Empress Aeliana Stormborne gazed at the city below from her seat upon the balcony of Vigil Castle. She looked at the winding streets filled with her people as they walked past the temples that would appear right at home in a distant place unknown to her but whose tenants echoed in her mind, Bushido and the way of the Warrior. They walked past guard stations and barracks that spoke of chivalry in their design, past homes that spoke of the North and Valhalla.
The designs seemed so different from from each other yet blended in a way that was distinctly Furian, that spoke of the Master's will and how his will affected all of Furia. Covered in Furian runes, interlaced lattices, blossoms and Nordic crosses, the different architecture blended with lights that enhanced the beauty of Manticore, the capital city of Vahlor and center of the Furian Empire despite being made of advanced materials that gave light with minimal draw on the grid.
Every building was made of materials that could not be found elsewhere for they were her creations, made from a fusion of her psionic energy and the Master's mana due to the Bond forged so long ago.
Materials made from resources commonly found all over the planet and treated in innovative ways to become far more than they were believed to be able to by other nations in the galaxy.
Energy, weapons, fortifications, infrastructure, warships, these materials helped all facets of Furian life. From the mundane to exploring the depths of space, these materials helped cement Furia's place as the most dominant power in the galaxy.
They were not the true source of Furian power though nobody outside of Furia knew that. That was as it should be, for the Bond was sacred and meant only for her, her people and the Master to know of.
As the light from the twin suns Vahlor orbited slowly brightened the city below with coming of dawn, Empress Aelians's youthful figure was slowly revealed upon her seat.
Wearing armor that blended chivalry, Bushido and Norse upon the base of ancient Ebony Armor as the Bond had told her of in the distant past upon a figure unbowed by the weight of rule that was willowy yet had strength within. A moderate chest was encased within the chest plate of her armor that was adorned with triple moons surrounded by a golden laurel.
The symbol of the Furian Royal Family, only ten people were allowed to bear that crest, the Master's Guard bore upon their armor the triple moons surrounded by a silver laurel while the Furian Guard bore only the triple moons as could be seen upon the guards patrolling the streets below.
As Aeliana's sea grey eyes gazed upon the city below a breeze lightly blew her shoulder length silver hair across her youthful aristocratic features and the Giedar fur mantle upon her shoulders.
Pulling the hair out of her face she reached out to grab her spear leaning against the nearby railing with her right hand and made sure her plasma pistol was secured to her hip with her left she rose to her full height of five feet ten inches and walked to the edge of the balcony and stood there watching the suns rise.
Just as the suns fully rose above the horizon the Bond stirred with immense force and catapulted her mind back to the beginning of it all twenty billion years ago.
She gazed upon the last words written by her trembling hands speaking of her people. Of how they made great works of art, their philosophers, their leaders, their warriors, of the common people with snippets of day to day life, of how they lived yet most of all she had written of their courage. The courage of those who knew they faced extinction yet still they took up arms to protect their people, their loved ones, the young, old, sick, they fought to protect them all. It was not enough for their enemies were ancient beyond reckoning for they were gods from a time so distant that they were primordial in origin and her people possessed a power they desired. The fewer of her people the more powerful the remaining became, but to completely gain it all of her people had to die and by some random chance she was the last.
She had run when her parents told her as they felt the gods coming, they told her to run and never look back as they burned their very essence to hold the gods back for even a few moments to let her escape. The gods had descended upon them in her nineteenth year of life and she had been running for nearly four years when she found herself in the ruins of the home planet and hid herself in a cave in the destroyed capital.
That was four months ago and she had spend these four months writing the story of her people hoping someday someone would find it and know that they existed, that they lived and loved, that they had fought an unbeatable foe to the very end.
She rested her hands upon her lap as the she felt her concealment fall away now that she was done and her relaxation accidently gave away her position due the flare of power she had been hiding for so long, the power of trillions of psionics gathered into a single being was not missed by her foes, but that power was not enough to save her.
So she waited for them to come, there was no running now. As she felt them grow closer all of sudden she felt a power that dwarfed the gods coming for her, but it did not feel old, hungry or evil.
It felt young, bright, full of courage and hope the complete opposite of those gods that had destroyed her people.
As she looked up from her hands she saw a figure appear at the entrance to the cave she was hiding in, tall, athletic with corded muscles, storm grey eyes, dark blonde hair and a crooked grin set in a face that promised trouble and fun in equal measure wearing armor she did not recognize the figure gestured for her to wait then headed out the tunnel with their power flaring as if to announce themselves and do battle with the gods.
That is when she felt shock, for while the power still felt gentle to her it caused the ancient gods to feel terror that she could plainly sense.
For them to feel that level of terror, that meant they could not fight and she felt them turn to run. That is when she felt the very air around her seem to tremble and gasp because she sensed the gods simply cease to exist, their very being gone, all knowledge of them simply wiped from existence though she still knew they had existed, probably because the figure that had saved her allowed her to keep that knowledge.
There was simply no other way for her to remember them, for the power he had was far too great for any mere mortal to possess.
Yet the fluctuations and feelings his figure presented for he seemed to be a mental projection showed that he was but a youth, not even a full grown adult. Which was at odds with the power he had just shown.
She tried to stand as she felt him walking down the tunnel but fell to her knees only to see him standing at the entrance to her cave.
As he gazed upon her she did not feel terror but safe, safe from the enemies that had destroyed her people. When he saw tears starting to roll down her face he took a few steps forward to stand in front of her and say
"I don't know who you are, all I know is that you needed help and I felt I had the power to do so, so here I am. Your enemies are gone and you are safe. I cannot leave this unfinished though, so I will make you an offer."
He paused looking down at her and scratching the back of his said
"I will give you all of the mana I currently possess so that you never have to face something like this again so that you will always be free to do whatever you want, be whatever you want be. I will give you the very mana that wiped those gods or whatever they were out of existence. In exchange you will give me everything you are and have as well everything you will ever have or be. I must warn you though, the amount of mana that I have will make this Bond eternal and unending, it will outlast the ending of all things."
As she looked up at him she processed what he was saying, thinking it through for several minutes before speaking her voice rough from disuse
"A connection that will tell me I am not longer alone, that someone cares for me even though I am the last of my people, protection from all that may harm me. All I need to offer is everything I am and have or will be and have in exchange. I will take your offer because it does not show that you give power freely which would have been far more suspiscious."
He made eye contact with her and grabbing her hand lifted her to her feet
"There is more that I must add, I will be the only male to gaze upon your naked body or to touch more than your hands. This Bond will protect you from all who may try to claim you, no matter who or what they may be. They will be unmade, erased from existence though not from memory so all may learn that you are not some prize that can be claimed for you are mine and mine alone."
He paused then asked
"Do you have a name?"
She shook her head saying
"I have been running for years and have spent the last four months writing the story of my people, in doing all of this I have forgotten the name my parents gave me."
He nodded his head to her statement then said
"Then I will give you the name Pet, not as a sign of ownership, but as a sign of belonging, that you are no longer alone, that someone cares for you, that someone protects you. I do not know when or where this is, but I already begin to wake. I do know that the Bond will let you know when I am ready to return to your side and at that time I will give you a name that you can proudly proclaim to the world as my wife."
As she looked into his eyes and saw sincerity there as well feeling the sincerity in his mental fluctuations she stood up on her toes and kissed him saying
"Your will be done my Master."
When she kissed him, his power poured into her remaking her very essence and though she would not know it for several months it left behind a physical sign of their bond and granted her immortality, physically freezing her appearance forever at her age of twenty three.
As he slowly faded he repeated himself
"No matter how long it takes, I will return to you and take you as my wife."
As the flashback faded from her eyes and the city of Manticore lit by the dawn's light once again, Empress Aeliana immediately turned on her heel and walked to the throne room. As she did so she sent out a psionic call telling her nineteenth daughters and her military leadership to assemble because she had an announcement to make.
She felt a resonance from the Bond that she had never felt before and it pointed to the west of Furia, telling her the direction of her Master, her husband, her salvation. Nothing would stop her from bring him home, she and her daughters had faithfully waited for twenty billion years and together they had built an empire for him.
Now the Bond was telling her he was ready to come home. Even if she and all of Furia had to go to war, she would bring him home.