Eternal Dominion Book 23: Strife, page 1
Eternal Dominion Book 23
Strife
Bern Dean
Bern's Books LLC
Copyright © 2023 Bern's Books LLC
All rights reserved
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Morning November 15 to Evening November 25, 2268 & ED Year 7 Day 365 to ED Year 8 Day 32.
November 26, 2268 & ED Year 8 Days 34-35.
Morning November 27 to Evening December 5, 2268 & ED Year 8 Days 36-62.
Morning December 6 to Evening December 24, 2268 & ED Year 8 Days 64-119.
Morning December 25 to Evening December 31, 2268 & ED Year 8 Days 121- 140.
January 2269 & ED Year 8 Days 141- 233.
February 2269 & ED Year 8 Days 234- 317.
Morning March 1 to Evening March 12, 2269 & ED Year 8 Days 318-353.
Morning March 13 to Evening March 18, 2269 & ED Year 8 Day 354 to ED Year 9 Day 6.
Thanks!
Afterword.
Morning November 15 to Evening November 25, 2268 & ED Year 7 Day 365 to ED Year 8 Day 32.
Alex groaned as he joined Kate and Tara in the conference room in his home’s basement for a rare offline meeting. Normally, they would have met in ED, but with everyone’s time there being spoken for and most not having the convenience of freely traveling between locations due to the current situation, this was the best option left. After establishing the call and ensuring that Sato (Takeshi), Gaute (Geitir) and Frida (Friva) were all online, Tara opened the meeting.
“Alright, so we are all busy and have better things to do than waste our time beating around the bush. FAE has finally stabilized and is no longer taking losses as of the end of the fourth quarter last year and on the whole, we still managed to make a profit for the year, at least before Alex reinvested all of it. As such our operating fund is only enough to currently cover three months of payroll, which is normal for us, but it also means that we need to turn a profit this next quarter at all costs.”
“Wouldn’t breaking even allow us to get by for another three months?” asked Frida.
“No, we have some expenses related to the city that will need to be covered,” supplied Kate. “Though the auctioning of training and dragonoid slots that we are offering should cover most of that at the very least. However, with us having the group in training in Muthia this time, it will be a bit more expensive as we will have to deal with others when it comes to grinding locations.”
“So where are we going to bring in additional revenue?” asked Gaute. “Right now, the war is slowly draining us and the funds that Natalina is bringing in are only closing that gap to a manageable level, or is the intent to expand her role further?”
“Natalina, or Alcinne as she is going by now, has been asking to do just that, but her request is something that we all need to consider carefully,” stated Kate.
“So just what is it that she wishes to do?” asked Sato.
“I think that is something that is best left for her to pitch,” interjected Alex. “Tara, just to confirm, she is standing by for us already?”
“Yes. Should I have her join us?”
“If no one has any other questions before we do so.”
“Is her presentation crucial to the rest of this meeting?” asked Frida. “Because if not, I would rather push her to the end.”
“We get it, you don’t like that FAE has even started to flirt with this method of fundraising,” replied Kate. “Alex hates it as much as you, which is why he is having her make the pitch to all of us and yes, it is crucial to get through as our decision is needed before we can address the rest of today’s agenda.”
At that there were no further questions and Tara went through the process of bringing Natalina onto the call. After the initial greetings were done, she launched right into her proposal.
“Alright as you all are aware, my team and I have really been outdoing ourselves lately and we doubled our first set of goals over the summer and the holiday season is coming fast. With it comes one of the best times to bring in some extra funds and we would be foolish not to capitalize on this opportunity, as it could easily bring in more than the six months which will follow. So, I was thinking about what would make the most sense for FAE to do and came up with what I think is just perfect in so many ways. We can raffle off a chance to face off against all of our guild leaders in one-on-one combat under arena league rules.
“Now I know what you all are thinking, wouldn’t that just make a mockery of FAE’s leadership and Kate has already let me know that it would negatively affect FAE’s reputation should any of you lose. So, to mitigate that we will announce that it is meant to be a fun exchange of moves and all of you will be using a holiday line of equipment. Hence if we make it clear that you all are simply offering to exchange a few moves with the public while displaying a festive attitude, everything should be fine. I of course will be framing it as a chance for one of your fans to meet you and yes, you all have fans who I am sure would pay a credit to meet you.”
“You can’t actually be considering this, Alex-san,” commented Sato. “Abysses End would certainly do everything they could do to be the ones who fight us as they seek to humiliate us.”
“We are actually counting on that,” commented Tara. “Each raffle will be nontransferable and no one person can buy more than 1,000 of them. Furthermore, we can set it such that the match ends when one combatant reaches ten percent health to avoid any chances of us publicly dying during the match.”
“Tara-san, a loss is a loss.”
“Yes, but-”
“But nothing, Tara,” interrupted Alex. “If we go along with this plan, we as a guild will be putting our reputation on the line. Were it not for the fact that I agree it will likely earn us enough credits to get us through the rest of the war, I wouldn’t even be considering it.”
“What about the funds that we have in Cielo city?” asked Frida. “Surely if we liquidate-”
“We have been over this. Those funds are untouchable as far as day-to-day operations, or any action that would saturate the market in ED,” cut in Kate. “If we start using it, all we will do is create a massive drop in the value of ED’s currencies when converted to credits and we can’t afford that just yet. It is why part of the draw of this plan is how it will be done in pure credits, as we don’t have to worry about Abysses End flooding the market with gold this way.”
“Alex, what are your honest thoughts on this one?” asked Gaute.
“That saying no without giving it real thought would be an act of pride, one that sadly FAE can’t afford and hold to our other timetables. The war in Nium starting when it did really put us in a bind and it beats the other options that Natalina presented to Kate and Taya.”
“Oh, and just what were those?” asked Frida.
“I am glad you asked,” cut in Natalina. “I was thinking that we could do a general fan meeting and party, where Xeal and all of his wives dress up and mingle with the attendees, but he shut that one down due to security concerns. Then there was-”
“That is enough,” interrupted Alex. “I already told you no.”
“But I think you would make such a great elf.”
At Natalina’s words Alex about yelled and ended the call as it had been bad enough when Tara and Kate had heard that one, but now the whole upper leadership of FAE knew. For her part Natalina was thoroughly enjoying the rare moment of getting one over on Alex, as she still held a bit of a grudge against him over derailing her career. While he had also revived it, she was stuck in a contract that would only ever see her earn a tenth of what she could be worth and quitting just locked her out of the ED market completely. Still, rather than do nothing about it, she would be sure to have her moments of fun whenever she could and as Frida took the bait, she couldn’t have been happier.
“Hold on, you mean like the ones in Santa’s workshop?”
“Frida, drop it,” warned Alex.
“No, I think we should hear this one out and possibly even get, I believe it was Holly’s opinion as Christmas is her thing, right?”
“Olympia Whitely would be what she goes by in reality and it is actually her connections that Natalina is planning to leverage to make that particular plan work,” replied Kate, while giving Alex an apologetic look. “Her parents’ company is a major toy manufacturer and well, it would check off more boxes than any of the other options right now, but Natalina is insistent that Alex needs to be the face of this one.”
“It just makes sense. He is a major public figure and like it or not, his reputation is actually actively doing harm to FAE’s finances,” commented Natalina with a bright smile. “Thus, if he were to partner with a major brand and do some charity work, it would actually help business as our crafters’ sales should see a noticeable bump.”
Alex just wanted to groan over the charts of data that had been shown to him and how his public persona was basically split between three groups. The first supported him for one reason or another, but it was the smallest of the three at just 15%
If there was any good news in the data that Alex had been shown, it was that only ten percent absolutely hated him. This group were the ones who were an absolute no on the multiple wives front and they were also the loudest of the groups out there. The idea of partnering with a toy manufacturer and doing a toy drive for the next four weeks had been Natalina’s easy layup answer to these issues. Her plan was to use it to sell double the holiday gear that FAE’s crafters were making and donate ten percent of the items profit margin to buying toys directly from the factory. They would also be taking direct donations through multiple channels to increase the success rate significantly. The real crutch of this plan was that they would be doing so after the last shipment to the stores had gone out and buying the toys with just a few days were left before they needed to be delivered. That was where FAE as a whole would make themselves known, as it would be left to the members who lived in the different areas, to spend Christmas Eve handing out the toys.
The kicker was that FAE would be handling all of the logistics of getting the toys all around the world through airmail. Kate and Tara had looked into the logistics that would need to be done and they figured that if they sold about 40,000,000 credits worth of gear, that it would break even. With the fact that they did double that every holiday and did triple that last Christmas being known, they had both green lit it for consideration. Yet, the sticking point for Alex was that he would need to appear next to Natalina as he promoted it and him being one of Santa’s helpers had been the image that showed the greatest promise. Were it not for Natalina saying that it would be pointless to do it without that element and that she actually brought the data to back it up, Alex would have shut it down right away. However, it seemed that it wasn’t to be as the meeting devolved into discussing the idea and all that remained was for Alex to give in on the elf costume.
“Alex-san, I will make a deal with you. Ditch the raffle to fight us and I will dress up as an elf and promote it as well.”
“Sorry, Sato-san, but regardless of if we do the toy drive to boost sales and repair part of Alex’s image, the raffle to fight us will still be a major earner,” commented Tara.
“Yes, but Alex-san is the one who will draw the most attention in both.”
“It is an optics thing,” answered Alex. “We need at least five of us to participate in the raffles, but if you will dress as an elf with me, I can see about switching you out but you, Amser and I are the ones that would be the headliners right now.”
“So, you’ll do it?” asked Kate with a smile that told Alex that he had walked right into her trap.
“On one condition. You get Sam, Nicole, Ava and Mia all onboard and you all have to do it with me.”
“Already done.”
At Kate’s instant reply, Alex just sighed as the meeting returned to the raffle matches and in the end, Sato gave in as long as he would still be able to fight with a katana-style blade. With her part done, Natalina dropped off the call as Tara and Kate assured her that they would be in touch. The cheer in her voice as she said farewell and thanked Alex and Sato for agreeing, was already making Alex regret doing so. Sadly for Alex, he wouldn’t have Sato to share the burden of dressing as an elf, as with him taking part in the raffle, he had declared that he wouldn’t dress as an elf anymore.
The rest of the meeting went relatively quickly, as it was mostly just confirming that a few other areas of their operations wouldn’t be affected by the sudden promotions. Still, what came next was the hardest part for Alex, as not only was Natalina headed out to take part in the photo shoot and ad recording, but all of his wives were teasing him about agreeing to be an elf. Apparently, there had been a bet and Ava and Mia had won when he agreed to do it and Sam and Nicole lost as they had figured there was no way that Alex would agree. Though Alex had found one reason to smile, as he roped the whole house into participating in dressing up for the advertisement.
So it was that starting on the 17th and lasting over the course of three days, Alex found himself getting dressed as a Christmas elf. During this time the gym, conference room, nursery and one of the spare rooms in Alex’s family area were used for sets for different scenes that had been planned. The fact that Natalina had seemed all too happy to adopt the persona of Alcinne, which involved acting slightly flirtatious towards everyone, had been difficult to adjust to. Especially with her switching back and forth between that and a strict taskmaster, as she pointed out every mistake they made. Still, for all that Alex hated getting in costume during the times that should have normally been his short break, by the end of it he had actually started to have fun with it.
Especially as his kids made sure to let him know just what they thought about him and their mommies in costume. The six of them had even taken to giving Natalina a piece of their mind whenever she would get into her taskmaster role when they were around. Seeing the reactions that this would get out of Natalina had become one of Alex’s favorite pastimes. Particularly when any of the grandmas were around to hear her make a baby cry.
Still, the work got done, and Tara and Kate took over working with the editors to put together the campaign which would launch on Thanksgiving Day. Which was what arrived basically right after Natalina left, as Nicole’s family and several others’ extended families flew in. This included Tara’s and Henry’s this year as with the situation being what it was in Nium, Alex had turned down all requests for time off for the upper levels of FAE. This included having him and every other crucial member of FAE ready to log in to ED all day during their Thanksgiving Day celebrations. A fact that he was currently paying the price for as he had to deal with Nicole’s family in particular. However, the chance that Abysses End would launch an attack during a holiday that was only heavily celebrated in the United States was well within their playbook.
Xeal’s time in ED started with a meeting that he was in many ways dreading, as he walked with Queen Aila Lorafir and Kate as he returned to Salfe Nesith’s cell. The dark elf, who had turned out to be the adamantium-ranked smith that Xeal was searching the subterranean realm for, hadn’t been what he had expected in the least. First off, she was a dark elf rather than a dwarf like he had expected. Second, she seemed to be deriving pleasure from making Xeal find a way to convince her to work for him. Even talking with Ceclie had done him no good, as she had never known of such a talent among her people. Thirdly, Xeal didn’t have any good options on just how to deal with her, besides a transactional model which Kate had put into a contract that hopefully she would sign. Though when they arrived and were greeted by her smiling happily while relaxing on the stone floor, Xeal knew that they were in for a difficult negotiation.
“Oh, look, you have returned with two high elf wenches this time. Tell me, are they both your lovers? Hmm, I wonder, do you perhaps have a thing for older women? If so, I wouldn’t mind-”
“Just drop it,” cut in Xeal. “I thought that you would be a bit better tempered after having a night to think about your options.”
“Nope, I am who I am and let me tell you, if you think that sleeping on a cold hard floor is something new to me, you should go look at my old quarters that I lived in.”
“We could always put her in a cell with a nice large east-facing window,” commented Kate with a smile. “That way the sunrise could greet her every morning.”
