Bloodlines Online

"No matter your opinions on the way we should protect the kingdom you cannot deny that by opening the gates to the coalition will benefit us."

They had been arguing about whether they stay isolated or not for some time and although they had a majority vote it became clear that there were conflicts.

A few of the nobles were vowing to refuse entry to the otherworlders should she allow the county to open itself again but others seemed to be more than happy to ignore them.

Other nobles were in favor of opening the country but they worried about the backlash they would face as well as the way their people would react to those of other races.

"Listen if we open the gates then we will have to hear about the crimes committed by the other worlders, we will have their lack of morality and their lack of cultural knowledge!"

"Cultural knowledge? We have the chance to tear the church down for good and you're worried about the culture?!"

"Our culture is what made them hate us in the first place..."

"No they hate us because we wouldn't bend the knee and give our queen up."

"This is true..."

The noble women were all arguing about the reasons their ancestors had made the choice to isolate the country until Lucretia finally intervened.

"Enough! Look at yourselves, arguing like children rather than proud nobility. We will open the gates to the other kingdoms that side with the heavens and we will cleanse the world of the church. This is final."

Having said her piece she stands to leave the council room but a hand is raised to halt her.

"We are not done, we must discuss this male of yours. Your chosen mate has completed two of the tasks assigned to him but the others are quite different in the way they kust be handled."

Lucretia went stiff with rage before turning to the councilwoman.

"Your point is? I am aware of the limitations in aid I can give to my beloved and I have clearly not given aid that was anot allowed since he did not fail the quest."

"Yes that is clear but we want him to prove himself, this is not the way he should be doing so."

"Oh? So you may use underhanded tactics to try and fool him into losing some silly right to be my mate but I cannot help him the way you slimy maicheks?"

The women all suddenly stood with rage filled eyes.

"How dare you call us that! You are the queen and you have a duty to your people which means your mate must be worthy of helping in those duties!"

"She called me a maichek, I'm going to gut her!"

The devil that had been antagonizing Lucretia all this time lunged forward with a blade of fire.

The queen simply batted it away with her bare hand and moved to slash the woman with her claws but someone got between them.

"Stop it! Both of you! If you wish to duel then do so later when we do not have a political catastrophe approaching!"

"Put your dog on a leash then. The Wrathborns have always been problematic based on what your last queen told me, she should be muzzled before her snapping gets her hurt." Enjoy exclusive content from мѵʟ

The noble tried to attack again but a demoness from the council grabbed her and dragged her away.

~

Lucretia stood at the warp gate with slight apprehension, it had been nearly a century since she became the queen and it had been even longer since she had left the infernal continent.

She threw one hundred gold coins into the gate and stepped through the swirling vortex to see the celestial kingdom.

The central capital of the celestial kingdom was simply called Lumos but the sight of it still brought a warmth to her heart even after all this time.

Towering buildings with marble facades, silver statues, everything in the city was bright and beautiful.

Gold was reserved for the creation of effigies to the goddess Luminous, the celestial people strictly adhered to this custom and the only place that had any semblance of gold was the church to the goddess.

Surprisingly due to their devotion to their goddess the main export of the heavens was cast metal.

In fact everywhere she looked Lucretia saw small busts of different celestial people, these busts were cast from silver or bronze or even less common metals.

'Huh that little idea actually got traction? Well done Rafi.'

The reason the celestial people were the experts of casting objects was due to their devotion to the goddess Luminous, since they were so obsessed with the idea of the perfect sculpture of her the artistic skills of the people had developed on what would make the mist accurate representation of the individual.

The greatest sculptors of the race would be taken to create a blank, this was done by having the best mages recreate the exact image of the goddess with a mana construct after reading the thoughts of an angel that had recently seen the goddess in their evolution.

This sculpted blank would then be taken to the master crafters who would prepare a mold for the sculpture.

The mold would then be used by coating the features in progressively larger amounts of gold, layer after layer of gold meant to keep the features done in a perfect form.

Since the inside of the statue was more focused on structure rather than detail they would use a gold alloy so the outer layer of pure gold would not collapse under its own weight.

Their expertise in this process led to them making sculptures and carvings as a hobby and a business practice.

She examined a bust near one of the homes and saw that it was actually one of many.

At the bottom of a strange structure she saw a pair of hand sized busts, the bade these two sat upon had a golden line which split off before showing more of these pairs as well as individuals.

She saw a fairly old celestial woman exit the home and after the angel saw Lucretia she approached with a smile.

"Hello sister, what brings you to our fair city?"

Lucretia bowed her head and motioned at the growing crowd of arrivals.

"I am part of those that will be organizing the war against the church, may I ask about your decoration there sister? I have not been to the home of our heavenly siblings in some centuries."

"Centuries? Oh! I am speaking to queen Lucretia! My my it is such a privilege to meet you dear sister. This is how we have begun to show our lineage!"

She pointed down at the two small busts on the base of the structure.

"This is myself and my husband, our children are the next in the line and their children are after them, when an individual joins a family the parents pay for more busts to be created and give to the relatives. Our children start their own paths in their home and show off the family they create while their ancestors get to see the beauty of a growing family tree."

She wipes away a small tear and shows off the most recent addition.

"My great granddaughter! I never thought I would live to see the day when I became a great grandmother and my sweet husband wants to have an entire room built as a shrine to our family"

Lucretia saw that each bust had variations in the metals used but what really interested her was the concept of keeping track of a family in such a way.

Family trees were not rare and many infernals made an effort to keep track of family in such a way but it was always doomed to fail since one could not create such an expansive map of families.

There was a single family tree for a noble family in the infernal kingdom that dhe was aware of and it was possible by only showing the mother and father of each coven member beneath the one that became a branch of this tree.

They also only recorded the male that the daughters of the family married, the sons were shown with a special ring that indicated marriage.

"If a devil wished to have her new family practice the same thing would it be seen as insensitive?"

The older woman gasped and leaned in with a conspiratorial glint.

"Well the celestial people would probably be happy to let our siblings use our new custom but may I know more? I thought you were famous for never taking a mate?"

Lucretia gave the woman a giant smile in response.

"That was before I finally found the man I would marry, I finally found my beloved."

The elderly angel placed a hand over her heart and sighed.

"Oh that's so romantic sister Lucretia, I hope you make the most beautiful of children and create the giant family I know you have dreamed of."

Lucretia bowed and thanked the woman before leaving to find the amphitheatre where this meeting was meant to take place.