Matt laid on the side of Tara's bed, worn out after a couple straight days of non-stop searching for his third gate. While some of the group had found their way back to their own planets with the help of Matt's alternate selves time shenanigans, Carthus, Hysees, and Tarlia still remained on Tara's planet with Matt. The four could barely see where to go in the darkness, and neither the lands consorts nor Matt's douche of a sprite would give them any insight as to how to get to their gates. And God knows why Matt's alternate selves weren't helping the rest of them. Time shenanigans were fucking weird.
Matt sat up, letting out a groan to make himself known to Carthus, who sat across from him reading one of Tara's books. Tarlia and Hysees were currently out and about, and Matt had commanded his sprite to leave him alone for the rest of the day. Matt never really knew how much he annoyed himself as a sprite sometimes.
Carthus glanced over to him, and asked, "What'ssssss wrong with you now?"
Matt laid back down, his head on the pillow but feet dangling off the edge of the bed. "I'm BORED. We've been on Tara's stupid planet for a month now. If we're not off soon, I'm going to spend my sweet sixteen on here, and I'd rather not do that without Tara and in complete fucking darkness. I haven't had a birthday without Tara at my party since I was five."
"Well I wouldn't know what that'ssssss like. Trollssssss don't celebrate their wriggling day. It'ssssss sssssstupid and meaninglessssss."
"Well whatever. All I know is I want to find her. I mean, where's that stupid God-Tier anyway? Why haven't we found him? It's been a month and a half since the sessions were merged."
"Don't assssssk me. Tarlia'ssssss the one that knowssssss all thissssss sssssstuff."
Matt groaned again, "Argh, I just want something to happen." He looked over to Carthus. "Do you have any cool troll stories? You must."
"Dependssssss on what you'd conssssssider cool. I ssssssupposssssse I could tell you the sssssstory of our ancesssssstorssssss, but it'ssssss lengthy. And I mean lengthy."
Matt sat back up, and leaned forward towards Carthus, "We've got time until Hysees and Tarlia come back."
"Are you ssssssure?" Matt nodded his head in reply. "Alright, well ssssssettle down, becausssssse thissssss issssss a sssssstory of esssssspionage, betrayal, and a lot of death…"
Thousands of sweeps ago, when our race was in its infancy, we were ruled over by our empress, and Pially's ancestor, the Esteemed Tyrant, but in saying that, I must tell you she was anything but. According to various sources, she was an alright queen most of the time, not unlike our own fuchsia-blooded princess, mostly due to her allegedly heavy intake of illicit substances. In fact, you will find that our ancestors mirror our own personalities quite well –and they would look exactly like ourselves, albeit a dozen sweeps older. Though I'm getting off topic. Anyway, the Esteemed Tyrant was quite the ruler, and by that I mean she technically wasn't, instead being a puppet for the Disgraced Honker, Hysees' ancestor. During the opening days of her rule, the two were in a secret Matespritship, unknown to the public because of the Tyrant's promise of a Matespritship with the Blood Born, a mystical figure known among the Low and High Bloods, and also my own ancestor. If word of the relationship between the Tyrant and the Honker were to get out, it could've meant rebellion, as the consummation of a Matespritship between the Tyrant and the Blood Born was seen as a unification of both Low-Bloods and High-Bloods.
There was one problem though; the Blood Born knew of the secret romance between the two others. During a private meeting between all three of them, he confronted the pair about their secret relationship. Reluctantly, they admitted, and expected the worst from the Blood Born. If he had revealed their relationship, he would be able to use the rebellions and civil unrest to usurp the Tyrant, and take her place by being the first ever troll patriarch. But, as a gesture of good faith, he promised to never speak of their relationship, on one condition: the Tyrant and Honker would set up a council, made up of one member from each blood caste, which would make decisions for the Tyrant, while the Tyrant was allowed to continue living as she pleased.
The pair accepted, and for the first time ever in our society, a council was set up where trolls from all blood castes could have their say as to important political matters. The council included a few of our ancestors: the Blood Borne, representing Burgundy bloods, the Disgraced Honker, representing Purple bloods, the Light Bringer -Jaloon's ancestor- representing the Cerulean bloods, and the Last Financer –the ancestor of our other troll friend Mahnda- representing Jade bloods. The council was a surprisingly stable solution, save for one problem- Tarlia's ancestor, the Huntress of Blood.
The Huntress of Blood despised the idea of a council, as she, unlike Tarlia, heavily supported the idea of a Caste system. Of her own accord, she confronted the Tyrant and Honker, demanding that the Caste system be restored. While the Tyrant shot the idea down, not wishing a civil war, the Disgraced Honker made a deal with the Huntress; all the riches and wealth she wanted, if she assassinated every other member of the council.
The Huntress whole-heartedly agreed. The only question was: how? She was one troll, unable to take on an entire consort of bodyguards just to kill one council member, let alone eleven separate ones. The Honker was unwilling to risk her reputation by helping her, so what was a troll to do? In a desperate attempt for ideas, she went to an old nemesis, and her ex-Kismesis, the Grudging Warlord –our God Tier's ancestor. Through much argument, the two formed an uneasy alliance, with a promise of a fifty-fifty split of the reward for killing the council. The Warlord gave the Huntress an idea: use her more physical attributes to her advantage, and sexually manoeuvre her way inside of the council, taking it down from the inside.
With the idea in tow, she decided to test out the plan on the more gullible member of the council: the Last Financer. The Financer was a well-known and well-respected businesswoman, shrewd in the banking industry, and was the main financial support for the new-found council. She specialised in loans, though she was nicer than most; she would only break your thumbs after she'd asked you nicely, whereas others would snap your neck as soon as you uttered the words 'I can't pay.' Her trustfulness was her only weakness though, and would be her downfall.
The Huntress pleaded the Financer for a loan, claiming it to be for a small business she was starting up, but claimed that she would only pay through more… subtle ways. In a public conversation, the Huntress seduced the Financer, ridding the office of her guards, and the she began pleasuring our Jade-blooded financer. In the midst of everything, while the two kissed, the Huntress slipped a non-traceable poison from her mouth to the Financer's, one that wouldn't activate until the next day. As you would've guessed, the plan worked, and this gave her the courage to take on further targets.
Meanwhile, the Grudging Warlord worked a much less quiet route, using his Violet-blood to sway his own sea-clan to perform various public assassinations. Sniping's, slicing throats, you name it.
Between the two, they'd successfully assassinated eight of the councilmembers, leaving just the Blood Born, the Light Bringer, the Disgraced Honker, and the Esteemed Tyrant left on the council. In a desperate bid to stop the assassinations, the council took one last course of action by hiring the Regicidal Binder –Yemen's', our final dead troll friend, ancestor. The Binder was an infamous killer, and professional hitman. He knew all the tactics of our antagonists, knew how they killed, and with the support of the Light Bringer, Blood Born, and Esteemed Tyrant, set out to stop the Huntress and Warlord.
His first target was the Warlord. During a public hearing from the Blood Born, the Warlord set up an attempt on his life, planning on gunning the member down midway through the hearing. Though the Binder had other plans. While the Warlord set up a dozen gunmen around the council chambers, the Binder made an effort to successfully pick off the gunmen one by one. When the time came to kill the Blood Born, no-one was around to pull the trigger. In the Warlords' confusion, the Binder confronted him, and challenged him to a duel. Enraged at his own failures, the Warlord threw himself at the Binder, but due to the elegant fighting style of the Binder, he swiftly dodged the attack and sliced the Warlord cleaned in half with his rapier sword.
With the Warlord dead, and his clan now scattered and lost without a leader, the Huntress was the last to remain. She knew this, and went into hiding with the Honker's help. The Binder could've killed her anyway, but found the situation suspicious. He had suspected foul play from within the council for some time, and eventually found out his suspicions to true. While observing the daily patterns of the Huntress, he noticed the Honker would visit her often, and while eavesdropping on a conversation, learned of the Honkers' plan to reintroduce the Blood Caste system. The Binder realised that the problem wasn't only the Huntress, but the Honker as well.
For advice, he went to the one person he could trust; the Blood Born. When told of this information, the Blood Born believed the best course of action would've been to do what he should've done in the first place. With the Binder in tow, he made a hasty announcement to the people all around our planet, and revealed to them of the secret Matespritship between the Disgraced Honker and the Esteemed Tyrant. This announcement created an all-out riot, as the people felt betrayed by the Tyrant due to her promise of a wriggler with the Blood Born. With an army made up of trolls from all Blood Castes behind him, and the Regicidal Binder by his side, the Blood Born stormed the Disgraced Honkers' home. They killed the guards, destroyed her gates, and rushed into her house, bringing her and the Tyrant, who was staying there at the time, outside to face judgement.
The Blood Born passed judgement on the pair personally. He sentenced the Tyrant nicely, saying that she was to be kicked off the throne, though she may remain on the council as the Fuchsia representative. The Honker, however, was fated a different ending. The crowd, with great haste, stood the Honker upon a chair beneath a tree in her front yard, threw a rope over one of the branches, tied it around her neck, and lynched her there and then. From that point on, she was known by the name we know her as- the Disgraced Honker. They say the final gasp of air that came from her was a great honk, one that was heard by all in the crowd of five hundred trolls. The Tyrant, devastated at the loss of the one she loved, fell to her knees, and wept for a solid day straight.
There still remained the Huntress though, whom was a part of the crowd, and as the crowd watched the Tyrant weep, she stepped from the crowd and challenged the Binder to a duel, just as he had done with the Warlord before. The Binder looked to the Blood Born for an answer, which he reluctantly gave a yes to, and the two prepared themselves for battle. The Binder used his rapier, a sword that had seen the blood of the guilty and innocent alike, whilst the Huntress used a doubled sided sword that would split into two when required.
The story of the two's fight varies from book to book, troll to troll. Some say that the fight was a true epic, where the Huntress and Binder danced among the space allowed for the fight, as if they were on a ballroom floor, under the glistening moonlight. Others say that the battle was over in seconds, a single slice being all it took to down the other opponent. All reports do point to one conclusion: that the Huntress came out the victor. With the Binder dead, she turned her sights to the Blood Born, challenging him to the next fight. Much to the surprise of the crowd, he accepted, but did not use any sort of weapon to fight. When questioned by the Huntress, he told her that he had no wish to fight her, instead accepting his fate to the Huntress. The Huntress attempted to kill him, there and then, but could not bring herself to do it. She threw down her weapon, resigning her wish to kill him, and began walking away.
She stopped dead in her tracks when she heard the Blood Born call out her name, and tell her about his thoughts on her. About how he found her impressive, and admired her tactics and dedication to her cause. He told her that he wished to help her, solve her problems with the council. And, as his final decision, decided to mix up the matriarchy, by placing both himself and the Huntress on the throne. The Huntress accepted, after much thought, and the two became the next rulers of our planet, with the council intact.
"Wow, your ancestors sounded kinda…" Matt thought for a moment, "weird."
"Maybe by your sssssstupid human sssssstandardssssss, but sssssshit like that wassssss common in our culture," Carthus replied, leaning back on the wall behind him across from the bed Matt was sitting on.
"Well, I kind of enjoyed it. Thanks for filling up ten whole minutes, I guess."
"Yeah man," said a voice from the doorway, "pretty dope."
The two looked towards the source of the voice, who turned out to be the fish princess Pially, with a blunt in her hand, as always.
Carthus raised an eyebrow, and took off his flat cap. "Pially? Why are you here? I thought you went back to your own planet with one of Matt'ssssss alternate sssssselvessssss."
"I did. But I was walking when I found this gate, and I was all like, 'Woah, a gate! Might as well go through it,' and I just ended up here."
Carthus stood up, and rushed over to Pially, placing his hands on her shoulders and examining her closely. "Chrisssssst, Pially, you know it'ssssss dangeroussssss to go out alone when you're ssssssmoking that sssssstuff!"
"Dude, I'm fine. The imps there were pretty chill."
Carthus sighed, "It'ssssss jusssssst… I worry about you, okay? I mean what if you'd-"
Pially grabbed his hands and took them off her shoulders, keeping them interlocked between them. "It's fine. Everything's cool. You really need to take one of these." She held up the blunt with one hand. "Come one. For me?"
Carthus thought for a second, before shaking his head and pulling away from her. "Not even for you would I even conssssssider taking that sssssshit."
Pially smirked, and pulled Carthus into a one armed hug, which Carthus obviously pretended to not enjoy.