The Children of Cain: Reginald Kasteen

Being the only son and sole heir to inherit the Governance of a planet would've been a dream for most people in the millions of imperial worlds that formed the Imperium of Man, but for Prince Reginald Kasteen it was no mere dream.

It was a nightmare!

Sure most would assume that a Prince would enjoy being waited upon hand and foot ever since he had been born, and they'll be correct; if they were talking about a Prince from an Imperial World.

Unfortunately for Reginald (or Reggie, as he was called by family and close family friends), he was a Prince, but not from an Imperial world, no instead he was heir to planet that belonged to the Cainite Protectorate, named after Ciaphas Cain - the Liberator of Slawkenberg and Warmaster of the Protectorate - undisputed master of a significant portion of space on the Eastern Fringes, and more importantly his presumed Father.

Reggie used the word "presumed" because it seemed everyone around him refused to speak up about who his father was. But it made sense to him for a Master Manipulator like Lord Cain to grant Mother the Governance of a planet despite her not being really qualified for it; then by investing resources to not only prop up Adumbria, but Mother as well, he had her indebted to him. And as the final seal on an envelope, Lord Cain produced a Child so his grip on the system would remain for eras to come through his bloodline.

Truly, his Father was as intelligent as he was dangerous.

Well, not that he called him Father outloud, not only because he barely knew the man, but to keep up the "fiction" of his ignorance of his parentage, because he had not been "officially" recognized as one of his offspring.

That is why he bore Mother's last name instead of the Warmaster's.

Now, being born as an unrecognized bastard to a powerful Lord would usually be a bad start for any life. Fortunately, Reggie had been born when the Protectorate was beginning to expand and take form, adding more planets under its aegis, so the hierarchy and structure of the different Noble Families hadn't been set yet.

That and Lord Cain's propensity of "acquiring" Children as Scions and Progeny, meant that Reggie was not referred to as a Bastard - or at least not to his face - but he had heard the whispers and rumors that circulated in the depths of the Holonet.

Despite that, Reggie was more than capable of dealing with mere words. Really, what are insults spoken in whispers by people he did not care about compared to a life of luxury? But what he could not handle was the sheer TERROR he felt when he had realized the sort of danger he was in!

Reggie's earlier years were nothing but safe and peaceful, sadly that was but an illusion that shattered once he reached the appropriate age for his lessons.

Like most mothers, Regina Kasteen wanted nothing more than for her son to have the best education so he could have a stable and prosperous future. And that included History Lessons, not only about Adumbria, his birth planet, but the galaxy at large; Lessons that included some secrets that were kept out from the ears of the plebs.

Oh, boy. If only he could go back to being an ignorant child.

Because the Galaxy wasn't just cold and unfeeling as the void of space, but it was filled with untold horrors and grim darkness.

Evil Gods, Daemons, Tyranids, Genestealers, Orks, Necrons, Dark Eldar, Psykers, Heretics, Mutants! The galaxy was filled with them. And when Reggie had asked why didn't the Protectorate seek to join with the rest of Humanity to combat these menaces, he was told of the Imperium of Man.

The Emperor, The Horus Heresy, The Inquisition, The Ecclesiarchy, The Adeptus Mechanicus, The Adeptus Astartes, The Imperial Guard, The Commissariat, The Schola Progenia.

All these and so many other horror stories, made Reggie's inside churn.

It was during one of many sleepless nights, where the nightmares of the galaxy plagued his mind that Reginald had asserted himself to a course of action: He had to prepare.

Prepare for what? Everything of course!

He had to prepare for everything that might kill him in this horrible galaxy.

And so, with this grim determination in his heart, Reginald threw himself into his studies both intellectual and physical. He not only studied about the ins and outs of proper governance and diplomacy (many of which came from studying the works of Lord Cain) as it was proper from someone of his station as a Prince, he also studied great battles and strategies employed by the Protectorate (again from studying the examples of Lord Cain) and the Imperium, both on ground and on the Void.

Most Imperial Nobles would not care about Military Education, since they most likely had other people around them to know those sorts of things for them, but his mother Regina Kasteen was a veteran of the Imperial Guard, so it was expected for him to follow in her steps.

And whenever he wasn't hitting the books, he was hitting targets with Las-weapons and Bolt guns; and dummies with Practice Swords and Chainweapons. Most would think of this training as unnecessary, since it was probable he would get to be a Commander stuck in the Rear if Adumbria were to go to battle.

But as Lord Cain had demonstrated, not even being on a Ship in Orbit could protect him from attackers that managed to teleport aboard using Warp Sorcery. If Human Witches and Heretics were capable of such things, then the Enemies of Mankind were just as capable!

Knowing this, it was certain that Reggie would be forced to engage in close quarter combat himself, knowing that his guards would be next to useless against Xeno and Daemon threats. At the end of the day, Reggie could only trust in himself to save his own skin, by fighting back, or at least buying himself an opening to escape.

Of course, Mother and Aunt Sulla had no idea behind his true motives for his need to prepare. To them, he looked like an intelligent and naturally strong young man. Though it galled him to be seen as something he was not, he could not bring himself to tell the truth and break up the image of the Ideal Prince by confessing his true cowardice.

No, he had to live with the guilt of deceiving others, otherwise his reputation would come undone, and reputation was the only thing that kept him safe, not from external threats but internal ones.

You see, unlike the Worlds under the Imperium where Nobles ruled by the Will of the God Emperor, the Nobility of the Protectorate had no such protections. Thanks to those Damned Giorbas, Slawkenberg and the other Worlds that followed into the Protectorate, now had historical precedent for overthrowing their leaders through violent conflict.

There were thousands of stories of servants betraying their employers, by literally stabbing them on the back, when the Liberation Coup started.

Knowing that this could be his fate if the Servants and Plebs got an inkling of rebellion in them, Reggie did his damndest to cultivate a reputation as an Ideal Noble Prince.

He took great efforts to treating every servant and royal guard with kindness and respect, and also took the time to get to know their names and some of their histories, by having casual conversations with them. This would not only endear the servants to him, it would make it so they were less likely to rebel, or in the case of the guards, have some emotional incentive to keep him alive.

But that was just in the Royal Estate, outside of it he did his best in putting himself out there and to be seen as noble and charitable. Whenever Mother approved of projects to help in the development of Adumbria, he always volunteered. Be helping by building houses or schools or planting trees for parks.

And for every brick he laid or hole he dug up, people would always look at him with appreciation and respect. He would always thank them and tell them that it was nothing, that he was only doing his part in helping Adumbria and that others deserved recognition and praise more than him. And those platitudes only gained him a reputation of being Humble.

God Emperor, he was such a Piece of Shit.

How does Lord Cain do it?

How can Cain handle the pressure and constant intrigue of being the Supreme Ruler of an entire sector of the galaxy, fighting against the forces of the Imperium, while also managing a bunch of Heretics, Witches, Mutants and Xenos that made up large parts of his domain?

Truly some men were just built differently.

That or he was just a Lunatic with large amounts of power at his disposal.

And while he publicly respected the Warmaster - to do otherwise was akin to social suicide - Reggie was also utterly terrified of him. It made him thankful for his father's lack of presence growing up.

Alas, this lack of contact would soon come to an end, because he recently got a message from his mother that Lord Cain was coming to Adumbria, and as the Prince of the Planet (and his bastard son) he had to be there to welcome him and meet him.

Reginald dreaded what sorts of tests and expectations the Warmaster had for him. Would he find him lacking and dispose of him as a failure? Or worse, would he impress him enough to take him under his wing and be forced to travel the galaxy, battlefield to battlefield, for his Galactic Conquest?

Reggie would have to walk the razor's edge, if he wanted to survive the Warmaster's visit. Thankfully, he had some time before Lord Cain's arrival to Adumbria. Just enough to revise his studies and make preparations.

But he will be ready.

Reginald Kasteen, Prince of Adumbria, will be ready to meet his maker.

NOTES

So the next Children of Cain Omake was going to be about Mercy, but the Muse was capricious and nagged me into writing this one instead.

So, Reginald Kasteen, is basically Cain 2.0., except with a much happier beginning than Cain. Still that doesn't make him any less terrified of the Galaxy he inhabits.

I also wanted to include a part about Reggie finding and befriending a Young Orphan Boy by the name of Juri while training with the Adumbrian forces; A boy that just happened to be a Blank.

I mean come on, no Expy Cain is complete without a Jurgen by his side.

Maybe some other time.