pained, "I cannot with the suit of negligence set against me. The-The Recurrence, or her corrupter, as you call them, has been striking against any of our rival facilities and Houses with other suits of negligence and breach of property by copying the Abrasax method of development of RegenX. She is acting in the capacity of the Queen of our House, and she has not only undermined me but has outmaneuvered me before I was even made aware of her."
"The other Houses will be out for blood," said Titus, face pale.
He looked to Balem with doleful, worried eyes. Much as he had been plotting against Balem, he was always eager to hide behind his leg when it truly became dangerous.
"Yes. It will be open season against House Abrasax. And it is not the queen or whoever controls her that will make the most accessible targets. She has a fleet of Aegis and legionaries as protection, not to mention a completely legal right for her actions. Any Houses we have let thrive with our method of RegenX creation or our outdated equipment is completely within her rights to shred. "
"And we still do not know the true purpose of this."
Kalique blinked. Surely the boy cannot be so stupid.
"Is it not a revolution the Queen means for? Is- Is she, or the one controlling her, like Mother at the end of her life? Wishing to end the RegenX for some dubious moral reason?"
Something terrifying happened in Balem's furious face. Something dark and horrid and- Kalique could not help but think-
Did Balem kill Mother because of this?
Kalique stilled.
Froze completely at the very idea that Balem would have killed their mother. It was not the first time it had crossed her mind. But she had dismissed it time and time again as ridiculous... As unthinkable.
"I cannot say," his voice was still and that careful whisper, "But we must eliminate this before she can be allowed to do any more damage."
Kalique felt her hand tremble then. She had never doubted her Mother had been murdered. Never, not once, had she ever thought anything but murder had felled the beautiful, respondent Queen Seraphi Abrasax.
But had it been her own son?
Kalique's own brother?
Did you kill my Mother, Balem? Our mother?