Free Bane of the Dead (Seraphim Revival Book 1) by Jacob Holo Page B

wouldn’t tell you?”
    “Good question. Let’s find out.” Zo led the way up the central staircase.
    They walked by servants and Aktenai dignitaries busying themselves with duties large and small. All of them stopped and inclined their necks until the pilots had passed. Seth noted the absence of Earth Nation citizens within the palace.
    “Yonu is doing well, by the way,” Quennin said.
    “Oh, is she?” Zo asked.
    “Top of her class in scholastics.”
    “That’s my girl. What about combat?”
    “She’s in the top third,” Quennin said.
    “Let me guess,” Zo said. “Tevyr still has the highest marks.”
    “Of course,” Seth said.
    “Well, I can’t complain about that,” Zo said. “I suppose I should find time to see her, but Vorin likes to keep us busy.”
    They proceeded upstairs and through three more doorways and checkpoints until finally coming to the Sovereign’s control room. A white tiled floor gave way to black walls and a black ceiling. Two men stood with their backs to the entrance, both looking at the array of images covering the far wall. Fleets, places, and persons of interest all bore the scrutiny of the Sovereign and his chief lieutenant.
    Sovereign Vorin Daelus and Renseki Mezen Daed faced the three pilots entering the control room.
    Vorin clasped his hands in the small of his back. He was tall and gaunt, with ghost white hair and dark eyes. Though two centuries of service had taken their toll, his face remained unravaged by time. He wore a uniform similar to the Renseki, but with gold instead of silver highlights.
    Mezen Daed stood like a slab of muscle to the Sovereign’s left. With his grim demeanor, Mezen made Vorin look cuddly. Just below the edges of his cuffs and above his uniform collar, Seth could make out the jagged lines of scars: souvenirs from his Grendeni captors.
    Seth could remember Mezen as a loud-mouthed braggart, back when they were both young and impulsive pilots trying to earn names for themselves. Now, Mezen rarely spoke, and when he did speak it was almost always to either Zo or Vorin.
    Seth, Quennin, and Zo dropped to one knee and bowed their heads.
    “Please rise, pilots,” Vorin said. “We have much to go over and little time.”
    “How may we be of service, Sovereign?” Seth asked, standing. It may have been his imagination, but Mezen’s and Vorin’s expressions seemed darker than normal.
    Vorin cleared his throat and gestured to the arrayed images behind him. Screens flickered to new shapes. At first Seth thought the images showed crippled seraphs or perhaps seraphs under construction. However, he soon realized these flayed copper skeletons deviated too heavily from existing seraph designs.
    “We all know the Grendeni have reverse-engineered parts of seraphs recovered in battle,” Vorin said. “We also know that the Grendeni managed to capture one seraph nearly intact.”
    One of the screens showed images of a ferocious battle within the atmosphere of a gas giant. Seth, Quennin, and a powerful white seraph fought against four hostile seraphs, their systems corrupted by a Grendeni agent. Three were recovered during the battle, and the fourth pilot was eventually returned to Aktenzek through a prisoner exchange.
    “It was inevitable that the Grendeni would duplicate seraph technology,” Vorin said. “But we had hoped they would find our pilots more difficult to match. Despite the odds, our Fallen brothers and sisters have jumpstarted their own pilot breeding program.”
    Seth glanced over at Mezen. The man’s stoic expression was unreadable.
    “Behold the Grendeni archangel,” Vorin said. Several screens merged, revealing a strange seraph-like machine in crisp detail. The edge of its long sword blazed with light.
    Seth stepped closer and took in the image. “No armor. No weapon pods. Only two drive shunts. This is very different from our seraphs. Is that sword acting as a chaos energy conductor?”
    “That’s correct,” Vorin said. “It